This Article was circulated in the latest edition of The Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh’s newsletter ‘The Insider.’
Classrooms Without Borders is a program of the Holocaust Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The three-year-old Pittsburgh nonprofit offers travel-based programs to help teachers enhance their teaching of the Jewish experience and to help students connect with the Jewish experience.
None of the travelers on the March trip to Israel was Jewish. The young people, of different backgrounds, were students from The Ellis School and Sewickley Academy, two private schools in the Pittsburgh area. The teens’ primary reason for going to Israel was to serve the kids at Children’s Village.
Children’s Village, in Israel’s northern Galilee region, is home to some 275 youth, ages 5–15, from distressed families across Israel. The youth live in family units called mishpachton, each headed by a married couple. School and other activities at the village are designed to help residents overcome the rough start they have had in life.
Long before the March CWB trip, the CWB kids had been working to raise money for Children’s Village.
Alexandra had organized a dance event that raised $680. Rachel had asked family members to contribute to her Children’s Village fund rather than give her holiday gifts she had decided she didn’t need. The CWB kids had held bake sales and other fundraisers. They had helped with a clothing drive.
But money and clothing were not the only gifts the Americans could provide. To the residents of the village, the American teens gave love, attention, and a new perspective. They did this by playing soccer and tag with the village kids. The travelers helped the little ones with baths and bedtime. Americans and Israelis found ways to cross the English–Hebrew divide. They watched movies and hung out. They learned about each other.
In such learning, says Zipora “Tsipy” Gur, PhD — CWB’s executive director — are the seeds of maturity. The Children’s Village trip, says Dr. Gur, “takes kids from their bubble. It shows them a different world and helps them appreciate their lives. American society can be all about ‘me-me-me.’ This trip can help change the entitlement mentality.”
Rachel’s and Alexandra’s comments suggest that the two young women agree with Dr. Gur.
Rachel says that, for her, the trip “totally redefined adversity.” In learning about the challenges the Israeli kids had faced, she says she saw “more struggle than I’d ever had in my life.”
Alexandra says, “I’m more aware.” One of the things she is more aware of is the maturity that life in community demands. “I was impressed at how well all the kids in my misheachton got along,” she remembers. “They have to make it work, and they do.”
Rachel has already noticed ways that her village experience has changed how she acts. “On the plane ride home,” she remembers, “I was sitting for 14 hours in the middle seat, between two strangers. Before Israel, this would have been a big deal. … Now I’m not so worried about things like a long plane ride or [who in the house] gets to take the first shower.” Now, Rachel observes, “I share clothes with my sister.” Rachel says her trip helped her put her worries about school, performance, and future into perspective. “I’m better at being in the moment,” she observes.
Alexandra has noticed how the trip has widened her thinking. “Being Lebanese, I had a biased opinion about Israel. Now I can see both sides. Now I see better how every story has two sides.”
Rachel and Alexandra say the trip has changed the way each views herself. Rachel says, “Now I feel so blessed.” Alexandra says that “the trip reinforced how much I love working with children.”
To Dr. Gur, positive changes and insights come as no surprise. She says that many teens, after seeing the service trip’s benefits to themselves and others, are eager to re-engage with Children’s Village.
One past participant, Kate, went to the village through CWB in each of three years. Then Kate formed her own nonprofit to help American youth. A CWB traveler named Eliza went twice to the village. She returned last year as a volunteer counselor in a village program. A young woman named Jessie, after returning home, helped to write a manual to ease new village residents’ transition to village life.
In 2014, Rachel, Alexandra, and their four CWB travelmates will soon decide how to spend the money they raised for Children’s Village. Will they buy computers, a trampoline, or something else?
Meanwhile, the travelers continue to process the experiences they had in the village and in Jerusalem, Haifa, and the other Israeli cities they visited. Rachel and Alexandra stay in touch with Children’s Village through texting. Both miss their new Israeli friends.
“Do you cry because the trip’s over or smile because it happened?” Rachel asks. Rachel enjoyed her trip and the personal growth that resulted from it.
If only all personal growth could be as congenial as a service trip to Israel.
Classrooms Without Borders offers educational travel programs — many customized by age group — to Germany, Poland, and Israel. Each program includes pre- and post-trip learning and experienced at-destination guidance. Participants in Children’s Village trips complete a selection process. For information, visit classroomswithoutborders.org or communicate with Dr. Gur at 412-915-9182 or [email protected].
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