Beginning Hebrew, a course created by the Foreign Language and the  Philosophy and Religious Studies departments, will be available at UW-Eau Claire for the first time during the fall 2012 semester.

The instructor, Jonathan Paradise, said he studied the Hebrew language as a child. By 17, he was fluent in the language and even spent a year abroad in Israel.

Before teaching at Eau Claire, Paradise created a Hebrew program at the University of Minnesota, which, at its peak, had about 300 students, he said.

The new Hebrew course is unique compared to the other language courses offered throughout the year, Paradise said. It will prepare students to read biblical texts in the original Hebrew and will also enable students to speak, write and comprehend the spoken language of Israel.

The course is a hybrid course that includes both face-to-face classroom experience and on-line activities for students.

Paradise said he decided to open Beginning Hebrew to Eau Claire after several students expressed interest throughout various classes such as Bible and Jewish studies and a course taught on the Holocaust.

Sophomore Alaina Streblow said she thought students interested in those types of courses would be interested in the Hebrew class.

“I think learning Hebrew can have many benefits if you’re interested in religious studies or want something non-traditional in the language department,” Streblow said.

Because of the strong historical content of the language, Paradise said he thinks the course will take off.

“In the upcoming years, students studying linguistics may be required to take the course,” he said.

He said this is because Hebrew is similar to the Semitic language of Arabic.

“Semitic languages are languages that belong to a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family including Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Ethiopic,” he said. “It’s the oldest Akkadian language written on clay tablets.”

Hebrew can be a very beneficial language to learn for a variety of students, Paradise said.

The Hebrew language overlaps in many disciplines, including archaeology, religious studies, linguistics, anthropology, international relations, government, literature and the Bible, Paradise said.

Beginning Hebrew is also valuable for students who wish to hold a wider array of religious beliefs and opinions, as students will look at the Hebrew Bible for its content and language,  Paradise said.

“One of the most important books in the world is the Bible, whether you are religious or not,” he said.

Paradise said he believes people are more likely to turn to the Bible on a daily or weekly basis in its original language than any classics written in French by Voltaire or German by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

He said that if students are wary about starting a new language, consider taking it along with a complimenting elective course such as Old Testament/Hebrew Bible  or a course about the Holocaust.

The four-credit course is currently available for enrollment.