Brother's keepers: Jerusalem summer

By Deborah Moon

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Northwest Jewish college students will visit Israel later this year and their counterparts in Israel will come here next September as part of a new program meant to strengthen ties among young Israeli and Diaspora Jews by collaborating on parallel social service programs.

The new project is the brainchild of two University of Oregon students who have spent the summer at a prestigious Israeli institute developing Shomer Achi: My Brother’s Keeper. Portlander Jodi Meyerowitz and Atlantan Jamie Zebrak were among 16 fellows selected from around the world for this year’s PresenTense Institute in Jerusalem.

Meyerowitz and Zebrak worked together to create Shomer Achi “to strengthen the connection between college students in Israel and the Diaspora … through parallel social service initiatives, dialogue, leadership training and an international trip.”

Their pilot project begins this fall with 10 students from Pacific Northwest universities and 10 students from Haifa-area campuses participating in parallel social service initiatives. Students will volunteer at local organizations that deal with immigration issues in each location.

U.S. students will travel to Israel on a free December birthright Israel trip and then extend their stay for six days to work with their Israeli counterparts on an immigration project near Haifa. Next September, Haifa students will visit the Pacific Northwest for 10 days to work with students here on their projects.

In addition to visiting each other’s communities, students will interact via video chats throughout the year.

“These days, with the Jewish community so diverse and divided, we see a huge importance in bringing Israelis out of Israel and into Diaspora Jewish communities to further unite the Jewish people,” said Meyerowitz in an e-mail interview. “Shomer Achi is based on a sustainable model of Israel-Diaspora programming that is heavily focused on person-to-person interaction.”

This year, the two founders selected the social service project. Within this year’s immigration focus, students will address issues such as education, citizenship and integration. In future years, students in each participating region will select the social service issue on which they will work with their partner region in Israel.

Each PresenTense fellow develops a project or organization using the resources and mentoring available at the institute. PresenTense gives fellows residencies in Jerusalem, modern technology to facilitate efficient work, skill-building classes, mentorship and access to a network of supporters and partners.

Meyerowitz and Zebrak made good use of the institute’s network of potential supporters and partners for their project.

In addition to the support of the institute, the UO duo also received a commitment from Rabbi Abraham Infeld, president of the Chais Foundation and former president of Hillel International and founder of Melitz, to serve on Shomer Achi’s advisory board.

The pair also finalized an official partnership with Hillel Israel and will work closely with Haifa Hillel and B’Tzedek, a social action organization in Israel. They have worked with the student coordinator at the Technion. Shomer Achi also is supported by Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel.

Both Meyerowitz and Zebrak grew up in strong Jewish households, attended Jewish day schools and have been very active participants in campus Jewish organizations. Meyerowitz is a junior majoring in economics and human physiology. Zebrak has a double major in planning, public policy and management with a focus in the Middle East.

A graduate of Portland Jewish Academy, Meyerowitz moved from South Africa to Portland 11 years ago. She is the student board president of Oregon Hillel, is involved with Chabad on campus and serves as the ethics chair of ThisIsIsrael.

“Upon immigrating to the United States, I realized a diversity in the Jewish community that I had not known before, which has served as a major source of inspiration for my continued involvement in the Jewish community,” she said.

Zebrak founded ThisIsIsrael, a student-led Israel advocacy group on campus, after she studied abroad for one year at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She was elected the Emerson Fellow for StandWithUs and is active in Hillel and Chabad at UO.

“Israel on campus, Israel in general is something I am concerned about, passionate about and something that I consider to be of utmost importance today,” said Zebrak via e-mail. “Israel, Judaism and my identity as connected to both is precisely what has fueled the project Jodi and I are currently working on.”

“I was raised with a keen sense of community and obligation to that community,” she added.

American students from universities in the Pacific Northwest who will go on a winter birthright trip are eligible for Shomer Achi. Students interested in participating in Shomer Achi can fill out an application at www.shomerachi.org. Meyerowitz and Zebrak will interview and select the 10 participants. For more information, contact them at shomerachi@presentense.org.