Kinamon+R

toc =Rationale = For the first chapter of my project, in which we had to research an Israeli organization that helps humanity worldwide, I focused on program called Shavei Israel. I chose to research Shavei Israel because the man who founded the organization is one of my uncle's close friends and therefore the name of the program sounded familiar to me and I was very interested in learning more about it. For the second part of my project, when assigned to interview a person who contributes to the Israeli society, I almost immediately thought of my neighbor, Keren Gluch, who founded a school for girls with special needs. Although I already knew what she currently does, I was curious to learn how she became the woman she is today, and hoped that writing a profile about her would answer my questions. For my creative connection, I collected different pictures of my family and made them into a mosaic of the map of our country. I chose to do this in order to show, in a unique way, that my connection to Israel is through my family. = Research Article =

In Italy, almost one hundred years ago, at the end of the First World War, a badly wounded soldier named Donato Manduzio found himself confined to his bed and decided to take advantage of his time by learning how to read. Advancing quickly in his studies, Donato devoured novels and different works of literature before turning to the Bible. During his reading he discovered Judaism, although at the time he thought that no Jews were left in the world. He began practicing this newly discovered religion and more and more of his neighbors joined him in his spiritual quest. Eventually, the community numbered 80 people. Towards the end of the Second World War, after Allied forces had invaded Italy, members of the Jewish Brigade passed through his village, and that was the first time Donato and his followers met real, live Jews. They warmly embraced the soldiers and begged for them to take them to the Promised Land. In 1946, most of Donato's community succeeded in converting to Judaism, and the vast majority of them made aliyah in 1949. These Jews, known as the Jews of San Nicandro, are just one example of the many Jews who live in different countries around the globe and continue practicing their religion despite the many challenges. Jews all over the world wish to one day return  to their land and reunite with their Jewish heritage. The non-profit organization Shavei Israel opens the door to all who have decided to return to Judaism and to the Jewish people. This unique organization, which is the only Jewish program today that is actively reaching out to "lost Jews" in an effort to facilitate their return to Israel, connects with Jews in the four corners of the earth. From Poland to Peru, and Barcelona to Brazil, Shavei Israel's goal is to help descendants of Jews reconnect with the people and state of Israel. Shavei Israel was founded ten years ago by Michael Freund. While serving as the Deputy Communications Director under Binyamin Netanyahu in 1997, Mr. Freund opened an envelope that arrived one day in the mail. The letter was from a group in northeastern India called the Bnei Menashe, claiming they were the descendents of the tribe of Menashe, and were pleading to return to the Promised Land. Their letter sent Freund on a mission to learn all he could about these Lost Tribes of Israel, and in the process he soon discovered that all across the world there are lost Jews, who dream of returning to their Jewish roots.

The Bnei Menashe, who were banished by the Assyrian Empire more that 27 centuries ago, wandered through Central Asia and the Far East for many years before settling in what is now northeastern India. The Bnei Menashe continued to Judaism in exile, and never gave up on their dream of one day returning to the land of their ancestors. Shavei Israel has brought about 1,700 Bnei Menashe back to Israel over the past few years. More than 7,000 Bnei Menashe are still in India and are waiting for their dreams to come true as well, hoping to return to Israel and to the Jewish people. Shavei Israel is active in over nine different countries, including Spain, Portugal, South America, India, Poland, Russia, China, Peru and Italy. The organization attempts to offer a helping hand to all members of our extended and scattered Jewish family and to all who wish to rediscover or renew their link with the people of Israel. Whether as a desire to recover a lost heritage, or a need to understand various inherited customs or family traditions, Shavei Israel supports guides and provides assistance for the personal journeys of all Jews who wish to reconnect. Our numbers are shrinking, and the Jewish people are currently facing a spiritual and demographic crisis, and yet, at the same time an extraordinary awakening is taking place. From across the entire world, countless numbers of people are trying to make sense of their Jewish ancestry and are dealing with serious questions of history. This presents the Jewish people with a tremendous opportunity, to extend a helping hand to all those who wish to return. Shavei Israel believes that the Jewish People are a family with links that never vanish compl etely, and their organization works to strengthen the links wherever they have been weakened. = Profile with Keren Gluch = Mrs. Gluch has been involved with special education ever since she was a teenager, when she volunteered with her best friend's little sister. Over the years, as she enjoyed working and volunteering in different special education camps and, she came to realize that she wanted her career to be in that field. As an adult, she and a friend founded a post high school seminary for girls with special needs. This is Keren's journey to making her dream come true. Keren Gluch was born in 1976 in New York. Her mother, who grew up in Israel, and her father who is Jamaican met in New York after moving there in their twenties. Keren has two older brothers who still live in America and a younger sister who lives in Israel. Her parents divorced when she was a child and she is still very close with her mother. As a child she attended an all-girls school close to home, was a camper at Bnei Akiva as well as a counselor when she was older. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Due to the fact that her mother grew up in the Old City of Jerusalem before 1948, Keren's childhood was filled with her mother's stories about the different wars her uncle had fought in; the War of Independence, the Yom Kippur War and the Six Day War. "She really lived through everything that you learn in history class," says Keren, remembering the reason why she always felt so connected to Israel. Keren always wanted to make Aliyah but never honestly believed she really would someday. Although Keren did not go to Israel on her seminary year, her younger sister did go and loved it so much that she wanted to stay. Her parents allowed her to stay only after she finished college, and that is exactly what she did. Her sister came back to Israel the next year and she was the main inspiration for Keren's Aliyah. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Before her current job, Keren worked in many different positions but they have all been in the field of special education since way back in high school. When she was a teenager, her best friend had a younger sister, named Tikva, with Down's Syndrome. Together with her best friend, Keren volunteered in a program where Tikva learned. After that she worked in a number of other programs with special needs children and teens such as Otzar and Camp HASC. While in college, Keren volunteered as a counselor in Yachad which is a branch of NCSY for Jewish children with special needs. After university, while completing her Master's degree, she taught an autistic class for three years in a public school and worked for another three years in Machon Feuerstein in Israel. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Keren is married to Hillel, a South African podiatrist. They have five children, the oldest child, Bracha, is in 4th grade. When Bracha was two years old she became very ill. Happily, today she is perfectly healthy, and a great help to Keren. Next is Zechariya, the only boy, who is in 3rd grade. Tamar Tchiya is five and loves to help make salad. Hadassa is three and a half. She is in gan this year and is already looking forward to school. Her youngest child, Batya, is almost one, and learning to walk. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Today, Keren works in a program named Midreshet Darkeinu which she founded together with a friend. Midreshet Darkeinu is a post high school seminary for girls with special needs. Students from all over the world with either severe learning disabilities or mild mental retardation come to the school for a year in Jerusalem to learn practical life skills and Judaic studies. The inspiration for the program was Tikva, the same sister of her best friend with whom she is still in close touch today. Keren describes Tikva as "one of the highest functioning people with Down's Syndrome that I have ever met." Tikva comes from a family of intellectuals who treated her normally and included her in all discussions. When Tikva's older siblings came to Israel for the year, she wanted to have that same experience. Keren had a friend named Elana who came up with the idea of creating a program for special needs teenagers to allow them to have the post high school Israel experience. Elana and Keren both had many years of professional experience working in the special education field and decided to open up a new program to meet that need. Initially, Elana's idea was to bring two or three special needs students to Israel and mainstream them in regular education classes but then they realized that what was really needed was a stand-alone program for these girls. One year later, after a tremendous amount of planning and preparing, Elana and Keren opened the doors to their new school. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">During the first year, they had eight students enrolled in their program. Elana and Keren worked together very closely and were on the phone 24/7. They had Sheirut Leumi girls, counselors, parents and students who contacted them for advice and information all day long. The students' parents' were very nervous having their special needs children living across the ocean without them there beside them for the first time in their lives. Keren says, "The first year was very intense. It was a wonderful year."today. Keren describes Tikva as "one of the highest functioning people with Down's Syndrome that I have ever met." Tikva comes from a family of intellectuals who treated her normally and included her in all discussions. When Tikva's older siblings came to Israel for the year, she wanted to have that same experience. Keren had a friend named Elana who came up with the idea of creating a program for special needs teenagers to allow them to have the post high school Israel experience. Elana and Keren both had many years of professional experience working in the special education field and decided to open up a new program to meet that need. Initially, Elana's idea was to bring two or three special needs students to Israel and mainstream them in regular education classes but then they realized that what was really needed was a stand-alone program for these girls. One year later, after a tremendous amount of planning and preparing, Elana and Keren opened the doors to theirnew school. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"> At the beginning of the second year of the program, Keren's oldest daughter, Bracha, was diagnosed with leukemia. Keren quit her job immediately to help her daughter, who was only two years old at the time, through her painful medical treatments. That same year, Keren's and Elana's good friend Liz made Aliyah and she took over Keren's position at Darkeinu. Keren had planned much of that year in advance but Liz filled her place as Keren could barely work during that year of Bracha's illness. Once Bracha was in remission, Keren went back to work inthe program's third year, but she went from a full time to a part time position. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Today, for the program, Keren has both administrative and teaching responsibilities. She teaches a few Judaic courses and plans some of the programs which she enjoys. She also has to do, "some of the technical stuff. That's the not fun stuff that needs to get done like salaries and dealing with tuition." <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Part of Keren's job is interacting with the students themselves on a personal level. She has a special Darkeinu phone and the girls contact her for different dilemmas. "Each of the girls has their own needs. They are maturity wise between 8 to 14 years old emotionally. It varies. There are always issues to deal with... I do a lot of programming and social activities because they can't sit in class all day. After they finish [our program] they are going to find jobs so we do a lot of job training." For the first years, Keren helped place them in volunteer positions and now Liz does that task. The girls' schedule is the same every day: they take a Torah class in the morning, work as volunteers for a few hours, then come back and eat lunch and have their afternoon classes, that can be anything from Jewish subjects to social skills and cooking. Keren led a vocational class for a few years, where she taught the girls about being on time, how to get along with co-workers and how to budget. These basic topics were very important to teach to the girls. For the last three years Keren has been teaching about men and women in the Tanach. "This year we are doing men in Tanach. Tomorrow I am teaching Avraham and the 10 tests." <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What Keren loves most about her job is simply 'hanging out' with the girls, spending time with them, talking about their different concerns. She does not always have time for this, but when she does, it is great. She enjoys just sitting and 'schmoozing' as well as having them for Shabbat. On the other hand, Keren dislikes doing the technical work that needs to get done and becomes tedious. She says that those kinds of jobs are annoying because that is not the reason she works for Darkeinu. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">There are many memorable students who have made an impact on Keren over the years. "Tikva is our star… you always need a Tikva around. She could give you amazing mussar speeches," she recalls of her first student who stayed at Darkeinu for three years. Because Keren has known her since she was only three, she has a very special relationship with her. She feels that she had a special relationship with all the students from the first year. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Another girl, Amanda, also stayed for a couple of years. Amanda was a girl with special needs who came from a secular family and became religious all on her own. "She's really amazing and sweet. My kids love her", says Keren. There have been many loveable girls over the years and each had her own challenges. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Gitty, a new girl who arrived this year has cerebral palsy, which is an illness that can cause physical as well as mental damage. At first they thought Gitty would never be able to walk, but she has a tremendous amount of motivation and drive to do everything like everyone else. It is also very hard for her to talk, even to get one word out. This was an unusual case that they never had before, so they hired extra staff in order to help her. "I think she's amazing, I'm inspired by her. It is so hard for her to even move one object … it is amazing that we don’t even think about these things. My students are always inspiring me. The hardships they go through that we take for granted and the struggles that they have which are so different from ours" really make her appreciate her blessings. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Another person who inspires Keren is Elana, her coworker. "This is not the first program she has created. She has her dream and then she makes it happen. She has energy from here until tomorrow." The counselors in her program also work tirelessly and are great at their job. She also really appreciates many members of her community, including the Rav, in addition to people who volunteer their time and energy to make Neve Daniel a great place to live. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">When I mention to her that she herself is inspiring to me, she gives most of the credit to Elana and remains modest about her achievements. When asked to describe herself she says, "I like to talk a lot. I used to be shy but I guess you wouldn't describe me as that now." <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Now that Keren has five children, she wonders when she will be able to go back to working full time. She loves her job and hopes to stay there for many years. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Besides her job, Keren is involved in different projects in the yishuv. She has been on the Culture Committee of the yishuv which organizes educational, religious and fun events for the adults in Neve Daniel. She is also an active member in the Helping Hand committee which organizes home cooked meals for families that have a new baby or a sick family member. There are also a few projects that she says she is heavily involved in but she is not free to talk about since it is confidential. Keren claims that these kinds of projects are "not a big deal" to be involved in and mainly require making a lot of phone calls. <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">When looking back at her career and considering what advice she would give to teenagers who have their whole future ahead of them she says, "I think that you should try to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Always try to take other people's considerations and feelings into account. Sometimes people don’t know what to do in terms of chesed, but even doing something little will count for something. Always try to do something good for someone else." <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">And with that Keren answers the phone to help another student. =<span style="color: #92cf63; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Personal Connection =

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;"> For my creative connection, I collected hundreds of different pictures of my family during different occasions throughout my whole life. The many pictures put together form a mosaic of the map of Israel, which demonstrate that my connection to Israel is through my family. When we lived in Virginia, for the first eight years of my life, the closest family we had was my maternal grandparents who were a nine hour drive away. All of our other relatives on both sides of the family lived in Israel. This meant that when we grew up in America, we had almost no connection with my other grandparents or any of my aunts and uncles or many cousins. Since we moved to Israel seven years ago, all that changed. We have close relationships with all our cousins and were lucky enough to be here for the birth of five more cousins since we arrived! Now, all year long our schedule is full of family get togethers and celebrations. Weekly family dinners at my grandparents in Jerusalem, visiting aunts and uncles that live just ten minutes away, spending Shabbat with my grandmother, going on yearly family vacations, hosting the annual family Seder Pesach, having sleepovers with cousins and spending the next day together, are all experiences that make living in Israel the most special place in the world. So many of my most memorable moments in Israel since the day we made Aliyah involve my grandparents and cousins, that it's clear living in Israel would be completely different without them. Being so geographically close and having such a special connection with my family makes every holiday more joyful, every vacation more enjoyable and every day brighter. To me, having such a close relationship with my whole family is what makes living in Israel as wonderful as it is.

=<span style="color: #eabc3e; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Reflection =

<span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Looking back on the work I put into this project, it's hard for me to choose one part I enjoyed the most: the journalist style interview, the organizational research or the photographic mosaic. While researching my organization, I realized that I wasn't only learning about the program itself, but about Jews all over the world and their different lifestyles. I loved reading about all the "lost Jews" around the world and really felt a connection to every one after reading each unique story. Writing my report about the program proved to me that research isn't necessarily dry and boring, but can be full of interesting facts you never would have otherwise discovered. I enjoyed interviewing Mrs. Gluch very much, because uncovering her life story was much more personal than researching facts using the internet or other sources. Mrs. Gluch taught me that anyone can do chesed, and that even a small chesed can make a big impact. She showed me the true definition of a person who contributes to society. While looking through albums and fussing over which pictures to include in my mosaic and which to skip, it was so fun to remember all the great times we had together as a family. It was amazing to see the finished version of all the pictures forming a mosaic of Israel, and I enjoyed showing it to my grandparents and friends. = <span style="color: #c156d7; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Bibliography   =

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__Shavei Israel__, 2011, 28/12/11 < [] >. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Date of interview: Tuesday, November 22nd, at Mrs. Gluch's house.