local
Barrack, Perelman to Debut
Husband and Wife
Israeli Educators
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
B enaya and Ayala Yehuda are
coming to the Jack M. Barrack
Hebrew Academy and the
Perelman Jewish Day School, respec-
tively, to teach students about Israel, to
foster in them a stronger connection to
the Jewish homeland and to continue
building that bridge that helps solidify
the Jewish Diaspora.

But while they will proselytize about
the Jewish state, the Israelis may be even
more excited to become Americans for
a couple of years. Th ey are hoping that,
as they teach kids about Israel, those
same students, as well as their neighbors
and co-workers, will teach them about
the Jews’ adopted home in the religious
melting pot of the United States.

Aft er all, the Yehudas are not just
making a reverse aliyah to the land
of opportunity to take one in the
classrooms of local day schools. Th e
husband and wife are bringing their
fi ve children, all between the ages of
seven months and 12 years, with them
as well.

Benaya Yehuda, 37, who spent 13
years in the education fi eld in Israel, will
be the upper school Jewish life coordi-
nator at Barrack, teaching Hebrew and
Jewish studies. Ayala Yehuda, 36, who
also worked in the education fi eld in
Israel for about a decade, will serve as a
classroom teacher in Perelman’s Ganon
program, a Hebrew immersion setting
for kindergarten-age students, mean-
ing she will speak to them in Hebrew
throughout the day.

Th e Israelis will teach at the
Philadelphia-area schools, both in
Montgomery County, for two years.

Among their school-age children, two
will attend Perelman and the other two
will go to Barrack.

“We came for two years, and there’s a
possibility of a little bit more,” Benaya
Yehuda said. “It depends on how our
children adjust. If all is good, we’ll be
happy maybe to stay.”
An educator coming from Israel to
the United States, or anywhere else in
the Diaspora, to teach about Israel is
called a shaliach in Hebrew, according
to Barrack and Perelman offi cials. Th e
schools are bringing the educators over
through a World Zionist Organization
program that aims to build stronger
connections in the Diaspora. Th e orga-
nization is a non-governmental orga-
nization founded in 1897 at Th eodor
Herzl’s First Zionist Congress in
Switzerland. Both Barrack, which serves stu-
dents in grades 6-12, and Perelman,
which educates pre-K-5 students,
already have extensive Israel study
programs in history, culture and even
the Hebrew language. So, their goal
with a shaliach is not to add a program
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AUGUST 25, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM