The Department for Encouraging Aliyah in the World Zionist Organization will be opening schools for learning Hebrew in Bogotá, Colombia, capital of Colombia, and Mexico City, capital of Mexico, in the coming weeks. In Bogotá, a school with two classrooms and 50 students will open, while in Mexico City, a school with seven classrooms and 200 students will open shortly. “Our goal is to teach the Hebrew language as the common language of the Jewish people,” says Marina Rosenberg Koritny, head of the Department for Encouraging Aliyah in the World Zionist Organization.
Next Tuesday, the first Hebrew school in Colombia will open in the large Jewish center of Bogotá - ‘Santo Israelita de Bogotá.’ The organizations behind the initiative – which include the Department for Encouraging Aliyah in the World Zionist Organization, Ofek Israeli, the Colombo Ibrahu School and the Zionist Federation of Colombia – intend to open more classes in light of the high demand.
The Department will be opening Hebrew classes in three weeks in the center of the Jewish communities in Mexico City. Two hundred students have already registered for the program and will be the first to learn Hebrew in the department’s first school in the country.
The opening of the schools took place after great interest was expressed by the Jewish communities of Bogotá, which numbers approximately 15,000, and Mexico City, whose Jewish population is 45,000. Most of the students are eligible to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return. The students have expressed various reasons for enrolling in the course. Some wish to immigrate to Israel. Others want to study in Israeli academic institutions, and some want to familiarize themselves with Israeli culture and become closer to the State of Israel.
Colombia and Mexico are the fifth and sixth countries in Latin America where the Department for Encouraging Aliyah in the World Zionist Organization has opened schools for the study of Hebrew. Earlier, schools were also opened in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil, with people from other countries in Latin America participating in online classes to learn the language.
“We continue to work in Latin America and expand to Colombia and Mexico under the title ‘Once the people needed the state, now the state needs the people,’” said Rosenberg-Koritny. “In addition to successful initiatives of the Department for Encouraging Aliyah of the World Zionist Organization such as “Deliverance” and “Aliyah Trend,” we are opening studio classes in collaboration with Working with Ofek Israeli and the Zionist federations. Our goal is to impart the Hebrew language as the common language of the Jewish people, as stated by Eliezer Ben Yehuda, who revitalized the Hebrew language.”