Title: TEACHING LOWER DIVISION HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AT A TWO-YEAR PUBLIC COLLEGE
Abstract: One of the important goals of introductory college classes in Jewish Studies is to instill an appreciation of the Jewish civilization as one of Western man's primary responses to the needs of the human predicament. The time is long overdue to present an academically systematic study of the Jewish people and their traditions as important elements in world culture. The beginning student of Jewish Studies should be exposed to an understanding of the his tory, culture and literary traditions of the Jews as an influential force in the history of man, and to the dynamics of Judaism as an ethnic-universal religion. The student should also be taught that Jewish Studies is not just an attempt, however important, in discovering one 's identity, but he must be made aware of the laborious work involved in a critical, disciplined study of origins, sources, materials, and methodology. The author has pioneered the first two-year undergraduate Jewish Studies program in the nation at Los Angeles Valley College which is designed to meet these needs. The program insists upon a solid introduction to Hebrew language studies. To this core the student adds a variety of courses, some required, and some optional. The program includes classes in Hebrew lan guage, literature, civilization, Jewish philosophy, history, sociology, religion, Talmud, Yiddish literature and language, the Holocaust and Jewish American literature. Future offerings will include classes in Sephardic culture, Jewish folklore and biblical archaeology. The present program is supplemented by out of class cultural hours, Jewish seminars, community action projects, a monthly department newsletter, and the sponsorship of three clubs on cam pus, including Eta Beta Rho, an academic group of Jewish Studies majors, under the co-sponsorship of the National Association of Professors of He brew. This is an impressive accomplishment, especially when one considers the aims and restrictions of a community college system (e.g., two-years only course offerings). The observations made on what can and cannot be done in the area of Hebrew language and Hebrew literature in translation at a two-year com munity college level are based on the writer's participation as a teacher and department chairman of Jewish Studies at Los Angeles Valley College, which already is serving as a lower division model for identifying aims, objectives, and philosophy in emerging Jewish Studies classes at community colleges, locally and nationally. The Hebrew language classes taught in the two-year program at Los An geles Valley College are a self-contained unit, and are barely connected with the content classes. The Hebrew language is studied in a basic, systematic way. The four fundamental skills of a language: understanding, speaking, reading and writing, are stressed from the very beginning. The student is exposed to the structural principles of modern Hebrew grammar, concen trating on linguistic Hebrew. He acquires an elementary and intermediate reading knowledge of vocalized and unvocalized texts in modern Hebrew,
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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