TORONTO — Roslynne Greenberg is one of the first names many immigrants hear before they even arrive in Canada.

As manager of the JIAS Toronto’s LINC (language instruction for newcomers to Canada) program, Greenberg said she receives e-mails from people in such places as China, Philippines and South Korea asking her about the school.

“One morning, I was surprised to meet an Iranian student who came in looking for ‘Roslynne.’ He knew about the school and its reputation,” she said.

Last week, Greenberg, who started as a teacher when the program was a pilot project, helped celebrate LINC’s 20th anniversary at a reunion that attracted about 200 guests.

“The school has been a success from the beginning. When [the wave] of immigrants began coming from the former Soviet Union in 1989, we wanted to help them integrate in the community, so we developed a program to teach English and Judaica,” she said.

“Within a year, the pilot expanded to include three classes and we moved [to our current location at 15 Hove St.] within the year. We now have five locations – the newest is at 1520 Steeles Ave. W. – that offer full and part-time classes. There are 22 LINC classes, and 12 are in partnership with the Toronto District School Board.”

Some 41 toddlers are cared for in the school’s “child mind” while the parents are in class, she said.

“Their teachers know Hebrew, Russian or Spanish, so when the kids come in, they feel at home. They speak their first language, but they also learn English while they’re here.”

As a pilot project, the school was for Jewish students, but now it is funded through Citizenship and Immigration Canada, so it’s multicultural, Greenberg said.

Sherry Kaufman, a teacher there for nine years, noted that LINC is an immersion school. “We only speak English. Students come in at level ‘0’ and we speak to them with our hands and our bodies. We have continuous intake, so students start whenever they’re ready and finish when they’re finished.”

But it’s more than a place to learn English, Kaufman said.

“The students become friends, and they become part of the JIAS family. We bring in speakers, we go on [day] trips, and we help them network for jobs. We do what we can to help them integrate into Canadian society.”

Ilana Chor, who started at LINC after she arrived from Ukraine about three years ago, said that the school helped her psychologically and socially.

“I learned English, I made friends, and now I am licensed to work as an ultrasound technologist. I have reinvented myself,” said the mother of three.

Joanna Sasson Morrison, co-ordinator of community development services at JIAS, said the number of people who were interested in attending the reunion, “speaks of the impact of the school. We started out by talking to one person, who spoke to another, who spoke to another. Before we knew it, all these people were interested, and many wanted to help out with the reunion. I hear over and over again that JIAS helped them when they arrived, and now they want to give back.”