The textbook for the intensive Hebrew class that I enrolled in this past summer was called “Hebrew from Scratch”. Which didn’t technically apply to my situation, at age 48, in the Beginner Aleph classroom. Forty years earlier, living in Brooklyn and attending my neighborhood public school there, I had begun Hebrew School in Sheepshead Bay’s…
Black History Month has always proved complicated in multicultural America. The great historian Carter G. Woodson, the second African American to receive his doctorate from Harvard, created Negro History Week in 1926. Then Dr. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, later expanded Negro History Week to Black…
Cantor Debbi Ballard wasn’t reaching as many students as she had hoped to back when she started her own Hebrew school based out of public spaces, like Dunkin’ Donuts, last fall. So this year, Ballard went one step further in her attempt to innovate: She bought a 38-foot recreational vehicle and converted it into a…
When it comes to extreme parenting, it takes a lot to surprise me. I’ve spent a decade studying child beauty pageants and just published a book, Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture, about 95 families with elementary school-age children who compete in chess, dance, and soccer. But while researching Playing to Win…
About 40 years ago in Chicago, halfway through Hebrew school class, my teacher realized I was hiding under her desk, making faces at other students, trying to make them laugh. She sent me instantly to the principal’s office. The thing is, I was one of the “good kids” who rarely disrupted class and seemed genuinely…
If you went to Hebrew school, you probably have one of these. No, not a prayer book given to you by the sisterhood — though of course you have one of those, too (with the program from your bat mitzvah still stuck inside). I’m talking about something else: a story about a Hebrew school moment…
If you ask me (and, if I had to guess, many of my peers), there is nothing worse than Hebrew school. In the world of fun Jewish activities, with Yom Kippur fasting being a one and hooking up with Israeli soldiers on Birthright a 10, attending Hebrew school is a lowly three. On Sundays, when…
Education is a serious matter for Jews. But the Forward’s upcoming special section on education will also take a lighter look at learning — and you can be part of it. Tell us your most ridiculous, hilarious, or cringe-worthy moment in Hebrew school. We’ll pick the 10 funniest submissions; the winners will appear in the…
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