Grossman Labs · Created by a Hebrew teacher

Smart Hebrew
Flashcards

Practice Hebrew letters, vowels and the words used in prayers and holidays. Choose your focus, try a few cards and see what needs another look.

Get the free iPhone & iPad app See how to practice ↓

For iPhone and iPad · Requires iOS 16.6 or later

  • Letters & vowels
  • Prayer & holiday words
  • Progress by word

Start with the material you need.

Built-in practice for learners, families and Hebrew teachers, including vocabulary for bar and bat mitzvah preparation.

Build reading skills

Work on letters, letter sounds, or letters with vowels. Select the letters you want to practice.

Go beyond the alphabet

Study common words, prayer vocabulary and holiday words. Choose a category or create one for your next practice session.

Know what to revisit

Use Progress to review how often words are answered correctly and how much time is spent on each one.

Smart Hebrew Flashcards home screen with Letters, Letters and Vowels, Words, and Progress
Choose letters, vowels or words from the home screen.
Select Letters screen showing individual Hebrew letters to include in practice
Focus on a set of letters instead of the whole alphabet.
Fun with Words screen with Quick Play, Practice, Choose Categories, Create Category and View Dictionary
Pick a word category, practice or explore the dictionary.

Official screenshots from the app’s App Store listing.

A short routine for your next practice.

Use this as a starting point, then adjust the material and pace to your learner.

  1. Pick one focus.

    Open Letters and use Select Letters, or open Words and choose a category. Start with the material you are studying now.

  2. Read, then answer.

    Try Practice or Quick Play. Say the letter or word aloud before selecting an answer; use the sound control when you need help.

  3. Review and repeat.

    Open Progress to see which words need attention. Use that information to choose what to practice next.

Before you begin

Is Smart Hebrew Flashcards free?

Yes. The iPhone and iPad app is free to download. The creator’s introduction below explains the project’s community-service purpose.

Does it cover more than the Hebrew alphabet?

Yes. Along with letters and vowels, it includes common vocabulary, prayer words and Jewish holiday words.

Can I choose which material to practice?

Yes. Select Letters lets you focus on particular letters. For vocabulary, use Choose Categories or Create Category in the Words section.

What does Progress show?

Progress helps you review accuracy and time spent on individual words, so you can choose where to focus the next session.

Which devices can I use?

This download is for iPhone and iPad and requires iOS 16.6 or later. Check the App Store listing for the latest compatibility information.

Make the next card a little more familiar.

Choose a focus and start practicing with Smart Hebrew Flashcards.

Get the free iPhone & iPad app

SmartHebrewFlashcards by Grossman Labs

The story behind the app — the creator’s original introduction

SHALOM!!!

This app is developed by a Hebrew teacher for Hebrew teachers.  Most students love to learn a few Hebrew words with flashcards.  Numerous flashcard apps exist, but some focus only on transliteration — that is just learning letters, vowels and their sounds.   We also wanted to include words from common prayers.
We have over two hundred words (and the number will keep growing) from some of the most common prayers and songs that are often taught in Sunday school curriculum.   Things like the Shema, Henei-Mah-Tov, Osay-Shalom, the Four Questions, are all included.   Additionally, we threw in popular foods and animals as students always like them.  We have tried to include words that sound the same in English and Hebrew, as that helps students learn how to read and they get the fun of knowing the right answer without too much work.
Other apps do include words, but the teacher has to configure which words they want to include.  They have sort through thousands of options as all of these apps support the ability for anyone to make cards.    This is work that most teachers lack the time.  It’s a great approach if you have time to hunt for just the right cards.
 
SmartHebrewFlashcards is SMART for a couple of reasons.  One is that we know that you may not have the time to go hunt for the perfect set of flashcards and would rather just have a good set of cards built-in to the app.
When you work with flashcards on paper, you naturally put cards into two piles. The ones the student gets right and the ones they miss.   Then you work on the ones they miss.  The repetition on what the student doesn’t know is critical to learning.
Our cards keep track of how often you miss them, and how long you spent on a card.  The teacher can then use that knowledge to make a “category” or deck of cards to focus on and they can view “progress” to see how long students are taking on a card and which cards are being answered correctly.
For a virtual classroom, the teacher can run a zoom, share screen showing the app and then ask the students to take turns answering the flashcard.  This makes it so all students get to participate, they are learning from each other and they have fun as they can score points for all the cards that are answered correctly.
When learning in person, we supplement the app with Hanukah Gelt where we assure students if they practice with the app they will get more Hanukah Gelt –and if the score various numbers of points, the teacher can feel free to augment with more Hanukah Gelt.
 
We have tested the app on a class of 10 year olds all summer long and they have loved it and progressed quite well.
 
There are no ads.  There are no subscription fees.  We are not sharing your data.
 
We will not monetize this with those constraints.  At present, if you use the app with your class and like it, we’d appreciate a small donation.  Since we built it ourself we have no development costs.  It does cost money to host this website and ultimately we want to add some features that allow students to play each other, send teachers student progress, etc.  For now all the data lives on the students device so that reduces costs inherent in a multi-user app.
 
 
Hence, we do have this button that says “Make a donation!”, and these funds will go solely toward development of a multi-user version as well as responding to feedback.
 
Grossman Labs is a for-profit organization –we do not wish to mislead you about our organization, but this app is really being built as part of our strong commitment to Community Service.
 
We wish you all the best and hope you find this app useful.

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