Modern Hebrew

A highly recognized Modern Hebrew program

IU’s Modern Hebrew program has been recognized as one of the best of its kind. With the instruction and guidance of our three Hebrew faculty members, our students learn to read, write, and speak Hebrew with proficiency and fluency.

Every Hebrew class at IU has less than 20 students, allowing personal focus and frequent verbal communication between the instructors and the students in the class. Instructors are able to develop a personal relationship with each student in class.

Additionally, Hebrew classes are all conducted immersively in Hebrew, which allows students to acquire the language faster and reach a solid level of understanding, by offering many daily opportunities to speak, read and write in the language, right from the very beginning.

For questions about the Modern Hebrew program, please email Modern Hebrew Program Director Ayelet Weiss at ayweiss@indiana.edu.

My Hebrew has improved immensely over the years and it is largely due to the IU Jewish Studies Modern Hebrew language program. The faculty is wonderful!
Leah Boresow, Hebrew minor, August 2012

Why study Hebrew?

Hebrew connects the past and the present. While the Bible, Mishnah, and Talmud were all written in Hebrew, Hebrew is a living modern language in Israel and around the Jewish world. Students interested in religious studies, history, international law and politics, technology, and linguistics can all benefit from studying modern Hebrew.

The Modern Hebrew curriculum and course sequence

H100: Students learn to communicate about themselves, their surroundings and their routines in various ways, and learn about the life and routines of Israeli students. Students practice daily conversations, basic question - answer structures, simple sentences, the basic gender/number distinction of Hebrew, and present verbs in Hebrew. This course also surveys the writing system in Hebrew.

H150: In this course, students learn to communicate about thoughts, feelings, beliefs and habits in various ways, and learn about the life, habits, wishes, beliefs and feelings of young Israeli adults. This course offers a heavy focus on the verbs in Hebrew, expanding their use of verbs integrating the infinitives in Hebrew and learning how Hebrew prepositions work.

H200: This course introduces Israeli media to learn more about cultural aspects in Israel and about the make-up of Israeli society. This course introduces more complex sentence structures, new aspects of Hebrew grammar (such as the construct state), and the past tense forms in Modern Hebrew.

H250: In this course, students learn to communicate about the future and about the post-graduation life of their peers in Israel, as well as various complexities within Israeli society. Students use Israeli media to work on brief excerpts to improve comprehension. Students learn the future-tense forms of verbs, more complex versions of the construct state, and a larger variety of prepositions in Modern Hebrew.

H300: This course introduces Israeli media and literature as tools for language and culture integration, while also covering complex grammatical topics in Hebrew including the passive construction of verbs in the present, past, and future tenses.

H350: This final course in the Hebrew sequence focuses primarily on using Hebrew literature and Israeli media as tools for language and culture integration. Students use such primary resources to discuss issues in Israeli society, culture, history, geography and politics, research topics of interest and news items on a weekly basis, and write various essays and presentations on these topics, comparing Israeli culture and society to their own.

Learn more about the Hebrew minor in our Student Portal

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Borns Jewish Studies Program

Modern Hebrew

A highly recognized Modern Hebrew program

Why study Hebrew?

The Modern Hebrew curriculum and course sequence

The College of Arts & Sciences

Modern Hebrew

A highly recognized Modern Hebrew program

Why study Hebrew?

The Modern Hebrew curriculum and course sequence

Borns Jewish Studies Program social media channels

The College of Arts & Sciences