Hebrew is now available at Northern Valley Regional Demarest for the first time since 1955. Being the eighth language to be added to the Northern Valley Regional Demarest language course, many students felt recognized for their desire to learn Hebrew.

Last year, the school sent out a “Hebrew Language Survey” asking the students if they would consider taking Hebrew at NVD if the school offered classes. According to this study’s findings, there were enough students who wanted to sign up, so Hebrew was eventually added.

Hebrew is currently taught at the enriched and honors levels. Hebrew 1E, a class for beginners, teaches the fundamentals of reading, writing, basic vocabulary, and the Hebrew alphabet since Hebrew has a different alphabet and is significantly different from English.

“Currently, AP is not available by the state, but may be available in the upcoming years,” Ms. Lerner said.

All students are invited to enroll in this course, even though the majority of the students are Israeli. Prior knowledge of Hebrew is not a prerequisite for the class.

Ms. Lerner is the current Hebrew teacher.

“We have a large Jewish community, and adding Hebrew helped the community to stay in touch with the language and culture. Having a variety of world languages for students to choose from allows our students to be more open-minded to other cultures around them,” Lerner said.

Many students in this course are delighted that Hebrew is now offered at the school. Many Israeli and Jewish students took private Hebrew lessons previously. The students are excited that they can now learn Hebrew at school without having to enroll in a private class.

“Hebrew is an ancient language, and a part of a culture that affected many aspects of history, so adding it to the world language curriculum gave the students another interesting and exciting language to explore,” Lerner said.