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Spanish
Reishith Binah
Contact: Rabbi Yitzchak Rosenbaum
National Jewish Outreach Program,
(646) 871-4444 ext 24
POPULAR HEBREW PRIMER NOW AVAILABLE IN SPANISH FROM THE NATIONAL
JEWISH OUTREACH PROGRAM
New York, NY, August 4, 2000 - The National
Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) is pleased to announce the publication
of the Spanish language edition of the Reishith Binah, NJOP's Hebrew
reading primer. The book was published in memory of Marcel Parsons
by the Parsons and Wasser families in order to spread Hebrew literacy
throughout the Spanish speaking Jewish communities of the world.
It is estimated that there are more than 400,000 Spanish speaking
Jews, with the vast majority not able to read the language of their
heritage.
Over the past 12 years, NJOP has helped more than 140,000 North
American Jews learn to read Hebrew via their free, five week, Hebrew
Reading Crash Course. The Spanish Reishith Binah mirrors the original
primer and even includes NJOP's famed Aleph-Bet Chart in Spanish.
"After receiving numerous phone calls expressing the need for a
Spanish language Hebrew primer, we decided it was something we had
to pursue," commented Rabbi Yitzchak Rosenbaum, NJOP's Program Director.
"An early draft of the book was used in a pilot program last summer
by a group of American volunteers who went to Havana, Cuba to work
with the local Jewish community. The final version of the Spanish
Reishith Binah incorporates many of their comments and suggestions."
The Spanish Reishith Binah is just one of NJOP's foreign language
primers. The book was previously published in Russian and Hungarian,
and a French version is now being prepared.
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