Volume 8, Issue 6 / Iyar 5765 / June 2005

Israel By Choice

(pictured from l to r) Natalie Walters, volunteer from Southend, England, Keren Port, volunteer from Sydney, Yair and Shlomi live in Shlomi, and Jess Goulburn, volunteer from Sydney.

Before graduating from high school last year, Natalie Walters, 19, of Southend, England, didn't know much about the different gap-year Israel programs available to her, but she knew that going to Israel for a year was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She also knew that she had three goals for the year: "to become independent, make new friends, and help the country."

Thanks to a collaboration with the Jewish Agency, her one-year program, "Israel By Choice" (IBC) - whose participants are eligible for scholarships by the Agency's MASA fund - was able to place Walters in a volunteer position within an Israeli population already familiar with England's Jewish community.

Along with several of her peers, Walters taught English in Shlomi, a small, picturesque town near the Lebanese border which is part of England's Partnership 2000 sister region.

IBC, in its first year, serves 17 students from England, Australia, and South Africa. The program includes university study, touring, and a 6-week volunteer block. It is no coincidence that IBC organizers turned to Partnership 2000 to help place their participants for the volunteer component of the program. Administered in the Galilee jointly by the Jewish Agency and United Jewish Israel Appeal, Partnership 2000 has been so successful in Israel's "confrontation line," a northern section of the country paired with Great Britain, that "When kids from abroad walk into Shlomi, people say 'oh, are you from England?' because there is an expectation that they are from a community they are familiar with," said Rebecca Stern, the Jewish Agency's Director of New Partnership Ventures.

Teaching English in Shlomi.

"I love the people here," Walters said. "The work we do is very valuable. I volunteered in the high school, helping the younger kids with their English worksheets and helping the older kids practice their conversation skills. I like Shlomi. It's become home in the last 6 weeks. I don't want to leave."

During their stay in Shlomi, the British volunteers lived in regular apartments, cooked for themselves, were "adopted" by local families, and were invited for meals by the mayor of town. "We want them to be able to say more than just 'we volunteered in school,'" said Bat Ami Abas, Director of Volunteer programs in the Galil for the UJIA. "They developed relationships with the community. It's a family-oriented place."

For more information on Confrontation Line - Great Britain Partnership 2000, click here.

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