Tami Kruger has many stories to tell after four years as founder and director of the Benyamin Children's Library in Beit Shemesh. So many in fact that, as we sit down to talk, she is already telling me one, as if a book has just fallen from the shelf and begun to speak. Despite Tami's matter-of-fact disposition, she always smiles when she speaks of children, and Maya is no exception. Maya, like many Ethiopian children in the community, spends most weekday afternoons in the spacey, two-floor facility, which by four o'clock often feels more like a school building filled with children than a donor-funded library open to children for an extracurricular after-school program.

Tami tells me about Maya's big beautiful eyes and how she engages them so deeply in the world around her. When Maya recently asked Tami for help with a school project on the Solar System, Tami explained to her the position and movement of the sun and the planets. The bright young Israeli's eyes widened and bulged and immediately she responded to the seemingly endless possibilities of the grown-up world, "How do you know these things? How do you know so much?" To Maya, Tami is more than an adult; she is a dependable and trustworthy friend with the patience and love to answer her long list of whys and hows.

For many Israeli youth with foreign-born parents, the world is a very confusing place. On one hand, there is life outside the home: fast paced, information-filled, competitive and crude. On the other, there is life inside the home: small pockets of undeveloped and traditional societies left behind, in many cases only recently. In between there is no bridge, no connection between worlds, and many of Israel's younger generation get lost in the ensuing search for meaning and identity. Many also run a high risk of falling behind in school, which can lead to other potential difficulties in life.

Then there are places like the Benyamin Library, where the Mayas can come and learn - if they are lucky enough to have one locally. Here, the children receive attention, help with homework, computer and Internet time, and - more and more often - they bring their parents along as well.

Although Maya's father certainly knows many things, his daughter must rely on the library in order to do her research for homework projects. Tami realizes the importance the library has had for the Ethiopian community in particular, "We've had almost every Ethiopian parent come in, hear what the library's all about, pay a symbolic family membership fee and even sign up for computer time."

The library plays another important role in heterogeneous and often fragmented Beit Shemesh by bringing together people from different walks of life to study and play in an atmosphere of tolerance and equality. Erin Glazer, a volunteer from Washington, DC on the year-long Otzma Public Service Fellowship, notes that children from diverse backgrounds not only get along in the library but also learn to view each other as equals. "Today I sat down and drew trees for Tu B'Shvat with three kids: one Ethiopian, one Hasidic, and one secular. This may be one of the only places they will ever sit at the same table. Just because they're all Jewish and they all live in Israel, doesn't mean they do things together. Outside of this library, these kids don't usually have a chance to interact."

For many of the over 3000 children who are paid members of the library, plus the 700 or so regular visitors to the facility, getting to know the Benyamin Library is also quite often an invaluable first positive library experience. Besides providing a service that does not exist anywhere else in Beit Shemesh, the library also uses its space for an array of other essential services. Local nursery schools and kindergartens frequently stop by to get a taste of the growing and thriving center in which books are only the beginning. The library also organizes a professional storyteller performance once a month and hosts an after-school program for the learning disabled three times a week. Other community groups such as the Seventh Grade Ethiopian Enrichment Program, the local Women's Book Club, the "La Leche" Breast feeding Club and the Volunteer Council of Beit Shemesh also hold meetings inside the library's open doors on a regular basis.

Thanks to a recent grant from Partnership 2000, Tami is undertaking a library expansion project this year to target young adults. By increasing the size and scope of volumes for adolescents, Tami hopes to bring in more local teens just at the age when they are most prone to stop reading.

It seems like the list of benefits and successes goes on an on, but the fact is that without help from over twenty volunteers each week, the library would be forced to close its doors. For two years now, the library has operated with three permanent employees who together split one full-time salary. Although this is only a temporary solution, the situation highlights the fact that willpower alone cannot fill the resource gap. The library is seriously under-funded, and with no local or national government assistance, the project has become entirely dependent upon the generosity of its members and Partnership 2000. By expressing our support for local community-oriented centers such as the Benyamin Library, we do much more than simply further the cause of grassroots projects in Israel. We also make an important statement to the next generation of Israelis - that Jews worldwide recognize the importance of their education, development and successful transition into productive citizens and future leaders of the Jewish homeland.

Sivan 5761 - June 2001