A Jewish day school curriculum ensures that your child learns to speak, read, write and reason in two languages – English and Hebrew – from the first day of school. This dual-language approach stimulates brain development in ways a traditional education doesn’t. Studies show that being bilingual improves attention span and focus, allowing for better executive functioning. Research conducted by neuroscientist Ellen Bialystok found that bilingual preschoolers use greater cognitive flexibility to process visual and verbal information. 

In fact, thinking in two languages becomes so normalized after a while that children begin to “code-switch,” alternating between both languages in conversation. This sophisticated ability to sort through different letters and words with similar meanings and use them in communication heightens a child’s mental dexterity to learn math, take on digital coding and see beneath the surface of literature and art.

In a global economy that values multilingualism, speaking two languages makes learning a third language even easier. And because bilingualism helps children look at the world differently, these students are more open minded. University of Edinburgh Linguistics Professor Antonella Sorace advised companies to value this competence in the Financial Times: “Hire more multilingual employees,” she urged, “because these employees can communicate better, have better intercultural sensitivity, are better at cooperating, negotiating, compromising. But they can also think more efficiently.”

Day school students also learn a lifelong passion for Israel. In Start-up Nation, political advisor Dan Senor’s breakthrough book about Israel’s remarkable economy, the author outlines traits shared by leading Israeli innovators, including empathy, teamwork, persevering past failure and questioning authority – qualities that are similarly interwoven throughout the Jewish day school environment.