It was a triumphant first time at the National Hebrew Spelling Bee for Clore Tikva Primary from Redbridge as it clinched first and second place in this year’s contest in the year-5 category.
After an early start to the day to make the competition at the London School of Jewish Studies on Thursday, King David Manchester had also cause to celebrate by winning the year-6 contest.
And Alma from Whetstone, which had five of the 12 finalists in the three events, won the challenge for Dovrei Ivrit, that is for children from Hebrew-speaking homes.
The event, which was launched by PaJeS and Routes into Languages into East to encourage the learning of Ivrit, was marking its 10th anniversary this year.
Forty children from seven schools took part in the semi-finals: Sacks Morasha, Etz Chaim, Naima JPS and Yavneh College also had representatives there.
They were chosen from the schools out of the more than 300 children who had began preparing for the contest months ago.
Participants had to learn how to translate and spell 120 words or phrases from mitz tapuzim (orange juice) to oger (hamster) – the Hebrew-speakers had more complex words to master.
Then on the day, they had to get through as many as they could in a minute from a random selection generated by computer.
After the semi-finals, the top four in each category went through to the last round - after a break for fruit, cake and Bissli (of course).
Some of the contestants were ratlling off the answers at such speed that the main challenge seemed to be to ensure they did not trip over their tongues.
Clore Tikva teachers Tally David and Joyce Halperin were delighted to see their efforts to promote the language at the cross-communal school pay off.
Their pupil Olivia Rabinovitch said after winning the year-5 trophy, "I was really nervous but now I’m really happy. I’m going to do it next year.”
Her mother Olivia said, “She would not let me help her. She had a wall chart with the words she wanted to learn each day. She wouldn’t see friends until she learned them.”
She praised the “wonderful teachers that allowed that the children to do such an amazing challenge”.
Teacher Chen Potashnik, who was leading the Alma team for the first time, said that she had made flash cards with the words to help the children learn, which they even took with them on a school camping trip to practise.
When the children heard her speaking Ivrit with the school’s shinshiniot – young women from the Israeli Scouts who come here to help in Jewish schools – “they wanted to understand the conversations”, she said.
Nathaniel Long, one of Alma’s pupils, said “It can be difficult but it’s a fun language.” He hopes to continue learning it even though he is not going on to a Jewish secondary school.
Dalia Wittenberg, Ivrit primary adviser to PaJeS and a co-founder of the contest, told the participants; “event may seem to be about something small: just letters, just words, one at a time but in Ivrit, there’s no such thing as ‘just a word.’ Each word carries history, meaning, and a connection to the culture of Israel and to Judaism.
“You are engaging with a language that has shaped identity, culture, and community for generations.”
She read from a letter sent by one of the winners of the inaugural event who wrote: “Not only did it improve my vocabulary, the spelling bee also gave me a confidence to speak Hebrew and really helped me with the accent. I continued to learn Hebrew through high school, taking the Ivrit GCSE and achieving a grade 9, and now I am in a Torah- study program in Israel, thank God.”
It was a clean sweep for girls, who won in each of the three categories. In year 5, runner-up to Olivia Rabinovitch was Alma’s Antonia Botez, followed by Dinci Mamvong from King David in third and Olivia Berman from Yavneh in fourth.
In year-6, King David’s Jessica Gilbert took the trophy, followed by Oliver Orman of Etz Chaim; Ava Kaye, Alma; and Freya Drage, Alma.
And for the Hebrew-speakers, Alma’s Roni Itach proved spelling supremo, followed by Daphne Buber of Etz Chaim: Ella Tamir; and Regev Simca, both of Alma.
Sarah Schechter, project manager for Routes into Languages East, said the standards of competitors was “getting better year on year. It’s inportant for the future. We need as many Ivrit speakers as we can get.”
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