Newbie here!

[ezra]

Hi, Ezra. Welcome to the forum!

I can imagine that moving from Texas to Massachusetts would be a huge change!

I worked in a couple of grocery stores (Kroger in Columbus, Ohio, and Walmart in Joplin, Missouri) while I was in college as a cashier. It wasn't a bad way to make money while studying and didn't require too much thought investment. Did you also work in a grocery store when you were in Texas?

I have to admit that the Ashkenazi Shabbos (שַׁבָּת) and Inyonim (for עִנְיָנִים) is difficult for me, especially how tav becomes sav and kamats becomes o – especially when there is no kamats in the word (like in עִנְיְנֵי חִנּוּךְ)! We have a living, spoken, native form of Hebrew that all Jews in the world can know and share, so why be different? Yemenites now use standard Hebrew, as do Moroccans and all other groups that come to Israel. Even Charedim who live in Israel use the normal pronunciation any time that they're in public. That's just one of my own issues, since I live in Israel and really enjoy the Hebrew language.

It really is an interesting concept to put a Jewish day school online. Chabad really tends to come up with creative ways to include the excluded, such as in this case when they thought about people who live in rural America and don't have traditional connections to Judaism. Very forward thinking in this regard!

I'm putting together a full course in biblical Hebrew at the moment (http://moodle.thehebrewcafe.com), to start in January. I've got four chapters of the curriculum sorted into activities. Just working on building the materials before I open the course. Online learning really is the future!

Thanks for the warm welcome. Yes, I also worked for a grocery store back when I worked in Texas, although it was a different corporation than the one I'm working for now. 

As for my Hebrew, I am quite content with my Ashkenazi tongue. If that bothers you, well, I don't know how to answer you. And while your statements are true for everyday conversation, it is far from true when discussing the way those diverse groups pronounce Hebrew within their own communities or in religious settings. I will continue to pronounce words like an Ashkenazi - I see no advantage to Israeli Hebrew.