Israeli teachers bring Hebrew to Preschool

Four-year old Ariella Avigad of Franklin Park has been coming home from preschool with some Hebrew words in her vocabulary.  Says her mother, Elinor Avigad, “When Ariella says ‘Boker Tov’ at the breakfast table, we are thrilled that we sent her to a Jewish preschool.”

That is exactly what Liz Sender, director of Ariella’s preschool at Temple Ohav Shalom, wanted to achieve.

Last week, Israeli preschool teachers Dina Liberman and Tzivik Costa arrived in Pittsburgh as part of a nine-day learning exchange program between Israel and Pittsburgh early childhood educators, sponsored by the Agency for Jewish Learning (AJL).  The focus was to incorporate Israel into the preschool classroom.

Sender, along with Gail Schmitt, director of Adat Shalom’s preschool and other preschool teachers across the Pittsburgh region, went to Israel last summer for two weeks as part of an AJL-sponsored study tour.  In addition to touring the country, the teachers visited preschools in the Misgav region.

Liberman spent one full day at Temple Ohav Shalom’s preschool and Costa spent a day at Adat Shalom’s preschool.

Both directors felt that the children were enriched by having Costa and Liberman visit their schools. Costa read to the Adat Shalom children, sang songs and handed out Israeli CDs.  “She was a wealth of knowledge, and was very sensitive and caring.  It was a wonderful experience,” said Schmitt.

In Sender’s class, Liberman affectionately asked each child their names. The children seemed mesmerized as Sender and Liberman each took turns reading from Eric Carle’s A Very Hungry Caterpillar, alternating between the English and Hebrew versions of the popular children’s book.  Liberman also played some finger games in Hebrew and concluded her visit by teaching the children an Israeli dance and handing out Israeli flags.

Since the Israeli study tour, Sender said she has been teaching the children basic Hebrew words such as numbers and simple phrases such as “please sit down” and “thank you.” When the preschoolers talk about the weather in Pittsburgh, they’ll also talk about what the weather is like in Israel.  In the older classroom, the children have created a “passport” to Israel, where they are learning about the Israeli landscape. 

Sender’s classes have penpals in Israel; they send each other letters and small gifts.  At Chanukah, they received some Israeli dreidels.  Sender said, “The purpose is, if we can get young children excited about Israel, they’ll feel more of a bond with Israel as they grow older.”

Schmitt has been incorporating a similar program at Adat Shalom’s preschool.  She said that the children learn about Israel through daily awareness, such as looking at maps and pictures of Israel that Schmitt took while there last summer.  Said Schmitt, “We have real, tangible things to show the kids in very concrete ways what children in Israel are doing.  We have an exchange with a school there—we exchanged Rosh Hashanah cards, for example.” And while the children at Adat celebrated Purim, the teachers showed pictures of Israeli children doing the same thing.  They also shared Israeli megillas and groggers with the preschoolers.

Schmitt added that the synagogue is working on plans for an Israel room, an idea that was borne out of the Israel trip.

As for her own experience in Israel, Sender commented that you can learn about Israel in a classroom setting, but, “When you actually go to Israel, it brings everything to life.”

This was Liberman’s first visit to the United States.  She worried about traveling so close to Pesach, but her husband, who was left by himself caring for their four children, encouraged her, saying, “Your brothers and sisters in America need you.”

Liberman’s preschool in Israel, of which she is director, has an enrollment of 120 children. In Israel, Liberman explained, children between the ages of 3-6 attend the “children’s garden,” the American equivalent to preschool.

She added that Jews all over the world, whether Orthodox or Reform, are all one big family, and she wanted her own students to realize this, as well as the students with whom she would be visiting during this trip to Pittsburgh.

Liberman said, “I must speak with children about what Israel means to us in the Jewish community. It is important to start early.”

The itinerary for both women included visits to the South Hills J.C.C., Hillel Academy and Yeshiva as well as a few other area preschools.  Liberman and Costa also planned to speak at a Jewish Teacher’s Institute training course and present at a workshop.  Some time was left for visits to Pittsburgh points of interest.