Read Tikvah Director, Howard Blas’, blogpost on Davar Acher, the blog of the Jim Joseph Foundation Fellows. He writes about the many ABILITIES of people with special needs. Featured are former Tikvah campers Aaron Rudolph and Eytan Nizinzweig. Others noted who are making a difference in the Jewish Disability world include: Richard Bernstein, Jodi Samuels, Jay Ruderman and the Ruderman Family Foundation, and the Reliability Film Festival.
As the “State of The Union” Address draws to a close, I feel compelled to answer this burning question: Did Eric Levine meet Barack Obama? Odds makers in DC and on the entire east coast were betting that, if anyone from the Tikvah delegation would meet the President, it would be Eric! In fact, even Eric’s dad took him aside in the Penn Station Amtrak waiting area to say, “Eric, if you meet Obama, PLEASE remember to call him President Obama!”
As Josh noted in his blog post, a very large delegation of voc ed and post voc ed program members arrived in Washington, DC for a special Shabbaton/Reunion at Congregation Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase, MD. Our Kayitz, 2009 voc ed advisors, Chana Fuld, Marcia Glickman and Anna Elfenbaum, and DC residents and friends of Tikvah, Marc Israel, Rachel Braun, Leslie Gilman and Elizabeth Chipkin (as well as Gilman and Braun husbands and a Braun daughter!) worked tirelessly to plan the first Shabbaton of its kind. Hats off to members of Ohr Kodesh, Rabbi Lyle Fishman and our Tikvah Parents (and many friends of Tikvah) for making the weekend a huge success.
Imagine the scene on Friday morning, January 15th: Judith Simons meets four members of the Tikvah delegation?Max, Melissa, Jacob and Adam–at Bradley Airport and flies in to BWI airport. Isaac also flies in to DC—from Louisville, KY. Anna Elfenbaum drives Sophie and Jeremy from Hartford to New Haven, where Benji meets them at Union Station and hops on the Amtrak train, bound for New York City?where Howard, Elisheva, Eric, Jason, Avi, Jakie, and Ortal join them?in the 2nd car from the end. We call Marcia, Noah and Sam, the Philadelphia crew, and tell them in which car to meet us! We all talk up a storm, all the way to Union Station in Washington, DC, where we are met by Chana who had Metro Cards for all. After a brief ride on the Metro, we are greeted by our drivers, Rachel and Marc, who drive us to Ohr Kodesh for the official kick off of the Shabbaton. Sound tiring? The Shabbaton has just begun!
Our host families meet us at the shul, we quickly shower and enjoy an amazing Kabbalat Shabbat, dinner and oneg at Ohr Kodesh. The rest off Shabbat was amazing–Tikvah davening, joining the shul at the end of services (Avi lead Kiddush and I was invited to say a few words from the bimah about Tikvah!), a walk to a nearby park to see horses and play on the playground, a visit to the Israel Family home, and… the visit to the White House!
Four very special White House staffers were kind enough to donate their time for a very special, one of a kind, tour of the West Wing. We rushed out of the shul the minute havdalah ended. Don’t want to be late for the White House! Passports in hand, we clear our final security check. Since President Obama decided to take Michele out to a very special DC area organic veggie restaurant just as we were arriving, we were treated to an up close look at the presidential motorcade.
But, sadly, the President chose Michele over Eric! We did not get to actually chill with the President! We did, however, get to see the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room, the Cabinet meeting room and pretend we were giving a press conference (see the photos in Josh’s blog). And, we did get to have an ice cream party back at Ohr Kodesh. Sorry Mr. President?maybe you’ll get to meet Eric and join us for ice cream next year!
Today is our last day in Israel, and we are making sure to enjoy every minute! We had our last gigantic hotel breakfast at Hotel Yearim, loaded the buses and headed off to Har Herzl, Israel’s military cemetery in Jerusalem. Our three soldiers wore their uniforms as per protocol. We started our tour of the cemetery by learning about the branches of the military and the various uniforms.
I just arrived in Jerusalem where I will spend Shabbat with the 13 other Fellows and three teachers of the Jim Joseph Foundation Fellowship Program of the Lookstein Center. We have been learning together and traveling together since our arrival in Israel this past Monday. The truth is, more than half of us made it to Kfar Maccabia in Ramat Gan on time; the rest were very delayed due to snow in the US. I was lucky enough to arrive on time and have been enjoying every minute of our ten day program entitled “Community and Leadership: Exploring the Past, Understanding the Present, Imagineering the Future.” Beyond the learning about web platforms and communities of practice, lectures by such luminaries as Israeli conductor, Itay Talgam, Steve Israel of JAFI and Professor Jeffrey Woolf of Bar Ilan, and tiyulim (field trips) to such places as Churbat Etri, the Bar Kochba Caves, and Caesaria, I have been able to connect with various members of the Ramah New England community. And I have had a chance to reflect on the centrality of Israel to Ramah and Tikvah.
No more than two hours after landing, I was sitting in our first fellowship session, held in a private room of the Kfar Maccabia dining room. I looked up and saw Mark Ross, a former Amitzim counselor, here from England for a wedding. Later that night, I connected by phone and email with various friends from the Ramah community – Rotem and Uri, Leah Collier, Max Davidson, the Bensteins, Yediah and Uri Tzivoni, and Tikvah founders and long time directors, Herb and Barbara Greenberg.
Last night, I was honored to attend the bat mitzvah of one of Herb and Barbara’s granddaughters. When our day of learning and tiyulim ended, I cabbed it to Pitaya, a beautiful catering hall in Kfar Saba. I arrived a bit late and was delighted when I saw Uri and Yedida, long time friends of Herb and Barbara’s. The Greenbergs, who came on aliyah approximately ten years ago, speak often of how much the Ramah experience impacted on their love for Israel. They have maintained friendships for years with shlichim and other Israelis who worked at Ramah New England. Imagine my delight when I was greeted by a table of Israelis (including the Reems and the Hanochis) who worked at camp twenty or so years ago. And several of them worked in Tikvah! Israel and the shlichim are so central to camp, and the Tikvah experience has really made an impact on generations of shlichim.
I feel honored to continue the strong relationship between Tikvah, Ramah, Israel and our mishlachat/Israeli delegation. Last year at this time, I was in Israel with fifteen campers and staff members (we had a blast, despite the Gaza War, which caused us to change our itinerary a bit). It was my fourth Tikvah Israel trip; it was a pleasure to restart the Israel trip, started so many years ago by the Greenbergs who brought approximately ten groups Tikvah groups to Israel. Each summer, Tikvah has a particularly strong relationship with the mischlachat, who teach us Hebrew, swimming, sports, omanut, etc. I can’t wait to visit my Ramah Israeli friends in Israel, and to welcome many back to camp this summer.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem. (I received a lot of comments yesterday about my Kayitz 2009 Ramah shirt! Several told me to remember to take off my name tag!)