April 16, 2008

by Merri Rosenberg

Westchester Hebrew High School students
assist Ethiopian Jews making aliyah to Israel. 
Courtesy of Westchester Hebrew High School 

When some students from Mamaroneck’s Westchester Hebrew High School sit down at their families’ tables this weekend to celebrate Passover, the line, “in every generation, each of us should feel as though we ourselves had gone forth from Egypt,” will undoubtedly resonate with added meaning. As part of a leadership initiative at the high school, five juniors recently spent a week in Israel and Ethiopia to assist a group of 30 Ethiopian Jews in making aliyah a modern-day Exodus.

“The hardest thing is the transition to Israel, how difficult and scary it is [for the Ethiopians] to leave town and go to Israel on a plane,” said Nancy Block, dean of student life at Westchester Hebrew High School, who chaperoned the trip.

The students focused on easing the transition in tangible ways. To help the new immigrants, they brought 10 duffel bags filled with various supplies, small toys, games and gifts to entice and distract the children.

“We connected with the group through the kids,” said 17-year-old Nili Yaari. They also connected through Jewish ritual and practice, however it was expressed, in even the remotest parts of Ethiopia. The students observed bar mitzvah classes and watched the women of the community prepare matzah by hand in preparation for Passover.

“We absorbed what the Jewish community had to face,” said Alexandra Milstein, 17. “How did they daven? How did they put on tefillin?”

Still, there were surprises and culture shock.

Robbie Schrag, 17, was “taken aback by the level of poverty. There were mud houses, crowded streets, flies crawling on babies’ faces, a girl with polio. I was blown away.”

Although Yaari “was prepared for the poverty,” she wasn’t prepared for the lines of seriously ill and wounded people she would see waiting to get inside a hospital.

“My mom takes me to the hospital for a sprained finger,” she said. “These people probably had wounds and were in a life-and-death situation. In the morning, we also saw hundreds and hundreds of kids walking miles and miles to get to school. I realized how much we have here.”

Even pleasant encounters revealed the cultural gulf. Milstein was amazed that when they distributed cookies to the children, “they had never seen a cookie.”

This wasn’t an easy trip. Besides the medical precautions (malaria pills, shots against yellow fever), each student paid $3,000 to cover travel expenses. The group took six flights in seven days, in order to be able to spend the Sabbath in Israel and have time in Addis Ababa and the remote Ethiopian village of Gondar before returning to Israel with this group of immigrants to help them through the process. The students wanted to witness many of the Ethiopians reunite with family members they hadn’t seen since the initial Israel airlift in 1991.

A particularly powerful memory for the group was seeing the Ethiopians kissing the ground when they reached Israel. “I have a pride in Israel,” said Milstein, recalling that poignant scene.

During this mission, the students met with an Ethiopian Jewish Israeli, Shimon Salomon, who directs the Kalisher Absorption Center in Beersheva. They also met the American ambassador to Ethiopia, as well as representatives from the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem, Addis Ababa and Gondar.

Seven students participated in this leadership program, which included other community service projects — such as raising environmental awareness within the school — and will continue well beyond this trip. They are expected to write about their experiences in Ethiopia and Israel, study the history of the Ethiopian Jewish community and speak to their synagogues and other groups about the mission.

“The goal of what we do here is [to] try to empower students in the school and to [make them] feel empowered outside the confines of the classroom,” said Rabbi Jeffrey Beer, the school’s headmaster. “We want them to seek out leadership roles through this initiative. Students will have the ability to function in the world. If they’re taken outside the classroom, students can cultivate other skills. I’m very proud of them. When you see the kids come back and how empowered they feel, it gives a lot of hope. It’s very inspiring.”

Block said, “The underlying goal is to instill that leadership. How do you define an issue? What are you passionate about? Ongoing community service shows that we value it as part of the curriculum. My goal was that somebody will be impressed that each one can make a difference. When you take kids out of their comfort zone and expose them to a reality that’s different from theirs, it opens their minds to the magnitude of their privilege.”

It’s a lesson that has been taken to heart.

“One person can change the lives of so many people,” said Daniel Stalbow, a 16-year-old junior.

“Israel opens its doors to all people, despite all the political nonsense.”