I learned many years ago in a BY that translated the chumash into Hebrew and then English, and limudei kodesh were taught in Hebrew. I say Hebrew and not Ivrit, because it was closer to lashon HaKodesh than modern Hebrew- we used ashkenazi pronounciation (kita beis, not Kita Bet) and regularly used words/phrases that would have gotten strange looks had we used them in Israel. We had a lot to unlearn by the time we went to Israel for seminary and had to speak Ivrit to the natives. But it was useful in that it strengthened our language skills so that we could learn chumash and mefarshim and other sefarim.
With hundreds of thousands of cheder and BY kids learning and living in Ivrit in E”Y these days, it is no longer a Zionist tool of assimilation, as it once was. The question is what today’s gedolim have to say about learning in Hebrew in the US today, not what R’ Aharon paskened several generations back when things were very different.
Menu