Ulpan in the Vicariate

On Sunday, October 20, 2013, 32 pupils from different countries around the globe and from different backgrounds met in the Vicariate in order to participate in an ulpan – a course to learn the Hebrew language which opened for the first time in our house.

Our goal was to give the broader community the opportunity to learn Hebrew in a framework that made this available for everyone and this also means that the lessons are for free. No less important, this serves as an outreach to make our Hebrew speaking Catholic communities better known.

When we first conceived of the project of beginning the course, we did not imagine that there would be so many who would be interested. To our great joy, the demand was indeed great and so, with foresight, some improvements were made in the community meeting room (the moadon) – a blackboard was installed. Thus we began with two groups of pupils who would study Hebrew at the beginner’s level on Sunday afternoons.

It was possible to see on the faces of the students the trepidation and excitement, characteristic to beginning new learning, however these were exchanged rapidly with smiles and laughter when the participants were asked to perform all kinds of strange tasks (to open a window, to lift the right hand or to catch a ball…) and all of this in Hebrew, a language they do not know yet. Wonder of wonders, they understood and enjoyed.