Originally published on February 10, 2016

After plans were made to discontinue the Lowell Hebrew program due to lack of funding, the school will begin offering Hebrew 1 again starting the fall semester of 2016 .

Principal Andrew Ishibashi, the Lowell Alumni Association, and the language department expressed their support for Hebrew’s return. “We support all languages — the more the better,” said World Languages department chair Xiaolin Chang. “We hate to see any language die. We definitely support Hebrew, and I’m really happy the Lowell Alumni Association stepped up and is continuing the program.”

Hebrew is not a part of the district’s budget, but is instead a privately funded program that has been supported by the Lowell Alumni Association and outside donations for the past few years, according to Chang.

The Lowell Alumni Association is currently one of the only funders of the Hebrew program at Lowell, which costs $35,000 a year to fund, according to Lowell Alumni Association Executive Director Terence Abad. Individual donors, including the alumni and other friends of Lowell, and additional funding provided by the Lowell Alumni Association have kept the program afloat. The Richard & Rhoda Goldman Foundation paid full cost for Hebrew for several years until Richard Goldman passed away.

When there were no more funds in the 2015–2016 school year, the school did not open a Hebrew 1 class because Hebrew teacher Batia Horsky did not want to introduce the language to a new class of students and have it be taken away the following year, according to Chang. She wanted her current students to be able to finish high school with either three or four years of taking the language.

Now that the school is reopening Hebrew 1 in the 2016–2017 school year, Horsky said that it is trying to make a change in the program so that both Jewish and non-Jewish students will be interested in the language.

While the old Hebrew curriculum followed the conventional methods for teaching foreign languages, with emphasis on basic grammar rules and vocabulary, the new curriculum will follow the old one to a smaller extent, focusing more on Israeli business and culture. It will be more discussion and project-based. Horsky hopes to bring light to a part of Israeli culture and the uniqueness of the Hebrew language that the media does not particularly focus on. Students can receive college credit at San Francisco State University for taking the class.

Senior Zoe Fox, who is currently taking Hebrew, said she chose it because it’s a different experience from other languages.“Not many people speak Hebrew, and because I grew up with it around me, I finally wanted to understand it. It’s not that different from English because it’s a very logical language; every word has a root it comes from.”

Students vary in their knowledge of Hebrew, so Horsky’s teaching style caters to each student’s needs and qualities. “The idea is that almost every student comes from a different background,” Horsky said. “Hebrew is not just for Jewish students — it’s open to everyone. Sometimes I make as many as six exams for different students, and my expectations are not across the board. The grade is given according to every student’s process and goals. I don’t compare students.”