Greater Orlando’s Chapter of the Jewish National Fund’s Young Professionals Group, JNFutures, continues to grow, now having held their second installment of “Hands-on Hebrew,” a highly interactive and social Hebrew language and culture learning experience based out of Chabad of O’Town in Downtown Orlando.

The Hebrew classes have attracted up to almost two dozen people as of their most recent one on March 29, and the participants have had a great time sharing food and the experience of learning Hebrew nouns and verbs. At the first class, held two weeks prior to the most recent one, students consisting of all sorts of young professionals from Central Florida went on a scavenger hunt around Lake Eola, snapping photos of objects that were the definitions of the class’s chosen Hebrew words.

At the second class on March 29 participants shared a dinner and reviewed the words from two weeks prior. Everyone then participated in a game to make the most sentences in English with the Hebrew words being studied integrated in.

Now, the fun is, of course, fun, but there is more to the story. JNFutures aims to address the danger of developing the problem of a lack of interest in pro-Israel leadership among the young population of Central Florida and elsewhere. This developing leadership is not intended to be political, and neither is the Jewish National Fund or JNFutures. Instead, it is focused on strengthening the people of Israel, whatever their origin may be, through projects that address issues of the social and economic kind, like the plight of the disabled and poor.

JNFutures has already held events in Central Florida such as the recent evening with Yedidya Harush, an activist born in the formerly existing Jewish community of Gush Katif in what is now known as the Gaza Strip, back on Feb. 2. There is a tentative date set for April 20 or 21 to host an evening with an Israeli comedian, and more Hebrew classes will be held every two weeks. You can connect with JNFutures Orlando Group on Facebook, or contact Caleb Newton, Chapter liaison, at calebrnewton@globalnewsbreakdown.com, for more information.