Thirty-three students in St. John’s Roman Catholic school here — including an 11-year-old Arab boy from Jordan — received yesterday certificates in proficiency in Hebrew in classes taught by a Jewish attorney.
William Rubin, the attorney, learned Hebrew while attending Hebrew school in Jersey City from the age of five to 17. He has contributed one hour of teaching a week to the Catholic school’s extensive language program for the past three years for pupils in the third to eighth grades.
Father Charles McTague, who developed a program of 14 languages for pupils, informed the attorney that he had been one of seven persons nominated by the Edith Stein Guild for an international award for outstanding promotion of better relations between Catholics and Jews. The language courses are taught and studied on a voluntary basis on Saturdays or weekdays after regular school hours.
Michael Hurad, the boy from Jordan, demonstrated his proficiency by reading from his book, first in Hebrew and then in English, “I am a Hebrew boy.” Michael Healy, an Irish boy, volunteered another translation: “I learn in a Hebrew school in the land of Israel.”
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