EAJS Conference Grant Program in Jewish Studies
Report
Mini Ulpan: Academic Reading (Summer/Winter School)
Department of Jewish Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt
16/09/2024 – 20/09/2024
A grant was awarded towards the invitation of international participants to an intensive Hebrew course (Mini Ulpan) taking place in Frankfurt on 16-20 September 2024, organized by the department of Jewish Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt with the support of the Gesellschaft zur Förderung judaistischer Studien in Frankfurt am Main e.V. This grant enabled us to ask colleagues from Granada, Prague and Wrocław to nominate candidates for a scholarship to participate. Since Granada nominated only one student and the University of Madrid, whom we invited to nominate to fill the space left by Granada, did not nominate a participant, seven international students (one from Granada, three each from Prague and Wrocław) joined six Frankfurt students in a week of intensive learning and early career network building.
The aim of the intensive Hebrew course was to improve skills in reading Hebrew academic texts, one of the most important skills for future scholars of Jewish Studies. An intensive week of learning skills that make it easier to read texts on different topics in Jewish Studies helped students to strengthen their Hebrew reading-comprehension. The focus on academic texts and those linguistic elements that build the typical structure and argument of academic texts, combined with shorter units of spoken application of the learned skills of understanding generated results in a short time.
The course consisted of 5 days with 3 units of 90 minutes Hebrew class per day, taught by Nomi Drachinsky (Chemnitz, formerly Ulpan Madrid). Working with specifically prepared collections of phrases, grammatical rules and exercises that singled out vocabulary used for specific moments in argumentation, such as introduction, refutation, presentation of a new thesis, conclusion etc., was combined with reading of suitable passages from academic papers in the fields of interest of the students that showcased the respective topics of the lessons. Afternoon sessions often returned to the topics of the morning sessions but challenged students to employ their new skills in speaking. Students arrived at the course with their respective individual language levels which could not be levelled out in such a short time, but it was obvious that all students improved their reading skills and felt more comfortable reading academic Hebrew at the end of the course. On the last day, each student gave a short presentation on an academic topic of their choice, employing newly acquired skills of how academic arguments are phrased in Hebrew.
Afternoon excursions into Frankfurt and a joint dinner allowed for network building among the participants. Based on feedback from all participants and the teacher, this intensive course was a success that we hope to repeat at another time.