In May, Yeshiva University announced changes to the Hebrew curriculum beginning with the upcoming Fall 2025 semester. The curriculum, which has long been a source of complaints for many YU students, was altered in order to offer students increased flexibility and to better serve the needs and interests of students.
The old requirements, which were introduced in Fall 2020 on Wilf and in Fall 2022 on Beren, placed students on both campuses into one of five levels. Placements were determined through a test. Students placed in level one had to take Hebrew 1010, 1020 and 1030, those in level two had to take Hebrew 1020 and 1030 and those in level three were required to take only Hebrew 1030. All of these courses were taken in an online asynchronous format with an in-person final exam starting in Fall 2022.
Students who placed into levels four and five were each required to take one semester of Hebrew (at a level above the Hebrew 1030 course) in-person with the option to alternatively take a Bible class taught in Hebrew.
Current students have the choice to continue on with these old requirements or opt into the new requirements, according to emails sent to both Wilf and Beren students on May 28. “Students who wish to opt into the new Hebrew policy may do so, but they must adopt the entirety of the Fall 2025 catalog,” both of the emails said. These new requirements, however, could potentially lead to changes in students’ major or minor curriculum requirements.
According to the new requirements, Beren level ones must still take three semesters of Hebrew, but instead of taking 1010, 1020 and 1030, they will now have to take 1001, 1002 and then a Bible course (Bible 1405 or 1410). These courses are intended to be on a more introductory Hebrew level than Hebrew 1010 and 1020. These classes appear to take place in person as is listed on the students registration platform InsideTrack.
Wilf level one students in Isaac Breuer College (IBC), the Stone Beis Medrash Program (BMP) and the Mazer Yeshiva Program (MYP) must take Hebrew 1010 and 1020 synchronously. Level two students on both campuses now need to take Hebrew 1010 and 1020 (the old requirements were 1020 and 1030), but they now have the option of being taken either synchronously or asynchronously. Level three students on both campuses still only need to take 1030, but, like level two students, they can take it either synchronously or asynchronously.
Level four students must take one semester of an advanced Hebrew course (for Beren students these are HEB 1211, 1221 or 1240, and for Wilf students this is HEB 1040). Level five students are exempt from Hebrew through a writing sample, as are students with a Bagrut certificate or a Jerusalem Exam score of 85% or higher.
Wilf students in the James Striar School (JSS) will not have to take the Hebrew placement exam and will instead be automatically placed into the course sequence of Hebrew 1203 and 1204.
Wilf students will also be seeing credit changes for all Hebrew courses. In the past they were offered as three-credit courses, but they are being reduced to two-credit courses starting this upcoming semester.
These changes come after a steady stream of complaints from students about the previous Hebrew curriculum. Many found the online Hebrew courses to be overly difficult, which eventually led to a group of students signing and sending in a petition calling for changes to the Hebrew requirements.
Students like Yaira Katz (SCW ‘27) want to learn Hebrew but struggled with the old program. “I want to learn Hebrew, and I want to improve my Hebrew. I went to a seminary in Israel that had only five non-native Hebrew speakers. Everything at my seminary was in Hebrew, and I was able to get by pretty well,” she told the YU Observer. “I was lucky enough to test into the third level of Hebrew (1030), so I only had to fulfill one semester of Hebrew classes, and it was the worst class I have ever taken in my time at Yeshiva University and possibly even in my life.”
Katz added that she is an education major and noticed that the way the old courses were set up was the opposite of what she was being taught in her education classes.
When asked about the new Hebrew requirements, Undergraduate Dean Rebecca Cypess told the YU Observer that, after years of the old Hebrew requirements, it “seemed like a natural time to conduct a systematic review.” This review used both student and faculty input.
“Many students have conveyed appreciation for the asynchronous courses, especially because of the flexibility that they afford in scheduling,” Dean Cypess said. “Yet asynchronous courses are not for everyone; they can be difficult to manage for some students carrying heavy academic loads.”
Students in JSS as well as Stern College’s Mechina Pathways Program are relatively new to Hebrew. In order to meet the needs of these students, YU already had a Hebrew program specifically designed for these students. With the new curriculum changes, this program is becoming more established.
“We found that students with beginner’s-level Hebrew would benefit from a more intensive experience that was tailored specifically to their needs,” Dean Cypess said.
Katz said that while it is “refreshing” to see the administration working to improve the Hebrew curriculum, she doesn’t “think that it is the students’ responsibility to suffer through horrible Hebrew classes, and if the university cannot provide high-quality Hebrew education, then they should not require students to study Hebrew at all.” She added, “At least not until they can provide us with something that actually resembles a college-level Hebrew language education.”
It appears that after a few years YU is finally listening to the student dissatisfaction with the old Hebrew curriculum and will accordingly be changing the program. While this all seems to be a step in the right direction, the success of the new program is not guaranteed and will depend on what happens with the Hebrew courses in the upcoming semesters.
Regarding the requirement changes for both campuses, Dean Cypess said, “All the sections of HEB 1010, 1020, and 1030 will be undergoing content revision to ensure that they are reaching a high enough level and that they align with the interests and perspectives of the YU community.”
Photo Caption: Stern College for Women
Photo Credit: Jeffrey Zeldman