May 7, 2008
Following the success of a student volunteer trip to Kiryat Moshe to work with the Ethiopian community last year, Hillel of Greater Toronto is getting set to send more students to Israel this summer to volunteer with the growing Ethiopian community in Bat Yam.
Samahra Zatzman takes a moment to enjoy a treat with some of the children at Chetz Kadima in Kiryat Moshe last year.
The volunteers have been divided into two groups – one that leaves May 15, and the other that leaves June 29 – for a six-week program that includes accommodation, health insurance and a stipend that covers groceries and travel costs in Israel, as well as two Shabbatons, weekly group dinners, organized field trips, lessons and other extra-curricular programming.
Rebecca Woods Baum, Hillel of Greater Toronto’s Israel affairs director, organized the program with the Israel Volunteer Program Centre’s regional director, Michal Kaye, as well as the Jewish Agency and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.
She said the students will volunteer most of the day and will keep hours similar to that of a full-time job.
“In the morning, generally what the students will be doing is teaching English and helping with English homework with kids in grades 6 to 9, and in the afternoon, they will be running programs in the teen centre,” she said.
Although the site of the program has changed from Kiryat Moshe to Bat Yam, Woods Baum said the Jewish Agency was so pleased with the success of last year’s program that its given this year’s volunteers the option to work in Kiryat Moshe for a few days.
“The idea is to understand Israeli society. It’s a six-week trip and they are living on their own… They go grocery shopping by themselves, they take public transit within areas that are safe on their own. They have to work these things out on their own… It’s really about getting integrated with Israeli society and doing tzedec while you’re in Israel,” Woods Baum said.
Samahra Zatzman, 21, a fourth-year theatre major at York University, took part in last year’s program and said she loved the experience.
She was one of six participants who stayed in a house provided by Hillel in the Kfar Galil neighbourhood near Kiryat Moshe, where they volunteered.
While some of the volunteers chose to work in a community centre for high school kids, Zatzman worked next door to the centre with Chetz Kadima, an after-school program for underprivileged and at-risk youth aged eight to 14 in the community.
She said it was a place where kids could go to keep them off the streets.
“Some of the stuff we did was help kids with their homework, and then we got to create programs. I taught an English class twice a week. I did a girl’s class, where we did nail polish, beading, and sometimes we’d play sports.”
Having had experience volunteering with youth in Canada, Zatzman said she felt comfortable with the kids, but it took a couple weeks for the kids at Chetz Kadima to wrap their heads around the idea that someone wanted to spend her free time with them.
“Their first question was, ‘Why are you here?’ It took them a while to stop asking that… because the only experience they had with Canadian Jewish students were with people that came on Birthright, which is still a great thing, but they would come in for a day, play basketball and then go home. Their question was, ‘Why would you want to spend your vacation here helping us?’” Zatzman recalled.
But once they realized she would be there to help for the next few weeks, friendships began to develop.
“They want to challenge you. They make jokes, they make fun of your accent because you’re speaking Hebrew. I mean, I went to CHAT [the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto], but I didn’t know that chaver meant boyfriend and yadid meant friend,” she said, laughing.
Zatzman said the experience was both challenging and rewarding, and it taught her that she had a lot more tenacity and perseverance than she thought.
“I’ve always lived in Toronto, I go to school in Toronto, I live at home and this was about me going out and living on my own.”
She said they had free time to explore Israel and meet with family and friends to get a better idea of what it’s like to live like an Israeli.
“But it was about more than just having fun… I learned that when I apply myself and dedicate myself, there is such a wealth that can come out. You’re also gaining from it. Giving back isn’t always an altruistic thing. It it is also a wonderful personal thing,” she said.
“I saw the vitality and the energy of this community, from all the different kinds of people that were living there… everyone was invested in trying to build up the community and make it a wonderful place.”
She said that for those looking to experience Israel in a different way, this is an amazing opportunity.
“Birthright is wonderful and going on tours is wonderful, but this is above and beyond the tourist experience. If you really want to experience Israel and have a better understanding about life in Israel – the complexities, the joy, everything – then volunteering in Israel is the No. 1 thing I would recommend to anyone.”
The deadline to apply for the June 29 program is May 9. For more information, e-mail Woods Baum at rebecca@hilleltoronto.org. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .
CJN
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