Sephard? Ivrit!

Upon entering ninth grade each student had to select a foreign language to learn. Three were offered: Spanish, French, and German. I selected Spanish.

My Spanish teacher was Senor Benedict. He had a very heavy Spanish accent, spoke through his nose, had a raspy voice, and constantly covered his mouth while speaking. Of course, this was definitely not conducive to my learning. As a result, my grades in Spanish class were dismal.

My counselor at school asked my parents to come in for a conference. I remember my counselor: he was very effeminate, and wore an awful hairpiece. I was also present for the conference. The subject of the meeting: my Spanish class grades. My Spanish teacher was also present.

Senor Benedict told my parents that "Shelly does not have a hearing problem -- she just does not pay attention in class nor does she do any studying..." Of course, my parents did not take too kindly to his belittling of my disability. The fact that he covered his mouth and that he mumbled alot was of no consequence according to him!

Anyway, it was finally decided (with my parents not in agreement...) that I could never learn a foreign language and thus the requirement for a foreign language in order to matriculate with a NYS Regents diploma would be waived. And so...I did not learn any foreign language while I was in HS.

Later, several years later, I would spectacularly prove them wrong about me! Keep reading...

I will jump ahead to after I graduated HS and I went to Israel. I will return, later, to my HS years, but for now, this story is too good to leave until later.

After HS, I went to Israel for a year on a program called Hachshara, run by an organization -- Bnei Akiva. It was a program in which we would spend a year on a kibbutz in Israel, learning about Kibbutz life, Israel, and other religious studies as well.

For the first month we were there we stayed at Bar Ilan University and participated in ulpan - and intensive study of the Hebrew language. It was only for one month so I did not progress too much. I then went to stay on Kibbutz Yavne with a large group of other American students. Now, the majority of those students all had much stronger religious education backgrounds than I had -- most had attended either Yeshivot or Hebrew Day Schools. Additionally, they were able to learn the language passively, simply by overhearing. I could not do that -- I had to learn actively and there were no lessons being given on the kibbutz.

Furthermore, I had an idiot for a madrich (counselor). He told me that because I could not hear, I could never be a teacher, I could never do this or do that, etc. Now, my parents had raised me to believe that I could do anything, should I set my mind to do so -- what he was telling me was so completely new and unheard of to me! And I really did not believe him. But I knew I needed to get away from him and that I needed to learn Hebrew.

I learned, through some other students also on the program, who also needed to learn Hebrew, that a new ulpan was starting up at a different Kibbutz, up north in Bet Shean. It was to be at Kibbutz Shluchot, which was also a Dati (religious) Kibbutz. They were going to go there and I decided that I, too, wanted to go. So, I arranged a day off from my work at Kibbutz Yavne, and went into Tel Aviv to the offices of the Jewish Agency and I arranged to also attend this new ulpan on Kibbutz Shluchot. They took the monies that my parents had paid to Bnei Akiva to pay for that.

The next day I called my parents. Now, you have to remember: this was in 1977 -- there was no internet, no email, or instant messaging, and no cell phones. I had to use a pay phone, with ASIMONIM (Israeli phone tokens), and a long distance call back then was VERY expensive. This call would be one of only 4 calls I made overseas in two years!!! Anyway, I called my parents to let them know what I was doing. My mothers' response was funny. She said, " Well, Rachel, I do not know what to tell you to do. You are there and we are here". To which I replied, "I am not asking you what to do, I am telling you this is what I am doing". There was SILENCE on the other end of the line!! And then my mother recovered and wished me the best.

It was the best decision I could have made. I attended that ulpan for nine months. I became and excellent speaker of the Hebrew language. I spoke so well, that I was frequently mistaken for an Israeli, not an American! At the end of the nine months, I returned to Kibbutz Yavne to visit. I spoke with the idiot Madrich. I spoke Hebrew with him, but he kept responding in English. And that bothered me so I asked him to please speak Hebrew with me.

Then, I went back to the States -- for a short visit. I had decided to return to Israel for a Shana Bet (second year). However, while I was back in the States, I went back to my Alma Mater HS...and asked to be allowed to take the four year Hebrew Regents exam. At first I was told I could not, that I should have done that while I was still in HS. I fought that because I explained that my not having learned a foreign language in HS was not my choice-- it was forced on me. So then, they agreed, but said it would be impossible to do it because they had no teachers who spoke Hebrew to administer the exam. I then introduced them to a woman, Tami Bernat. Ms. Bernat happened to be an Israeli, living in Kingston, NY, who was a Hebrew linguist!!! She could administer the exam for me. Then, the school argued that a four year Hebrew exam would be too hard for me as I had only been in Israel for one year and maybe I should just take the two year Hebrew Regents exam. But I said no, I wanted to take the four year Hebrew Regents exam. And so I did. I finished with a grade in the high 90's. Ms. Bernat was so impressed with me -- she said that she could see that I "thought" in Hebrew -- which was absolutely true. And so, in this way, I thumbed my nose at both the idiot counselor I had in ninth grade and the idiot counselor I had on Kibbutz Yavne...Ani M'daberet Ivrit Metsuyenet!!!