The Think Zone Information

The Think Zone was founded in 2009 by Shifra Trifon. Shifra spent 15 years in the Israeli Army achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Israel Defense Forces. After retiring Shifra worked as a manager of the Intel Corporation in Israel. Shifra holds a Masters degree from the Hebrew university. After moving to the United States in 2001, Shifra spent several years teaching Hebrew language to American youth in both Jewish Day Schools and after-school programs affiliated with synagogues. She came to realize that there is a shortage of quality instructional materials for beginning Hebrew readers that make the study of the Hebrew language fun for the students, existing practice worksheets which were supposed to reinforce classroom learning were either unavailable or not 'inspirational' to the students. She understood that Jewish youth in America tend to have a short attention span for learning Hebrew and in many cases are not happy to be in class. The lack of enjoyable learning materials just exacerbates the difficult mission that Hebrew teachers face. Since the experience isn't "fun", inevitably, the children resist all attempts to teach them Hebrew and, in some cases, they come to resent their Judaism and all connections to their heritage.