Ayala Dvoretzky

Senior Lector II, Modern Hebrew 

Ayala Dvoretzky, BSW Hebrew University, lector in Modern Hebrew since 1985: You have nurtured and guided this program from its wobbly infancy to its now sturdy maturation. Since you came to Yale, the Hebrew curriculum has burgeoned from a one-semester course in simple conversation to a rich sequence of offerings in literature, film, print and electronic media, socio-political, poetic, and scholarly discourse. You brought to your task the gentle hand of a mother, the firm grip of an IDF sergeant, and the unwavering dedication of the Zionist pioneers who developed the language itself, along with its dynamic, vibrant culture, from the traditions and storehouses of many kindreds and tongues. 

When you began, classroom technology was largely chalk and eraser, some scratchy cassettes captured late at night from Israeli radio broadcasts, and (very likely) the last working mimeograph machine at Yale. But you energetically acquired the best of what was new and adapted it for Hebrew instruction. Day after day, for more than three decades, you brought your schoolroom magic to an engaged, appreciative, and even adoring student following, well earning your Yale College Teaching Prize. You worked, with patience, creativity, and unrelenting high expectations, to build and practice the structures, patterns, instincts, and sensibilities your students needed to achieve an authentic command of the language they sought to make their own. You were the “urim vetumim,” as the Hebrew in the Yale logo says, for the cohorts of students who sought your wisdom and compassion—their mentor, their academic and senior thesis advisor, or the listening, caring adult they felt they needed—so that when you left the classroom your day as a teacher had only begun. 

You were one of the first language lectors to take an active role in departmental and university administration. Yours was a voice of reason, integrity, and common sense in departmental affairs and a watchful eye for the interests of your program and whatever small curricular grants were ripe to pluck for its support. It was you who helped bring to Yale the best Hebrew-teaching faculty and initiated them in your ways and standards, at the same time encouraging them to grow and develop as individuals with their own teaching strategies and interests. You served on a United Nations of language review committees; you stepped forward as a leader in the diffusion of Israeli culture at Yale, be it films, poetry readings, seminars, or collaborative events. 

Ezra Stiles once opined that knowledge of Hebrew would allow Yale students, when they went to heaven, to understand what the angels were singing. The goals of Yale’s Hebrew curriculum have considerably diversified since then—and we salute you, our long-time friend and colleague, for helping to make this happen