What Is a Language-Immersion Program?

Ivriyon is a language-immersion program. This means that rather than studying the language merely as a subject in an academic class, a students lives in the language for the duration of the program. This method has proven itself to yield a much richer and more effective set of language skills. The most rigorous immersion programs, such as the one conducted at Middlebury College in Vermont, is a twenty-four-hour regime in which the participants can at no time communicate in anything but the language they are learning, whether it is to call home or to read before they go to sleep. We have decided to adapt that model to the realities of Jewish family life and to plan a demanding but not exclusive program. During the five weekdays, participants will truly learn, converse, and think in Hebrew; Shabbat and the weekends will not be structured; and participants will keep to the discipline of Hebrew as best they can and as much as their social and family situations allow.

All participants will be expected to make a formal commitment to speak only in Hebrew with each other when the program is in session. This pact is fundamental to the success of this collective endeavor as well as the success of each participant.