This paper presents findings from a qualitative study conducted in a large Reform Jewish Sunday school in the UK. It focuses on learners' experiences and perceptions of learning to read Hebrew in the school as well as in the other sites in which they were learning to read. These experiences and perceptions are neglected in other research accounts. The findings reveal important insights into learners' experiences, enjoyments, frustrations and expectations regarding both the purposes and the processes of learning to read in Hebrew and raise issues about learning and teaching. The findings contribute to wider debates about literacy and learning to read and address questions raised in the literature concerning what children do with, and make of, the language learning they experience in their community school settings.