I love how you and your family used it as an opportunity to develop relations as opposed to the opposite--and feeling distanced tends to happen in situations like this.

Coming from an Israeli family, I was born and raised in Florida and never needed to know Hebrew. My mom stopped talking to my brother in Hebrew around or right before I was born, so neither of us speak it (he was too young to remember it). It was always weird for me to enter a synagogue knowing that I'm just standing up and down in prayer without understanding a lick of the process. It was also weird whenever my extended family only talked in Hebrew--sometimes mentioning my name--and me not understanding any of it. I think this is common among many first generation families. Thanks for sharing!