Continent-Wide Hebrew Reading Campaign Begins

October 22, 2008
View the article here.

IsraelNN.com) A mega Hebrew literacy campaign to "win back the hearts of North American Jews" has begun, featuring month-long Hebrew classes - at no charge.

The campaign is run by the New York-based National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP).

The "Read Hebrew America/Canada" (RHA/C) campaign will take place in the coming weeks in synagogues and Jewish centers throughout the United States and Canada. The classes will be run over a period of five weeks, in five 90-minute weekly classes. They are designed for Jewish adults, and seek to teach the fundamentals of reading Hebrew.

The classes include Hebrew Reading Crash Courses Level I and II, as well as One Day Reviews.

Over 200,000 Jews have learned to read Hebrew in the NJOP's annual crash courses over the past several years. The NJOP says its classes are "the ideal way to learn how to follow synagogue services, to be more involved in your children's Jewish education, or simply to enhance your own ties to Judaism."

The program also allows for students to learn on their own, though it does not recommend this approach. Materials can be purchased at nominal prices via the NJOP's website.

NJOP is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to providing a basic Jewish education for every Jew in America. It was founded in 1987 by Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, in response to the perceived urgent need to prevent the loss of Jews to Jewish life due to assimilation and lack of Jewish knowledge. NJOP says it "reaches out to Jews by offering them positive, joyous, Jewish educational opportunities and experiences."

NJOP also currently sponsors free "Crash Courses" in Basic Judaism, Jewish History, a course entitled "Turn Friday Night Into Shabbat," Beginners Services, and more, at over 3,665 locations across North America and in 37 countries worldwide [figures provided by NJOP].