Assuming we find a place in the Old City, as we hope, it appears the boys will go to Yeshivat Aderet Eliyahu, more commonly known as “Zilberman’s.” It will be entirely in Hebrew, which will certainly be a challenge for them. But there are enough Anglos around to help ease the transition, we hope. We’ve been told by others who went through this that it takes anywhere from 6 weeks to a few months, and then the kids are sufficiently proficient in Hebrew to do fine. The bigger challenge for us is that none of the administrators speak English, so Debbie & I won’t be able to communicate with them so easily.

This is an area where the difference between the American mindset and the Israeli one is dramatic. We had an intermediary mention our situation to someone at Zliberman’s, and their response was essentially, “fine, we’ll expect them.” I can only imagine what you would have to do, and how long in advance, were the direction reversed.