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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Clearly the fact that Hebrew is one of the languages on which the Western Civilization (a.k.a Judeo-Christian) is based has escaped some people. Do you really think that the Bible was written is English?? Maybe you don't care about the Bible, but you should care about the civilization you live in, even if it is not your own. [/quote]

Allegedly, the school will be Modern Hebrew immersion, a language that has only been existence since the early 20th century. It is not the language upon which western civilization is based. It is a very interesting language, with influences from many other world languages. However, the argument that it is worthy to base an immersion school on Modern Hebrew because it is the language of the Bible is false.

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Not really true from a historical perspective. Modern Hebrew is based on biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and other Semitic languages, with influences from Turkish, Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish, and other European languages. A Modern Hebrew speaker could encounter a speaker of biblical Hebrew on the street and have a conversation, much in the way that speaker of contemporary Latin American Spanish could chat with Cervantes, or a speaker of Modern Greek could converse with Plato. Moreover, Modern Hebrew developed was developed over two centuries, beginning in the mid-1880s, and is spoken by nearly 12 million people worldwide. Of course, this is a SECULAR school, so talking about whether Jesus spoke Hebrew (yep! along with Aramaic, Greek, Latin, etc.) is not really the point...At this point, in the context of all of the other niche charter schools in existence, we probably should asking ourselves why Hebrew is so "threatening?" Are we afraid the "Jew" is catchy? Would you be making the same arguments about Swedish, or Swahili, or Sanskrit? For many of those posting here it seems to be a personal bias thing which is not too pretty. I personally wish we didn't have charter schools, but rather had strong corner public schools, but that is not our reality. The Hebrew charter seems as good as any charter, and much better than some I have visited. Lapsed Catholic and mother of two. [/quote]

I really hate that you are trying to turn this discussion into an anti-Judaism thing, and am frankly offended.  I don't think the school has much to offer people who aren't Jewish.  That has nothing to do with being scared or threatened by anyone!  I think other super niche charter schools that serve a small groups of people are also not the best, (and I don't really love that Roots PCS is clearly only for African American children) however since this one's niche is a religion, I see it as a little more controversial.  That is just my opinion.  I would personally PREFER (note that I say prefer, not 'those schools shouldn't get charters') that immersion schools focus on languages that would be in the top 20 or 30 in this list, and therefore cast a wider net of interest and utility:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

The number of Hebrew speakers in the link above conflicts with yours btw, but even if this is wrong and you are right, its not even close to what I would consider a widely spoken language.

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