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    Volume 6 Issue 7 - July 2003

    • Making Sure that "Never Again" is Really "Never Again" "Some days it is hard to maintain sanity," says Rebecca Cutler of West Hartford, Connecticut. The 24-year old Vassar graduate has been working at Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies as part of a six-month Jewish Agency Internship program. "The horror of what happened defies ordinary comprehension," she says.

    • "Breaking Stereotypes" Nadav Shimon was used to thinking in terms of stereotypes - especially about new immigrants and kids from development towns. By volunteering at the Jewish Agency's Nitzana Youth Village, an educational campus in Israel's Negev region, 19 year old Nadav had the opportunity to meet new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, as well as Israeli high school students from all walks of life. "Getting to know them has shown me that my views were wrong," he said.

    • "Israel Is Our Family" "It's really important that we remember in the United States that Israel is our family. We have to stay connected. Whatever is going on here, this is our land. Every child in America should feel it. When you're here, you can't help but feel it."

    • "I Am The First Russian-Speaking Reform Woman Rabbi in Israel" "I got up at 4:30 AM every day for five years in order to juggle studies to be a rabbi, complete my MA degree in the History of the Jewish People and work," says Helena Rubinstein, the first Russian-speaking woman rabbi of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism and the Director of its Department for New Immigrants.


    Volume 6 Issue 6 - June 2003

    • "No Future for Their Children in Uruguay" Emilio Durlacher and his wife Patricia Liberman feel like fully-fledged Israelis even though they immigrated to the country only six months ago.

    • "We Could No Longer Tolerate the Anti-Semitism" Despite growing anti-Semitism in France, Natalie and Phillip Bessis still feel that assimilation is a much bigger threat to the country's Jewish community.

    • "Saving Lives is A Sacred Mission" After nearly 13 years in the country Leon Filanovsky literally knows the ropes. A resident of Kibbutz Ein Gedi by the Dead Sea, Leon, who was born in Belarus, is one of 35 volunteers who operate the Search and Rescue Unit for the Judean Desert and Dead Sea Region.

    • Svetlana Levy - A Modern-Day Ruth "The idea of converting so that I would be halachically Jewish starting taking root soon after I reached Israel," says Svetlana Levy, who for the past year has been learning at the Jewish Agency's Institute of Jewish Studies in Ramat Gan.



    Volume 6 Issue 2 - February 2003

    • Building a High-Tech Bridge Between Israel and World Jewry Judith Karpati was fascinated to discover the option of net-conferencing when she recently participated in the Jewish Agency's Jewish Community Online Conference in Jerusalem.

    • Brothers-in-Arms Arie Moller, 30, a computer network technician who hails from Hoboken, New Jersey, had been toying with the idea of finding a way to express his solidarity with Israel for some time.

    • Ruth and Nesto Boedinger It's not easy starting over when you're in your forties, packing up three teenage daughters, and moving halfway around the world.

    • Celebrating Tu B'Shvat Tu B'Shvat, the New Year for Trees, was marked this month by pupils at the Jewish Agency's Youth Aliyah residential villages with a Tu B'Shvat Seder and tree planting.


    Volume 5 Issue 6 - June 2002

    • Coming of Age Oren (not his real name), who lives and studies at the Ben Yakir residential youth village near Hadera, was one of 71 students from the Jewish Agency's Youth Aliyah Institutions, who celebrated their bar mitzvah this May in festive ceremonies.

    • Black Seder This Pesach was different from all other Pesachs for Menachem and Esther Bali.

    • Young New Immigrants Show Solidarity with Jerusalem With Jerusalem on the front line of terrorism in the present conflict, 1,600 young new immigrants showed their solidarity with the capital of Israel and the Jewish people on the eve of Jerusalem Day.


    Volume 4 Issue 12 - December 2001

    • Building a New Future After their family business collapsed, Daniel and Alva Litvak, a couple in their 30s from Buenos Aires, were forced to give up their home and move, together with their three children, into a single room lacking even a bathroom!

    • Partnership in Action An innovative program, initiated by the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County in Florida and facilitated by the Jewish Agency, is providing Ethiopian new immigrant children with invaluable educational enrichment.

    • Teaching Jewish Business Ethics to Israeli High School Students Hedva, a 12th grade student in Jerusalem's Gilo Comprehensive High School, never really thought about the ethical implications of taxes, until she was introduced to a program in business ethics while studying high school economics.


    Volume 4 Issue 11 - November 2001

    • Helping the Hearing Impaired Cope in Times of Terror Until the television exploded in their living room, the Levi family (not their real name) of Gilo had no idea that they were living in a war zone. While their neighbors scrambled to take cover at the first sound of gunfire, the Levis continued to sit in their living room, facing the Palestinian village of Beit Jala, oblivious to the danger.

    • Science Enrichment for Ethiopian-Israeli Teens "I've always wanted to be a professional soccer player," said 14 year old Ovadia Balai, "but I guess I'm going to have to compromise and be a high-tech executive."

    • Running on a Different Track When 108 young people, ages 13 to 19, have the discipline to be on the running track or in the gym at 6:00 AM in the morning, it shows a serious commitment. When they devote three more hours each afternoon for additional training, it says a great deal about their desire to excel in their sport, track and field, and the esteem they have for their coach, Arkady Sklar.


    Volume 4 Issue 10 - October 2001

    • New Immigrants March on Masada Vida Gutiminga, 28, made aliyah in April from Kharkhov, Ukraine with her husband Genady and her eight year old daughter Yana. They live at the Yafit Absorption Center in Arad in the Negev.

    • Managing Crises Dark-haired and attractive, 17-year-old Oksana Diatlov is not a discotheque devotee. "Some kids in my class were going every week," she says in soft Russian-accented Hebrew. "But that Friday evening, June 1, was only my second time. It could have been my last."

    • New Immigrants Celebrate The New Year The Jewish Agency celebrated Rosh Hashana with some 8,000 new immigrants housed in 37 absorption facilties throughout Israel. Many immigrants were invited to their families and friends for the holidays; hospitality at the homes of Israelis or veteran immigrants was extended to others.


    Volume 4 Issue 9 - September 2001

    • And Still They Came... Josh Sperling from Columbia, Maryland was in Israel for the first time this summer. He was one of 94 teenagers taking part in a five-week Mahane Habonim Israel (MBI) camp during July and August.

    • Volunteer Students Provide First-Aid in Israel "There can be no better way to see Israel," observed Anthony Herman, "than as a volunteer in an ambulance. You really get to see the country and how people live.

    • A Project Otzma Volunteer Tells It Like It Is! Not feeling ready to enter the job world when I graduated college, I was an easy sell when I heard about Project Otzma. This 10-month program is designed to improve Israel-Diaspora relations and build young Jewish leaders through an intensive program of volunteer work, educational seminars and personal interaction with Israelis.


    Volume 4 Issue 5 - May 2001

    • Anna's New Beginning in a More Caring Society "Leaving my mother was the most difficult part of coming to Israel," said Anna Petimko, a 17-year old from Kiev, who is currently enrolled in the Jewish Agency's SELAH program.

    • A Time for Making Dreams Come True "It sounds unusual," says Olga Vorobiev, 22, "but I always dreamed of Israel. My mother would tell me stories of her life in the Jewish home of her parents, but we did not observe.

    • A Different Kind of Rescue The speed with which the Jewish Agency facilitated 12 year-old Raphael Yoseph's immigration to Israel from India saved his life. Suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, he was in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant.


    Volume 3 Issue 10 - October 2000

    • Light Unto The Nations At home she is called Birinti, which in the Ethiopian dialect of Tigre means light. She is known by her Hebrew name, Ora, also meaning light.

    • Celebrating The New Year in Their Homeland Dima Arkatov is getting ready for his first Rosh Hashanah in Israel. The 28 year-old new immigrant from Moscow, Russia is one of 35 young newcomers on the Jewish Agency's Kibbutz Ulpan at Ma'aleh Ha'Hamisha near Jerusalem.

    • Learning About the High Holidays Esther Weinstein is the exception that proves the rule. Unlike most of the Russian-speaking new immigrants at the Jewish Agency's Bet Canada Absorption Center in Ashdod.


    Volume 3 Issue 8 - August 2000

    • Dancing To the Tune Of A New Life Sonya Nutov was born in Kishinev, Moldova, with a past of vicious pogroms that had almost destroyed the Jewish community.

    • Closing The Circle "It was very meaningful for me to be back in Ethiopia, just two years after making aliyah, and particularly as part of a medical delegation of the Jewish people," said Dr. Doron Fakadu.

    • "Kef" Means More Than Fun "I was born a Jew," explained 22 year-old Tina Frizner from Baltimore, Maryland. "But I had no formal Jewish education. Only here in Israel, where I have my roots, does it make any sense to me."