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Sep 24, 2026, 10:18 PM

Do You Need Hebrew to Make Aliyah? The Honest Answer

No. You don't need a single word of it. There is no language requirement for aliyah. No test, no proficiency level, nobody checking whether you can handle a verb conjugation. If you qualify under the Law of Return, you can...

Sep 22, 2026, 7:21 PM

‘Know Before Whom You Stand’: How Hebrew Creates Belonging

How Serious Hebrew Education Creates Readiness, Recognition, and Belonging Jewish tradition teaches, דַּע לִפְנֵי מִי אַתָּה עוֹמֵד, know before whom you stand (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 28b). The words ask us to recognize the presence before us and the responsibility that...

Sep 22, 2026, 3:16 AM

When my Israeli son asked me ‘What is Jewish?’

It took moving our family to Australia for me to understand what my 9-year-old had always taken for granted

Sep 14, 2026, 7:30 PM

From Jerusalem to Jericho, Did Gold Classify Water Quality in the Copper Scroll?

From “Waters of Gold” to a Water Registry: The Linguistic Sources of the Copper Scroll The use of “gold” as a metaphor for exceptional quality, purity, and supreme value is familiar in modern Hebrew expressions such as “the golden age,”...

Sep 14, 2026, 7:11 PM

We fool ourselves

It is human nature to do things for what we think is a very good reason, but people fool themselves. An example is the modern-day practice of Hebrew-loving Jews calling their grandparents by names they think are ancient Hebrew....

Orly Lavi Travish

Sep 12, 2026, 11:01 AM

Between memory and history

9/11

My Hebrew students weren’t alive on September 11, 2001. If memory is to survive as more than a date in a textbook, I have to teach them the vocabulary to pass it on

Sep 11, 2026, 7:52 PM

Hebrew to the world: AI voice tech is bridging the world’s linguistic divides

Language is one of humanity's greatest achievements and, at the same time, one of its most persistent barriers. The thousands of languages spoken around the world enrich human culture immeasurably, but they also divide us, limiting who can access...

Sep 6, 2026, 2:31 PM

The Language and Grammar of the Olim Urban Dictionary

The other day, my son came home from Miluim and, while describing a car he wants to buy, he talked about its comfortability. Or maybe he was referring to his Negev? Been a busy week. Anyway, my wife and I...

Sep 6, 2026, 10:41 AM

Hebrew and English?

You probably didn’t even notice that my blog is in English, since the Times of Israel platform is an English language environment. We should stop and ask: since I have lived permanently in Israel since 1981, why is all...

Sep 6, 2026, 7:29 AM

Treasure Trove: Zionism from Jerusalem to Basel to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh?

From the Herzl and Zionisim Collection of David Matlow, Toronto (www.herzlcollection.com). Photograph by David Matlow.

This postcard extends Zion’s Greetings for the New Year and references in Hebrew three cities that were important to Zionism in 1905 when the postcard was mailed. First is Jerusalem, which needs no explanation. Second is Basel, which was the...

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