Students build future during trip to Israel

By DEBORAH MOON

article created on: 2009-05-28T00:00:00

After six Jewish students from the University of Oregon spent a week working side-by-side with six Israeli students to help immigrants in Haifa, Shomer Achi co-director Jodi Meyerowitz said her heart leapt when an Israeli student told her “I feel more Jewish.”

Stronger connections to Judaism and between Israeli and Diaspora Jews was the goal when UO students Meyerowitz and Jamie Zebrak created Shomer Achi (My Brother’s Keeper) last summer as the only undergraduates selected as fellows for the prestigious PresenTense Institute in Jerusalem. The institute brought together young adult leaders to develop a project or organization using the resources and mentoring available at the institute.

Shomer Achi uses parallel social service initiatives, dialogue, leadership training and reciprocal visits to connect the students to their heritage and each other.

Following a series of lectures to learn about immigration issues in the United States, the six American participants joined Meyerowitz and Zebrak in a 10-day trip to Israel to learn about and work with Israeli immigrants.

The Oregonians and Israelis spent three days working with Ethiopian children at an absorption center and painted an apartment of an Ethiopian family of eight children whose mother recently died of cancer. They also met with refugees from Darfur who found refuge in Israel.

“We learned about their culture and some of the challenges they face coming to Israel,” said Meyerowitz of both groups.

Meyerowitz said she was impressed by the strength of family bonds she saw in the Ethiopian community. In the family apartment the group painted, she said she saw a hand lettered sign in Hebrew that outlined the norms for the family including: “We will stick together, we will obey our parents, we will work as a team.”

She said she saw that in action when they met the second-oldest son, who at 23, has taken charge of helping care for the family. Since the father does not speak Hebrew, he relies heavily on his children, she said. Additionally, a woman cousin has stepped in to take on the “mother role” in the family, she said.

“Their family-based culture is part of the values they brought with them,” said Meyerowitz.

Meyerowitz said she was also impressed by the bonds that formed between the Americans and Israeli students despite the difference in their ages. Since Israelis face compulsory military service after high school, the Israeli college students ranged in age from 20 to 27 while the Americans were 18 to 22.

UO student Aryeh Goodblatt, 19, said that every one of his counterparts on the trip were amazing people.

“I was able to connect with them very well,” he said. “They were all a lot of fun to be with and I learned a lot about Israelis during my week with them.”

He said the trip “made me realize the versatility of Judaism and the forms it can take. Everyone on the trip came from completely different Jewish backgrounds and it became one of the most interesting parts of the trip because everyone had something to learn about Judaism. Each participant was discovering how different his or her fellow Jew is and it helped us to bond.”

In early September, the six Israelis are scheduled to come to Oregon for a reciprocal visit. Meyerowitz said she hopes to find ways they can work with refugees from the former Soviet Union while spending a weekend in Portland before heading to Eugene. In Eugene, the Israelis will work with the UO students on their ongoing efforts with the Latino community.

“While volunteering in Eugene we have established strong connections with an agency that serves the Latino community,” said Meyerowitz. “Causa (the agency) is an advocate for immigration issues and has a youth group for teens and college students to feel empowered.”

Sharon Ungerleider, who underwrote Meyerowitz’s and Zebrak’s participation in the PresenTense Institute, also helped find funding for the recent trip to Israel. Now she is challenging the community to join her in continuing to fund the project. Local funding for Shomer Achi has been provided by Oregon Hillel, Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, Jim Winkler, Steve Rosenberg and Ellen Lippman, and Rob Schlacter.

“I want to help other Jewish philanthropists realize this project is worth seeing through to create an total experience between Americans and Israelis,” she said.

Ungerleider said that while birthright Israel creates Jewish memory among the young adults who get free 10-day trips to Israel, programs such as Shomer Achi are “creating a Jewish future.”

Ungerleider praised the two co-directors as “two of the smartest young women I’ve seen. … The girls have an uncanny ability to synthesize their toolbox and apply it to an idea they keep perfecting.”

For more information on Shomer Achi, visit www.shomerachi.org or e-mail shomerachi@presentense.org.

Checks can be made out to Oregon Hillel (Shomer Achi in the memo line) and sent to 1059 Hilyard St, Eugene, OR 97403.