PUBLISHERS’ MESSAGE TO EDUCATORS: ‘SEND THE LEARNING HOME’

BRINGING PARENTS IN AS PARTNERS FOR HEBREW READING WILL HELP COUNTERACT THE
ALARMING LACK OF HEBREW LITERACY AMONG AMERICAN JEWS

CONTACT: Lily Yacobi
(201) 227-6161; lyacobi@sarahdavid.com

ENGLEWOOD, NJ, JULY 15, 2006 – In her many years as educational director, Diana Yacobi has heard every excuse in the book from students having difficulty learning how to read Hebrew. “So many of the letters look alike,” she’s been told, as children lament, “My parents can’t help me practice Hebrew reading.” Parents, often a little sheepishly, have acknowledged to her that they are unfamiliar with the Hebrew alphabet, saying “We can’t read Hebrew or help with Hebrew homework.” Responding to this challenge, Sarah and David Interactive, the innovative educational publisher that Yacobi heads with her daughter, Lily, has come up with a remarkably simple solution for students of Beginner Hebrew. “As a new approach, we are urging educators to ‘send the learning home’ by providing parents with copies of The Aleph Bet Story and CD,” said Lily Yacobi, who helped launch the Northern New Jersey-based enterprise in 2004.

The book is unique because it straddles the divide between textbook and children’s literature. Everyone will enjoy reading about the whimsical adventures of storybook characters, ‘Sarah’; ‘David’; ‘Ben’; and ‘Rachel’, as they encounter each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. With its appealing characters, eye-catching illustrations and mnemonic devices based on popular culture, The Aleph Bet Story offers parents and children a fun activity to do together, during the summer or during the school year. At the same time, the colorful pictures and sound associations make each letter distinctive and easy to remember for the reader. If neither Mom nor Dad is home, children can hear the full Aleph Bet Story on CD as told by co-author Lily Yacobi, complete with sound effects. The recording concludes with Aleph Bet Rock, a hip, new song that teaches the order of the aleph-bet. Some parents have even reported that their youngsters enjoy reading the story book on their own improving their reading in English as they learn the Hebrew letters. Pictures, whimsy, shape and sound descriptions, the story and song on CD combine to turn The Aleph Bet Story into a complete learning activity. By starting the learning at home with their parents, “The children enter the classroom with a foundation, and have their parents as partners in the learning process,” said Diana Yacobi. “It gets the ball rolling.” At the same time, the company’s novel educational strategy, designed to engage the entire family, subtly builds Jewish identity and promotes continuity by counteracting the alarming lack of Hebrew literacy so prevalent among today’s American Jews. Study after study has documented the increasing rates of assimilation and intermarriage, attributable, in part, to a lack of familiarity with Hebrew language, traditionally a key component of a Jewish education. “We’d like to help light that fire, enable parents to learn, or re-learn Hebrew reading along with their children as they start with the storybook and then learn to read using the Sarah and David reading curriculum which follows,” said Diana Yacobi.

Parents are also encouraged to take advantage of the free, downloadable resources found on the Sarah and David website: www.sarahdavid.com. Just click on Teacher Center, which details the full curricula and supplemental materials available. Those wishing to purchase off-line may call the company’s toll-free number: 1-866-727-2432, or click on Store Locations for a list of retail outlets around the US and Canada that carry the Sarah and David line.