Closing the volunteer apartment

At the end of this month, July, 2010, TIPS will give up the apartment, the last of at least 2 apartments in Kiryat Malachi that it has rented for more than 8 years. My husband and I were the first in the previous apartment on Jabotinsky Street, and we are the last in this apartment near the end of Rashi Street, a two story, 3+ bedroom walk-up on the 3rd and 4th floors. In addition to volunteers from Tucson, Phoenix and Seattle who stayed from one to 4+ weeks, it also "hosted" young adults, mostly from our communities, in the OTZMA program, that stayed for 3 months, helping English teachers in the schools and also helping in after-school programs.   This happened for at least 5 years since 2003.  This year, for the first time 3 young men (from Washington State, Arizona, and New York) were in town for 8+ months through OTZMA  providing much needed English support in the high schools and in after-school programs. (They were also joined by three from the regular 3 month program, including one from Arizona, came also.)

The entrance to the volunteer apartment stairwell is just to the right of the blue pole.  Our green rental car is seen peeking out between 2 other cars on the right.

The people from the 3 US communities, Palm Springs, and also several of the communities of the Western Region Network, especially Orange County, greatly benefitted from their experiences in town and staying at the apartment. It gave all of us the opportunity to see Israel from a very different perspective. Once one has the opportunity to see below the surface, one can see how warm and personable the people in this town are. The Kocens from Palm Springs made lifelong friends here and are supporting a young Ethiopian-Israeli woman as she has succeeded in raising her skills and studying to be a physician. Adam Schwartz was here with his family in June for almost 2 weeks and said that his experience here gave all of them a totally different view of Israel, one he never got on previous visits, while staying in hotels. One Otzmanik from Seattle  (Mindy Goldberg) came back to Israel a while after her program, studied here, and is now working for Yedid in its Jerusalem office.  Ira knows of at least 3 others from OTZMA who have made aliya.   My husband and I too have been changed by our opportunities to stay in the apartments and volunteer in town. It has not necessarily been an easy place to volunteer but it has always been a heartwarming experience.

In both apartments, the next door neighbors were delightful. Aliza and Haim Elimelech plied the volunteers with food and especially with home-made challot on Fridays. Tami, the current neighbor across the hall who is a widow with grown children and young grandchildren, is very friendly and helpful. For example, she showed me where the fuse box was when our power went off (I had the dryer, hot pot and air conditioner going at once, and it was too much for the circuitry) and I lent her a lighter when her matches were wet and she couldn't start her gas burner.

Most of the furniture (beds, sofa, chairs, eating table, kitchen utensils) came from a donation warehouse and individuals like Dvora who donated a TV, but others were purchased, including a double-bed and chest of drawers, a refrigerator (after 2+ years of using very used ones), a washer and dryer, and an air conditioner. Many volunteers donated items, including a toaster, hot pot, microwave, pots, books, a DVD player, a wall clock, a CD/radio/casette player, and framed pictures to decorate the walls.

We are beginning to distribute the items. The newer air conditioner will go to the office in Kiryat Malachi of the director of the Young Adult program.

The office is on the second floor of the Naamat/Yedid building where volunteer programs in the city now are coordinated. This part of the building opened in the fall after Portland donated the funds to fix the outside stairs and to help renovate the 2nd floor, together with the city and the Tucson Federation.

The refrigerator will go to an apartment in the Weitzman neighborhood where soldiers live who work in the "Better Together" program.  Their fridge has just died.  (Big appliances here are much more expensive relatively here than in the US.)

The youth club in the small Matnas on Sun Diego Street (where the Ethiopian Israeli WEAP group used to meet) has gotten the DVD player, the CD/radio player, and some games,  the TV antenna, and will also get the clock and a very cute foot stool with red velvet on the top, donated by Ann Barnake of Portland. (She also donated the framed watercolors that adorn the walls.)

The microwave, which was donated by the Ellenhorn family of Seattle, is going to the volunteer center, and the refrigerator to the Beit HaRishonim where the Youth Council meets.

 The dryer and the washer (if the latter can still be fixed without extra cost) will go immediately to a family in need as will, most likely, the stove. And on the last working day of the month, movers will take the rest of the furniture, etc. to a storage area for the social services department to distribute.

Although we will no longer have a volunteer program in town,  whenever people from our US partnership region want to comefor half day  to see our projects and meet some local people, our representative Ira Keren would be happy to show them around.

4th Annual Partnership Memorial Art Contest

The results of our 4th annual art contest are in, and the top photos are on display at the Kiryat Malachi Library.  A calendar of the top 14 pictures is being made for Israel, and note cards for the 3 US federations of 8 of the pictures, 2 from each community, are in the works.

The contest has been in the memory of two people, one in the US and one in Israel.  Chuck Simpson, z"l, was the husband of Amy Wasser-Simpson, the staff person in Seattle who has been active in the partnership for many years.  Netanel Peretz was the son of Yossi (and Edit) Peretz, from Kiryat Malachi.  The Peretzs have opened their home to many people from the States in the spirit of partnership.

Here are some of the top pictures for you to enjoy!

The above picture took first place in Israel.  It was drawn by a 6th grade student form Har-El school in Kiryat Malachi.  He wrote the word "Shutfut" ("partnership" in Hebrew) and inside each letter drew pictures of people in costume from different parts of the world.

This picture was drawn by Ashlyn, a 5th grader at Pardes Jewish Day School in Phoenix.

This picture, by Joss, a 5th grader in Jess Schwartz school in Phoenix.,shows the 3 US communities and Israel together. The airplane banner says, "No matter where you are in the world, we are all partners."

                                      

This picture is by Leah, a 6th grader at the Seattle Hebrew Academy

This picture is by a Nitzan student from Hof Ashkelon

The flying birds are in the form of a magen david and the hills are filled with quotes in Hebrew.

This picture is byNatalie, a 6th grader at the Tucson Hebrew Academy.

"Love your neighbor as yourself.  That is the main message of the Torah.

The picture was drawn by Shahar at Netzach Yisrael in Kiryat Malachi.

"Hand and hand together all the way on the path"

Shani from Hofim in Hof Ashkelon drew this picture.

Seattle picture connecting Seattle and Israel as partners

Drawn by Izzy, a 5th grader at the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle

Katrin, a 6th grader from Har El  (in Kiryat Malachi) drew this picture, where children and adults work together in partnership to build a garden.

Zevi, a 2nd grader from Tucson,  drew this  Picasso-esque picture.  At  the bottom, you can see he wrote "Am Yisrael Chai" in Hebrew.

This picture was drawn by Hannah,  a 4th grader at the East Valley Jewish Day School

The above picture is by Hannah, a 4th grader at Temple Beth Am, Seattle

"Partnership makes the world a nicer place."

by Noi in Kohav Michael, Hof Ashkelon

"Your friends can raise you up."

By Ariel, a 6th grader in Hofim School, Hof Ashkelon

Remembering Esther--Kiryat Malachi Senior Adult Day Center

I stopped by the Kiryat Malachi Adult Day Center last week to say "hello" and drop off some donated yarn to the Ethiopian seniors that meet there 3 tims a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  The group is run by a woman named Sara, who is the wife of the Jerusalem-ordained Ethiopian-born rabbi.  When I arrived, she was giving the woman a lesson on the blessing for making Hallah, and teaching them how to make it.  They welcomed me warmly.  Here are some of the pictures I took on my brief visit:

Rabbanit Sara explaining the blessing over Challah

Some pottery the group had made--traditional from Ethiopian and models of Challah and rugelach!

A woman showing me her embroidery

I then met the new director of the center.  Yehuda has been on the job for just 4 months.  He is originally from the States, having made aliyah many years ago.

I mentioned to the social worker how sad it was to no longer see Ester's smiling face greetinng us.  Ester had volunteered in the center for many years.  She was originally from Morocco and had worked with English-speaking soldiers stationed there during World War II.  Whenever she saw volunteers from the US, she greated them warmly and told them her history.  She had married but never had any children, so the center was her family.  This past winter she got sick.  The local community helped her a lot.  In late winter or early spring, she passed away. 

In memory of Ester and her welcoming spirit, staff members of the center contributed money and time to make the back patio a garden in her memory.  The building caretaker (av habayit) coordinated the effort.  Here are pictures I took of the "Ester Garden."

 

On one side of the garden on an inside window is a mosaic made by one of the men in the crafts class.  It says, "Bruchim Habaim," or "Welcome,"  something Ester always said too.

Here is what the garden looks like, standing in the center of the walkway between the 2 buildings.  The area is cover by a study blue material to make it safer to walk in winter.  On the wall on the left is a poem in Esther's honor.

Ester in costume in her earlier days.

As you pass to the next building, this is another part of the garden on the right.  The circular sign on the wall says "Ester's Garden.:

A more recent photo, the way most of us remember Ester, Zichrona Uvracha.

Volunteering in Kiryat Malachi, July 2010--week one

Hello,
My husband Howard Cockerham and I are in Israel for the month of July and much of the time we will be based in Kiryat Malachi, volunteering and making Partnership connections.  (I speak street Hebrew fluently.  Howard can read some, but his oral Hebrew skills are very low.)  Today, Thursday, July 8th, marks a full week that we have been in Israel and both of us have fully adjusted.We’ve kept busy since we arrived in Kiryat Malachi on Sunday, after a lovely restful Shabbat with friends in Kibbutz Shuval.

We are the last to use the volunteer apartment as TIPS will no longer continue to have it after July 31st.  The apartment is located a short block from the shuk (open market) and across the street from one of 4 major supermarkets in the area.  We’ve been to two supermarkets and to the shuk. The shuk  is open on Mondays and Thursdays, and on Thursday (today), it is mainly a food market—fruits, vegetables, and nuts. I came home today with my arms loaded with a watermelon, an Israeli melon (not as orange as a cantaloupe), a ½ kilo of fresh figs, tiny pears and small peaches, etc. and I went back later  for fresh almonds in their original (green) casing , some fresh lychee, and cactus fruit (sabras).  You can see a picture of the almonds below.  They taste different than dried ones do, more like almond flavoring drops, though not as intense.

Howard has been busy this week and has gotten involved in 3 different places.  His low Hebrew skills have not kept him from interacting.

First of all on Sunday we together when to a program called Tzeva. It is an enrichment and homework after-school program during the school year to help some lower income children. It is part of a special program in town called "Better Together."  Several national service young women volunteer there during the year. (They are Orthodox teens, recent high school graduates, who do this service instead of the army.) 2 days a week third and fourth graders attend, and another 2 days 5th and 6th graders attend. This summer, they have a three-week program for about 20 children, but just 2 days a week, Sunday and Monday. The coordinator, Merav, is great. She works very well with the children. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have enough volunteers to run it more days.

On Sunday, when we first went, there were 3 young women from national service came, plus another woman named Hadar who I later found out was Dvora’s daughter-in-law. (Dvora is the KM staff rep for our partnership.)  She first got involved with Tzeva through a college community service class she took at Achva college, a program that our TIPS partnership once sponsored. She liked Tzeva so much that she continues to volunteer some. The next day, however, Howard was the only volunteer.

One ten-year-old boy named Ben latched on to Howard right away. Ben’s mother is French, and Ben speaks French and some English with her too, so he was excited to talk English with Howard, and his English was good extremely good for someone his age.

The next day, a petite Ethiopian girl, also the same age, came just because she knew Howard was there. Her English was good too—mainly from watching TV programs in English.

Howard painted with Q-tips with the kids while I did word searches in Hebrew on the topic of summer with others. Later, during large group activities, we learned the game “Yahm-Yavesha.” It is like a very simple Simon Says. There is a line in the room. One side is “yahm” (ocean) and the other is “yavesha” –dry land. When the leader shouts one of the words, each participant has to jump to the correct side.

We then played a bit of non-competitive volleyball as well as other games. One boy, David, was acting out destructively so he was sent to another alcove. Howard went over to him and calmed him down with a bit of attention—they compared watches.

Howard also played hopscotch with a group outside during recess.

Tzeva has 3 basic golden rules. They are not to be abusive, be respectful, and arrive on time.

Howard also helped an 11th grade girl named Sara prepare for the top level (5 pt) repeat Bagrut exam in English (like the SAT subject exams). She is in the alternative school program (Beit Novea)—less formal than in the US.  Shalom Eldar, a member of our steering committee from Kiryat Malachi, is the director of the south of Israel for programs such as these.  Sara's Ethiopian and has learned a lot of English from TV too. Last year, when she started at Beit Novea, they didn’t know what Bagrut test for her to try. She took the 3 point exam and scored 100%.  She’s quite sharp so I’m glad that she found her way back to a school program.

Atidim is a special program program to help disadvantaged youth prepare to become army officers. It starts with  7th graders and teaches them many good life skills. The director for the local program in town wanted to run an English class for outgoing 7th graders, and because Howard was here, she could start it. Yesterday (Wednesday) was the first day. Howard had about 7 or 8 girls and one boy. The girls in skirts were from the religious public secondary school AMIT, and the others were from AMAL, the non-religious public school. Howard really is a born teacher, and it showed here from what he told me. (Howard just finished his 10th year of teaching middle school science.  He is an introvert but not when he teaches!)  He got the kids to talk a bit about their interests. He found out that they liked romantic movies. So he told them about the most romantic movie he has ever seen, “Casablanca.” He told them the story, briefly, but did not tell him which of the 2 men that the main star chose. (The teacher may get the movie so that he can show it to them and use it as a teaching tool.)

Howard also found out that they wanted to do vocabulary work, so they reviewed everything they could see in the room. New words that he taught included “elbow.” Then in the afternoon, we went to the town library and took out 4 picture dictionaries that he could use with vocabulary by topic. I am so well known at the town library as I have helped them with the English books a Seattlite has sent them over the years that they let us take the books, though the usual limit is just 2 books at a time.

Howard said that some liked to talk and others liked to listen, and he was happy to let them do either. They don’t want to do “activity book” work, and neither does he!  Below is a picture I took of Howard and his girls today.

Last night Howard downloaded a bunch of pictures to his new IPad to take to class today, and the girls enjoyed seeing them. Three new people showed up today but the one boy was missing. It says a lot if so many show up the second day….during summer vacation to a non-required class. He will continue next week from 10 a.m. to noon, but with 2 smaller groups, the AMIT group first and then the AMAL group. The AMIT girls want to practice writing, and came prepared today with notebooks and pencils. I’ll be happy to help him with writing starting on Sunday. 

Last Monday, we went over to the new open mall just across the highway from town (about 4 blocks from us). In the side area of the parking lot, adjacent to MacDonalds and Cafe Joe, there was Israeli dancing in the parking lot.

If you look closely, you can see Ira's bck on the left side of the picture above.  Ira stayed for several hours, and I also ran into Esti, the science center administrative assistant.

 Esti invited us to go with her on Wednesday to participate in the walk with Gilad Shalit’s family to Jerusalem. It started at their home in the Galil (Galilee) and by Wed. would be at Latrun. I knew I had to work with Ira on the TIPS calendar, and also was concerned about being outside in the heat of the day. Today, she told me it was a fantastic experience. They waited for 2 hours in the open sun, but then walked with the family for an hour. If you haven’t heard of the walk, it is major news here, taking over a week total. The idea is to get enough attention to at least improve the conditions for Shalit and for some communication to exist and health visits.  The walkers arrived in Jerusalem tonight and 25,000 were there to greet them.  Over the course of the 12-day walk, over 110,000 joined the Shalit family as they walked to Jerusalem.

Life for Israelis goes on at a super-busy pace.  We have seen some friends from the past and are working to see others.   Tonight we are going to a house warming of an English teacher from Etzion School in Kiryat Malachi.  She and her family have just moved to a rental in Moshav Shafir.
 
I ran into Klara at the shuk.  She is the Bukharan from the Ethnic flavors group that came to the 3 US communities last fall.  Her mother has a booth in the shuk.  Klara looks great and is now working in her profession, doing pedicures.


BTW, It is a slow news week in Israel as it is vacation time.  What there has been this week has focused on:
1)  World Cup Soccer
2)  The march in support of Gilad Shalit
3)  The visit of Netanyahu to the US
4)  A bill in the Knesset to raise the minimum wage
5)  Hit and run traffic accidents, of which there have been more than 250 this year that caused deaths or serious injury.  Two caused deaths this week.  In one, the driver was caught.  He was 19 years old and high on drugs (something that has not been so common in the past).  He and a girl friend were returning from a night of fun at 6 a.m. when they hit a 60+-year-old man who was heading to work.  the driver was caught on photographed on TV. in chains

All the best,
Dina Tanners, Co-chair, TIPS partnership

Jacob Schwartz's Bar Mitzvah at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai

Jacob Schwartz, the son of the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Phoenix, celebrated his bar mitzvah in Israel at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai on June 7th.  Jacob has had a lot of person connections to people from the TIPS region as many have come to visit Phoenix.  So his family decided to have his bar mitzvah in the region and not at the Kotel, as many others have done.

 Adam stated in his blog, "One of Jacob’s many connections with Israel came as a result of meeting several of these women  (of Ethnic Flavors/Taamei Ami) during their visit to Phoenix last October. This became one of many elements to help link our son, his becoming a bar mitzvah and Israel." 

At the end of the Bar Mitzvah day, Adam writess:    "... when I asked Jacob what the highlight was for him, he commented 'All of it' adding 'How many people get to celebrate their becoming a bar mitzvah, watch how honey is made, see cows milked, a battlefield and climb on tanks all in the same day?' Seems like the desired connections have been made."

To read about the fantastic experience, please go to Adam's blog at :  http://www.jewishphoenix.org/blog_post.aspx?id=2031

If any reader would like to try to arrange a bar or bat mitzvah in our region, let your local TIPS federation representative know.

Tzuza Art City Dancers of Kiryat Malachi visit Phoenix, April, 2010

Sixteen top dancers from the group Tzuza of the Art City dance group in Kiryat Malachi traveled to the US TIPS Partnership communities the end of April and early May to perform in Tucson, Phoenix and Seattle and to interact with members of the local Jewish community.

In Phoenix, the group did a presentation at the JFCS Senior Center.

They also talked and did a workshop at the BJE Hebrew High School.

The students at the Jess Schwartz Jewish Day School enjoyed the workshop and the presentation by the group.

They also danced at the Pardes Jewish Day School.

For part of a day they traveled to Sedona with Jess Schwartz 10th graders.

On April 25th, they were a main attraction at the community Yom Ha'atzmaut Celebration.

Because some of the greater Phoenix Jewish schools, the JCC and the Federation are all on one campus, the dancers had a chance to interact with the high school students almost daily. As a result, they got to know each other well, and on the 11th grade trip to May in a few weeks, it was decided that they would meet again in Israel where they would be hosted by the dancers in the Kiryat Malachi area. After Phoenix, the dancers went to Tucson, where they also performed on the 25th at a huge community-wide Yom Haatzmaut celebration with over 500 in attendance. Some of the Phoenix Jewish youth missed the Israelis so much that they drove up one afternoon to visit. We could really see the people to people connection these youth had made!

See the article: http://www.jewishinseattle.org/news-events/news/tzuza-dancers-take-steps-build-israel-seattle-connection