The chicken and the egg: Connections between hebrew language teaching, curriculum and identity in Jewish day schools in Australia

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role and place of Hebrew within the Australian Jewish day schools’ curriculum and to analyse the cultural factors, which contribute to the challenges Hebrew teachers face. Our findings show that there is a need to locate Modern Hebrew more centrally within the schools’ organizational structure. A school’s organizational structure and balance of power reflect its identity and its conceptual world. That is, its organizational structure reflects the forces operating within the school system, the power wielded by various actors, and the relationships existing between the system and the actors. A school’s balance of power is thus a practical manifestation of its inherent political inclination and identity. If the Hebrew language is central to Jewish identity, then it is important to integrate it across the school curriculum, and not treat it as a separate subject area, in addition to upgrading teaching and learning methodologies and professional development. An integrative, interdisciplinary approach would change the power allocation within the school, and thus strengthen Jewish identity through more effective language acquisition.