NOW APPEAR IN WORKBOOK FORMAT, IN TIME FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL CONTACT: Lily Yacobi (201) 227-6161; lyacobi@sarahdavid.com ENGLEWOOD, NJ, JUNE 15, 2006 – Diana and Lily Yacobi, the entrepreneurial mother-daughter publishing team that in 2004 introduced the story-book characters ‘Sarah’ and ‘David’ to students of Hebrew language, have expanded their line of creative teaching tools. A workbook accompaniment to The Aleph Bet Story will be for sale through their website, www.sarahdavid.com, or by calling the company’s toll-free number: 1-866-727-2432 after July 1st. Designed to improve letter recognition, increase word association and acquire writing skill, The Aleph Bet Story Workbook imports many of the same whimsical mnemonic devices and cheerful illustrations that make the original storybook a successful learning system. Black- and-white bubble letters and pictures for students to color in reinforce lessons on the appearance and sounds of the letters, while traceable letters and blank lines provide exercises for practicing block print. Several examples of words that begin with the letter featured on each page build basic vocabulary. “This is the best, most fun way to learn the Hebrew letters, and can be an enjoyable activity for summer reading or ordered as a back-to-school item,” said Lily Yacobi. She noted that the storybook is also available on CD. The color pictures are available in black and white for coloring or display to supplement the reading. The Aleph Bet Story prepares students for Sarah and David’s reading curriculum, a set of five reading workbooks and a unique picture book for modern, conversational Hebrew, Yacobi explained. In addition to the material available for purchase, free, downloadable resources for teachers – certificates of completion for each book, progress charts and transliterations of vocabulary words – may be found on the site’s comprehensive, convenient Teacher Center. Sarah and David Interactive – An Educational Media Company on the Rise Sarah and David Interactive has been steadily evolving since its launch two years ago. Through the Yacobis’ presence at national Jewish educational conferences and at Jewish book festivals around the country, a growing number of educational directors have discovered the advantages of the Sarah and David curriculum and teaching methods. As a result, more and more synagogue-based religious schools, as well as programs geared to adult learners have integrated the company’s content into the classroom. While Sarah and David’s appeal to children is obvious, adults appear to appreciate the books’ large print format and succinct style just as much. “They don’t need to put on their glasses and the limited information on each page is easy to digest and recall,” Lily Yacobi stated. With their sights on continued growth and market penetration, the Yacobis have recently identified an interest among culturally-connected Gen-Xers in learning to read and understand Hebrew, positioning Sarah and David to appeal to this lucrative, untapped target audience in the coming year.

Diana Yacobi With a master’s in Jewish education from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Diana Yacobi is the co-creator of Sarah and David Interactive’s materials. Following her graduation from JTS, she became an educational director of a congregational school, developing curricula for the supplementary school setting and publishing a number of articles in professional journals on various topics in the field. Teaching Hebrew reading has been among her primary professional interests, and she has spent the past several years focusing attention on that area of curriculum development. In her many years as a Jewish educator, Diana has had opportunity to utilize her own approach to Hebrew reading and field-tested the curricular materials she has created. Currently educational director of the Religious School at Temple Emanu-el in Closter, New Jersey, she is a member of the Jewish Educators Assembly (JEA), The Network for Research in Jewish Education, and the Coalition for Advancement in Jewish Education (CAJE) and has served as a presenter at several CAJE conferences. Lily Yacobi Lily Yacobi earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She had been working as an event planner in Manhattan, when her mother, a Jewish educator, asked Lily to tutor one of her students, a dyslexic girl, for her bat mitzvah. “One student became two, then many,” recalled Lily, who ultimately abandoned her career in event planning and her New York City address to turn the successful tutoring formula into a business, with her mother as partner. She also relocated to northern New Jersey, where Sarah and David Interactive is now headquartered. During her years as a bar/bat mitzvah tutor, Lily developed what she called the “Lily Method,” a systematic learning approach that eliminates the memorization, thus making preparation for the simkha more fun and less stressful. Her success was evident by the fact that in ten months of study, some youngsters under her direction invariably progressed from a complete lack of Hebrew reading skill to a point where they felt entirely comfortable chanting haftarah and reciting other prayers associated with bar/bat mitzvah. She also became experienced teaching younger children to read Hebrew and parents to chant Torah at their childrens’ bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies. In working with students of varying ages, abilities and learning styles, Lily took note of the kinds of difficulties people often encounter in learning to read Hebrew. Her observations became the foundation for The Aleph Bet Story, the company’s introduction to the Hebrew alphabet and early reading skills.