Staff
Professor Vardit Ringvald, PhD is the leading scholar of Hebrew pedagogy. She serves as the Director of the Consortium for The Teaching of Hebrew Language and Culture and as a research professor at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University. A founder of the School of Hebrew at Middlebury College and the leading scholar of Hebrew pedagogy, curriculum development, teacher preparation, and assessment, Dr. Ringvald is the leading expert in the Proficiency Approach for teaching Hebrew as an additional language.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Ringvald served as Brandeis University’s Hebrew program director, in addition to director of Arabic, Asian, and Romance languages.
As a consultant to many schools and educational organizations, Dr. Ringvald specializes in curriculum development, teacher preparation, and teacher assessment. Her goal is to professionalize teachers and school-based Hebrew programs.
Sharon Schoenfeld has been the National Director of Kayitz Kef/Hebrew at Camp since the summer of 2019. Prior to this position, she spent more than 20 years with Young Judaea, the Zionist Youth Movement. A product of its camps and programs, she held a variety of professional positions at Young Judaea in the US and in Israel in both education and operations. Her love of the Hebrew language comes from her own experience as a camper and staff member at Jewish summer camps and spending time with amazing young Israelis excited to bring the Hebrew language and Israeli culture to American youth.
Sharon has recently completed her MA in Teaching Hebrew as a Second Language at Middlebury College. Sharon’s experience in becoming proficient in Hebrew during her 11 years in Israel combined with her many years working with camps has prepared her to help Kayitz Kef reach as many American Jewish young people as possible.
Ronit Avitan Alexander has held numerous teaching positions, faculty appointments, and fellowships at esteemed institutions around the world.
Ronit holds an MA in Teaching Hebrew as a Second Language from Middlebury College, and her graduate thesis on language anxiety and ways to increase participation in the language classroom has led her to continue researching how best to provide meaningful feedback to language learners. Now, while back to being a student, in the Doctor of Modern Languages program at Middlebury College she engages in a variety of language research methodologies to develop new insights and approaches to Hebrew language instruction.
Ronit regularly conducts workshops and webinars for Hebrew teachers on topics such as language anxiety, error correction, meaningful feedback, and technology tools in the language classroom. She is passionate about language learning and has had the opportunity to study five foreign languages.