Chagit: Happy Birthday Israel!

For those who don’t know, Chagit is a cuddly stuffed bear that has more frequent flier miles than most. And she’s at the center of an educational initiative of the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in Chicago, traveling to Jewish day schools around the country and connecting students in a whole lot of classrooms.

During her visits, students from BZAEDS and participating schools use technology to talk to each other, share experiences and holiday observations, and build up their confidence with oral and written Hebrew. Now that Chagit’s in Israel, they’re talking about the Jewish homeland and Yom ha-Atzmaut through her travels and the friends she is making there.

BZAEDS received a 2010 grant from The Covenant Foundation to support Chagit Celebrates Across the Jewish World, a curricular program and a corresponding website linking Jewish schoolchildren around the world as they study and use the Hebrew language and celebrate Jewish holidays. The grant supports expansion of the program and development of a formal curriculum for it.

“The grant allows our students the opportunity to interact in Hebrew with students in schools all around the world,” said Tzivia Garfinkel, head of the Rochelle Zell Department of Jewish Studies. “It will help them to see that Ivrit is a safa meshutefet—a shared language—among the Jewish people. It will also give our talented teachers the opportunity to realize a dream they had and to model collaborative creativity in Hebrew and technology.”

For now, though, all eyes are on Chagit, and where she might end up next. So stay tuned.

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