UJC SNEC Otzma volunteers (left to right) Mike Bialos, Amy Finklestein and Rachel Stober land in Afula-Gilboa (photos by Douglas Guthrie)

Mike Bialos says that Project Otzma has changed the way he sees himself, the world and his Jewish identity. The 26 year-old medical student from New Haven, Connecticut was spending the middle-section of his Otzma year in Israel as a volunteer in Afula-Gilboa, which works together with the UJC Southern New England Consortium (SNEC), within the framework of the Jewish Agency Partnership 2000 program.

"I've met Jews from all over the world and begun to realize how rich my Jewish heritage is," explained Bialos. "I've dedicated my time to learning Hebrew, and studying Judaism, Israel and Middle East politics."

He has also been working hard as a volunteer in Afula offering physical therapy to children with cerebral palsey, teaching gardening courses to handicapped children, helping out the elderly in a senior citizens home and teaching English in an Arab school in a village near Afula.

Bialos is one of 72 participants in the Otzma program from 33 communities across the United States working as volunteers in their Partnership 2000 communities this winter and spring. He took time out before his final year at Tufts Medical School to explore his Jewish identity.

"I had never been to Israel before participating in a UJC mission in the winter of 1998," he recounted. "I fell in love with the country and couldn't wait to come back. I'll certainly been more active in the Jewish community when I return home."

Similar sentiments are expressed by Rachel Stober, 22, from Newington, Hartford, Connecticut who graduated last year in Psychology from the American University, Washington DC.

Rachel Stober

"I have spent time as a student in England and Denmark where I felt like a foreigner," she observed. "But here in Israel I feel very comfortable. Of course to some extent I am still a foreigner but I also feel very relaxed and at home."

Project Otzma is a ten month program designed to offer young American Jewish college graduates an opportunity to live and volunteer in Israel in a variety of settings. Otzma is a joint program of the Jewish Agency, the Israel Forum and the UJC Federations of North America. Placing volunteers in their Partnership 2000 regions is an innovative dimension to the program, which was successfully introduced in 1997.

After studying Hebrew at the Ibbim youth village in the northern Negev, the SNEC Otzma participants were volunteering in Afula-Gilboa for three months before taking the Livnot VeLihivanot Jewish identity building course and spending time on kibbutz.

Stober was also in Israel for only the second time having previously participated in a UJC mission. "The first mission made me into a Zionist," she stressed. "And now I'm really in love with the country and the people."

Amy Finklestein, 23, who recently graduated in Public Policy and Hispanic Studies from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island was in Israel for the fourth time.

"Otzma has changed the way I see Israel," explained Finklestein, who hails from Birmingham, Alabama. "Before I was always a tourist on a bus. Now I feel like I live here and am part of the country."

"I have had more time to think about what being Jewish really means," she added. "In the Diaspora I always made every effort to go to synagogue in order to feel Jewish. Here in Israel everybody is more connected to Judaism in their daily lives from speaking Hebrew to kissing mezuzot as they pass through every doorway."

Like Stober and Bialis, Finkelstein has been teaching and volunteering with the handicapped, elderly and Arab schoolchildren. "We feel a genuine bond with the people of Afula-Gilboa," she said.

On returning home the New England volunteers expect to have even more commitment to Judaism, Jewish community life and nurturing their Jewish identity.

  Adar Bet 5760 - April 2000