ASHDOD, Israel — When Lesia Mazon arrived at the Amirim Elementary School last September, the 9-year-old Russian immigrant was put directly into a Hebrew-speaking class even though she could not understand what her Israeli teacher was saying, ask a question in the language of her new country or read a book in the unfamiliar alphabet.
She was given Hebrew lessons for part of the day but was left in the third-grade classroom the rest of the time to follow along as best she could with the help of other Russian students who could translate for her.
"When I got here, I didn't know anything," Mazon said in accented Hebrew. "Now, I usually understand everything. If I don't understand, the teacher explains after class."
Mazon's experience is typical in Israel, where for 50 years Jewish immigrants have been quickly immersed in Hebrew and told that they must learn the language if they are to become good Israelis and prosper in their new land.
By many measures, this approach has worked well. Whether they came from Russia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa or the Americas, Jewish immigrants by and large speak Hebrew. Israel has only a few communities of immigrants who continue to conduct everyday life in their native tongues, and even in those neighborhoods, most children adopt Hebrew as their primary language.
This is what Gov. Pete Wilson apparently had in mind when he pointed to the success of the Israeli immersion system as a model for California in place of the current bilingual education programs.
But teachers and professors of language education note that Israel's success in teaching Hebrew has as much to do with the ideology of the Jewish state and the immigrants themselves as it does with immersion and the national education system, factors that do not apply to California.
And, educators say, the costs and possible shortcomings of immersing immigrants in Hebrew are suddenly becoming apparent. In its pursuit of Hebrew, they say, Israel has forfeited multilingualism. Many immigrants have erased their past and forgotten their mother tongue in order to become Israelis.
"We know that a person without a past is a half-person," said Ilana Shohamy, who chairs the Language Education Department at Tel Aviv University.
Immigrants Feel They Are 'Coming Home'
