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The New Jersey Department of Education has approved the application for a Hebrew-language charter school in East Brunswick, the first of its kind in New Jersey and only the third in the country.

In addition to general studies, the school will also include Hebrew language-immersion and instruction in Hebrew culture.

The approval allows the founders of the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School to move forward and develop the school, which will receive final review early next summer to determine if it will receive its charter, said Beth Auerswald, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Education.

The school plans to open in 2010 with 108 students in three grades, kindergarten through 3rd, and with the expectation that it will grow with each year until it reaches its full capacity, said Yair Nezaria, one of the school's eight founders. When the school reaches its full size, it will enroll approximately 370 students from kindergarten through 8th grade, according to Nezaria.

Charter schools in New Jersey receive 90 percent of the funding locally and through the state, though the exact amount depends on both the amount of students as well as needs of the students, with additional funding allocated for programs such as special education, according to Auerswald.

Nezaria said that the school's organizers were now "going into full force," to hire "the most qualified people for this job."

The founders are planning to put a board into place by spring, whose members, along with the eight founders, will be responsible for making the hiring decisions, said Michele Ann Wilson, also one of the school's founders.

The applications of eight charter schools were approved this year by the New Jersey Department of Education, while another 19 were rejected, including a Hebrew-language school in Englewood. The first Hebrew-English charter school in the nation opened in Hollywood, Fla. in 2007 to considerable controversy, as critics argued that it violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment by teaching religion in a public school, while its defenders noted that one can teach Hebrew as a secular language without promoting religion. Another similar school opened just last month in Brooklyn.

Nezaria and Wilson both stressed the importance of learning second-language education as the school's central aspect.

"The benefits of learning a second language from an early age is well documented," said Nezaria. "On a certain level there is a misconception -- people think Hebrew [is] a religious language."

Wilson said that her involvement with the school had less to do with the Hebrew-language component than its bilingual focus. She described the experience waiting for her daughter's school bus and being the only parent who spoke only one language, which she said is a "huge disadvantage" for her daughter considering the globalized nature of the world today.

"My personal involvement has to do with multilingual education," Wilson said, adding that she first became interested in bilingual schools when she lived in Washington, D.C. and witnessed the success of Spanish and Mandarin schools there.

Lucille Davy, the commissioner of the Department of Education, sent letters to each of the schools that applied, informing those accepted of their strengths and those that were rejected of their deficiencies so that they can improve their applications for next year, according to Auerswald.

The letter sent to Hatikvah noted the strengths of both the school's "implementation" and "financial" plans. For the former category, the commissioner acknowledged the school's satisfying the state's core curriculum standards, inclusion of the International Baccalaureate program, and extension of the school day and year. The letter also noted the school's effort "to promote tolerance, understanding, and appreciation of people from different backgrounds," according to Auerswald. In the latter category, the letter noted its adequate budget and fiscal plan.

According to state charter school regulations, students will be selected for admission to Hatikvah through a lottery, with preference given to East Brunswick residents. Wilson predicted that in the school's first year, all of the students would come from East Brunswick.

Nezaria said the Hebrew-language curriculum would "definitely not" appeal exclusively to Jewish families.

"It is a fantastic program which would really appeal to any kid. The school should not only appeal to one group of people," Nezaria said, citing the school's focus on bilingual education as well as its IB program.

"One of the untapped strengths of our community is our diversity, and that's what we're trying to promote," he said.