Despite the Covid pandemic, there were more applications than ever to teach this year on TALMA, the Israel Program for Excellence in English, according to the Jerusalem Post.
TALMA offers a three-week immersive English course to elementary-aged children during the Israeli school summer holidays for five days a week (Sunday to Thursday), taught by a two-teacher team. One is American, one Israeli, each bringing their country’s teaching practices to students from a mix of socio-economic backgrounds.
In previous years, applications have hovered around 600-1,000, but 2021 saw a leap in applicants from the Jewish diaspora in America and over 2,000 were taken on. A substantial number of these teachers end up immigrating to Israel, says TALMA CEO Alon Futterman. “We are proud that, despite the corona, 40% of the TALMA teachers in the past school year decided to immigrate to Israel and continue to teach in schools full time as Israelis,” he told the newspaper.
