Ulpan Tamid Faculty Spotlight:
Aliza Brosh
As part of our new Tamid of Hebrew College faculty spotlight series, we recently spoke with Ulpan instructor Aliza Brosh about her teaching, adult students, and love of Hebrew language literature and poetry.
Q. What do you like best about teaching at Hebrew College and particularly teaching adult learners?
Hebrew College welcomed me in 2002 and gave me a feeling of belonging and provided a kind of home after relocating to the U.S. from Israel. I teach in the Tamid Ulpan Hebrew language program, where I enjoy working with adult learners and value their rich past, experience, and widely differing professions.
Q. How have Hebrew College students inspired you?
Teaching adults of all ages shows me that it is never too late to study and progress. I’m also inspired by American adult students’ vast knowledge of Jewish literary sources relative to that of non-religious adults in Israel.
Q. What is your specialty and why did you choose it?
I majored in Hebrew literature, and am passionate about the Hebrew language, its semantics and dynamics. Teaching advanced students makes it easy to “play” not only with the level of the language, but also with its historical layers.
I also have experience lecturing at Middlebury Language Schools in Vermont about the last 50 years of Jewish life and culture in Libya, the Libyan Jews history through wars, their unique customs, special occupations and traditions.
Another specialty that I find very satisfying and rewarding is my participation in an ongoing project of preserving Jewish languages and dialects that are near extinction. The project is run by Haifa University in Israel, and my contribution is in interviewing and recording seniors who can still share their life stories in those languages and dialects, like the Jewish dialect of Libyan Arabic, for example.
Q. What is a text you love to teach and why?
There are two types of text that are the “joy of teaching”. Teaching poetry engages the reader/student in a more elevated thinking, in referring to older texts and in understanding current interpretations and in trying to come up with new ones. Teaching ancient Jewish legends (Agadot) inspires open class conversations that focus on Jewish history, issues, questions and traditions, past and present.
Needless to say, any Israeli literature is of great interest to me.
Q. What is a text you love that is unrelated to teaching adult learners?
I find Agnon’s writings particularly interesting. But in general, anything written in Hebrew over the centuries would be within the scope of my interest. I also love to read Italian prose translated to Hebrew.
Q. Outside of teaching, what is something you love about Judaism?
While Judaism is different for different Jews in different places and times, it is a “Lingua Franca” as well as a binding and uniting soul for all Jews.
Q. How would you complete this phrase: A Tamid teacher is a…
…guide to one’s way of studying.
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