Throughout her life, people always asked Gila Efrati, “Are you a teacher?”
She attributes that question to the way she speaks and explains things. The Silver Spring resident now teaches Hebrew at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School and runs Mifgashim B’ivrit, a conversational Hebrew learning group she founded in 2019.
She also teaches three weekly Hebrew classes at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, bringing 20 years of teaching experience.
“It is a gift for me to see how [my students] progress,” Efrati said. “I love it.”
Efrati, who grew up in a kibbutz in central Israel, served as a youth movement counselor and volunteered with the movement for a year before joining the Israel Defense Forces.
“In the military, because I had this experience for one year volunteering, they took me to become a soldier in the education field,” Efrati said. “I wasn’t a teacher, but I organized all kinds of activities for soldiers after they finished practicing in the morning and activities for the evenings.”
Then, she would come back to the kibbutz, Ma’abarot, and work with children there.
“Always, all my jobs were around education, with people,” Efrati said, adding that it was the natural move for her to begin teaching.
But that wasn’t her initial career. Efrati returned to the kibbutz after her military service and spent the next three years organizing holiday celebrations, building committees and managing budgets.
“In the kibbutz, … we had a lot of artistic talent, and we celebrated all the holidays in a very rich and magnificent way,” she recalled from her childhood. “I was drawn to these celebrations.”
Efrati went to college to pursue a lifelong passion, earning her master’s degree in theater from Tel Aviv University in 1998.
“I like to move people, to affect people, to give them something to think about by putting something on stage,” she said.
After university, Efrati returned to her high school and built a drama program. “I helped so many teenagers find a place where they feel comfortable with their body, their mind, their thoughts [and] ideas — they could express themselves,” she said.
The school administration took notice and invited Efrati and the program to “all kinds of places” to talk to at-risk students about what was going on in their lives.
Then the Second Intifada broke out in the fall of 2000.
“You never knew where and when the [next] bomb [would] explode,” said Efrati, who planned to move to the States temporarily. “It was very, very tense and emotional to be [in Israel].”
She stayed in the Washington, D.C., area with relatives, who offered her a job at Adas Israel Congregation teaching Hebrew and Jewish history. Efrati worked there for 20 years while simultaneously working at Milton and Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. At the latter, she returned to theater.
“I saw that it’s very difficult because of the language barrier, because the students [were] speaking so fast and my English was not so good,” Efrati said. “I could not understand what they [were] saying.”
She gradually began working with the Hebrew teachers at CESJDS. In September 2010, she transitioned to teaching Hebrew at Milton Gottesman.
Shortly before the 2020 pandemic, Efrati mentioned to a friend and student at the EDCJCC, “I have a dream of doing something with groups, like when you meet, not just [for] one-on-one private lessons. I’ve had enough with this.”
She wanted groups of students that met and held conversations among themselves, so Efrati launched Mifgashim B’ivrit — Hebrew Conversations — in the nation’s capital. The group began meeting in person until COVID hit, forcing Efrati to relocate to Zoom.
Since then, she’s led Hebrew practice sessions at the National Museum of American History in D.C., with plans of expanding to another local museum.
“My goal is to help people to connect to Hebrew,” Efrati said. “By doing this, it will open [opportunities]. I see a stone that you throw into the water, and it creates these circles.”
While the group focuses on learning the Hebrew language, students meet peers who share the same interests and discuss current events and Jewish traditions.
“We are all celebrating Purim, we are all celebrating Chanukah, even if it’s a little bit different,” Efrati said. “So it’s building a community of people who are celebrating the holidays and special days on the calendar.”
Through Hebrew, Efrati said her goal is to help community members feel connected to events larger than themselves and to feel connected to one another. She also hasn’t forgotten about her love of music and theater, also teaching Hebrew through song. Efrati will soon launch a digital course.
“I’m telling the people about the songs and the creators and the singers and when it was written or what’s the story behind this song,” Efrati said. “I found that people love to learn about current Israeli artists, singers [and] what brought them to write these songs.”
Efrati hopes to strengthen ties between American Jews and Israelis through her continued teaching in the DMV region.
“[The] Hebrew language is a connection to culture, connection to Israel, connection to Judaism, connection to heritage, history,” Efrati said. “It’s a lot of connections, and if I can help someone find the connection that helps him [or] her feel more comfortable with the language and any other connections, I’m happy.”
