Hebrew language is a defining part of the JCDS experience. Children hear, read and speak Hebrew all day in their classrooms, in the school hallways, during school announcements and, of course, in T’fillah. At JCDS, Hebrew and English teaching are integrated into a single curriculum.

In Grades K-4, each classroom has two full-time teachers, one of whom is a fluent Hebrew speaker. In these early grades, children start to learn Hebrew through games and classroom routines as well as dedicated class times for language instruction; as their knowledge grows, so does the amount of Hebrew they hear and use each day, until they are reading, writing and speaking more comfortably.

In Middle School, specialists teach most subjects, and the use of Hebrew grows even stronger. The head of our Middle School, Dorit Zmiri, is an esteemed Israeli educator who oversees the whole school’s Hebrew K-8 curriculum.

Additional JCDS Hebrew specialists work with students in small groups to support each child’s learning progress as needed. This personalized support can also help a child transition into the school in the middle grades, even if he or she did not study or speak Hebrew before.

JCDS is a national leader in pioneering and teaching the widely-recognized Proficiency Approach for teaching Hebrew to elementary and middle school students. Stemming from a seminal grant awarded to JCDS several years ago by the Covenant Foundation, JCDS began its work to explore how to teach Hebrew in engaging and enduring ways to strengthen Hebrew language education throughout North America. The approach we designed is now being adapted by schools throughout the country. Our own faculty are among the teachers leading this national effort.

The Proficiency Approach establishes native Hebrew speech as the standard against which our students’ functionality is measured. Throughout the school year, specific faculty members trained in assessment measure each individual student’s language ability relative to the Native Speaker Standard*. With a firm grasp of each student’s present level, whether beginner or advanced or every subtle step in between, the teachers are able to set appropriate, targeted objectives in order to bring each student up to the next level. In the spring of each year, faculty assess every student to assure that the year’s objectives are achieved.