By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
An interesting conference was recently held in Jordan. Participants included Egyptians, Iraqis and Saudis.
The conference was about teaching Hebrew at universities in the Arabic world.
The study of Hebrew in the Arab world is summed up in the comments of the conference:
"Of course in times of war one must know the language of the enemy. Here at the conference the participants said "know thy neighbor?" Or, are they only learning Hebrew in an effort to collect intelligence, to "know thine enemy?"
The answer was given very eloquently at the workshop:
"(Hebrew) is very important to understand the 'other.' as it is only through language that we can understand the culture of the society and its way of thinking. The language can bring our nations closer."
Studying Hebrew has been part of university studies in Egypt and Iraq since the 60's. The Saudis began offering Hebrew courses in 1994. And in 2000 Jordanians began to learn Hebrew.
Learning language is a very important step in understanding culture.
The study of Arabic is not only a major staple of the Israeli educational system, it is also an official language in Israel.
This conference is a step in the right direction.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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