After 12 years in the position, former CESJDS Arabic teacher Dr. Hani Abo-Awad chose not to return for the 2024-25 school year, forcing a shift in the school’s Arabic curriculum. The World Languages Department, in partnership with the administration, spent the summer searching for an Arabic replacement but did not find a candidate for the position. Instead, they decided to transition to an online Arabic program.
According to High School Assistant Principal Aileen Goldstein, she, along with the high school hiring team, understood that it would be more difficult to hire for the Arabic position after Oct. 7. Though they had many applicants, none were the proper fit. However, she said the school was committed to finding an alternative solution.
“As a Jewish day school, we’ve also been really excited about the teaching of Arabic because we think it can help with communication in Israel … and we think that it’s really exciting for potential there to understand some of the sources that we read in our classes first hand,” Goldstein said. “So, philosophically it’s been really exciting for us to offer.”
Goldstein said that because they knew it would be a difficult task, the JDS administration immediately began the hiring process. Beyond their standard hiring procedure of posting on the JDS website, they searched externally for other avenues to fill the position such as the World Zionist Organization, which offers services to help teachers attain visas. However, they were ultimately unsuccessful.
After they realized they could not find an on-campus teacher for Arabic, the administration looked into alternatives. In the end, they settled on Global Online Academy (GOA). GOA was founded by a consortium of independent schools in the regional northwest looking to add more languages to their curricula.
Once the administration decided to use this program, they immediately announced the news to the families of registered Arabic students. In one email, they shared that Arabic levels one, two and three would be using a pre-established program from GOA. In another email, they announced that levels four and five would be using a custom program designed by JDS and GOA.
“There was some disappointment from the families and the students … there was a lot of appreciation that we were able to come up with anything and there were a lot of questions,” Goldstein said.
Many students continued the program following this announcement, but others felt it wouldn’t suit their learning style. Senior Navah Gris, who had been taking Arabic for six years both at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School and JDS, was among this group. Before the start of the school year, she chose to drop the class and replace it with something else.
“I knew online learning was difficult for me and I worried that the online option would not be beneficial enough for me to learn Arabic,” Gris said.
Senior Isabel Jacobs has been taking Arabic classes since she arrived at JDS in freshman year. She was a bit hesitant to do the online program, but decided to take the chance. After one month of online instruction, she said the classes improved her vocabulary more than the in-person class did.
“I do feel like I’ve already improved a lot,” Jacobs said. “We work on speaking a lot and much more writing. We just didn’t have as much focus on that in the previous program so I really appreciate it.”
Jacobs said that on a day-to-day basis, students have either synchronous classes with a teacher from the program or asynchronous work to complete individually. Though Jacobs said it is a heavy workload, she feels the classes are worth it.
Overall, Goldstein thinks that the new Arabic program is an exciting opportunity for JDS and the administration is very grateful for the program they discovered. However, the online learning is not a permanent solution.
“It is our hope and our intention to try and bring someone back on full-time to teach Arabic,” Goldstein said. “We don’t know what the landscape will be and if that will be possible, so we’re keeping all options open.”