Hebrew is the gateway to Judaism. Hebrew opens doors to Jewish peoplehood – to relationships with Jews in Israel and around the world. In my travels through South America, Ukraine and Europe, Hebrew gave me access to Jewish communities I wouldn’t have had otherwise. 

Hebrew provides an entrance to meaningful tfillah. It affords us facility to understand traditional liturgy used for generations and reinvent our own, personal tfillot.

Hebrew is a gateway to the sea of Torah, Mishnah and centuries of rabbinic literature. Proficiency in Hebrew opens up the world of the classical rabbis, their debates, logic, stories and thinking.

Hebrew is an equalizer. It reverses roles of newcomer communities from Israel and the FSU, empowering them as teachers and guides.

And Hebrew is an entry point to a deeper relationship with Israel. Although it’s easy to travel, see and know Israel in English, a deeper understanding of the people, politics, ideas, history and granular feel of Israel can only be achieved in Hebrew. 

Hebrew proficiency across North America is dropping, with fewer young Jews able to understand and speak the language. This drop in proficiency closes the doors that Hebrew opens. 

To some extent, this drop is because Hebrew education, which once took place in numerous settings of learning, has, by and large, been restricted to schooling.

Throughout middle and high school, I struggled with Hebrew. There were years where I’m sure I only passed because of the mercy of the teacher. The summer after Grade 11, however, I worked at a Jewish summer camp in Ukraine with Russian-, Hebrew- and English-speaking staff. By default, our common language was Hebrew – forcing me to live in the language I had struggled with. When I returned to school in September, my Hebrew was at a new level. After graduating high school, I studied in Israel. Again immersed in the language, my Hebrew grew to fluency.

Learning Hebrew in day and supplementary schools is important, but it does not suffice. It’s time for us to create immersive Hebrew environments in early childhood centres, day and overnight camps, and other settings of non-formal learning. It’s in these settings that there’s the time and space to make Hebrew into a living language used throughout one’s normal experiences – at wake-up and meals, during sports and study. 

A number of summers ago, I was part of a team which studied the potential for Hebrew-immersion summer camps. In years gone by, many Jewish summer camps were immersive Hebrew environments. In recent decades, however, most lost their immersive zeal and ended up with a language of nouns – “We’re going to the chadar.” 

Our team studied both Jewish camps that still do Hebrew and non-Jewish programs that create immersive environments in other languages. I saw camps where, after a month of living in a foreign language, campers were not only able to understand and converse in a new language, but were excited about their new knowledge and skills, and proud to use them. 

As a result of the study, and with support from the Steinhardt Foundation and others, last summer, Centre Camp, a day camp in Toronto, launched a pilot Hebrew immersion section at the Schwartz/Reisman JCC, a program organizers hope to expand this summer and grow into the future. Two dozen campers – both Israelis and Canadians- lived their summer in Hebrew. 

We need more Hebrew immersion programs. We need early childhood centres where toddlers live Hebrew, sports leagues where play and refereeing is in Hebrew, and residential summer camp where Hebrew is the language of swimming lessons and ropes courses.

Hebrew is a gateway to multiple forms of Jewish expression, but the only way to access it is to immerse yourself in it, living the language and opening doors through it. n

Daniel Held is executive director of the Julia and Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.