Every morning at the James and Rachel Levinson Day Camp all 450 children, ages 3 through 10, hear the words "Boker tov!" shouted in greeting by Tzachi Levy, the Pittsburgh community's i-connect Youth Shaliach, or Israel emissary.
Tzachi is from Kibbutz Eshbal in Misgav, Israel and is finishing out his year in Pittsburgh working at J & R. As the Youth Shaliach, Tzachi has developed monthly programming throughout the past year in order to engage Pittsburgh youth in relating and connecting to Israel. At J & R, he and the two other counselors from Israel add a special bonus to the experiences of both campers and staff.
This summer, six Israelis have been funded by the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) through the UJF's Partnership 2000 program. The counselors are serving at three different Jewish Community Center camps: two at J&R in Monroeville, two at the overnight Emma Kaufmann Camp (EKC) in West Virginia, and two at the JCC South Hills Day Camp programs.
Partnership 2000, now in its 10th year, partners the UJF with the city of Karmiel and the Misgav region in northern Israel. Partnership 2000 is Pittsburgh's direct people-to-people connection to Israel resulting in the creation of a multitude of joint projects in areas of social affairs serving youth and teens, economic development and enhanced educational opportunities.
The six Israeli counselors now in Pittsburgh were trained by JAFI as a part of the UJF's local i-connect initiative. The i-connect program, a joint project of the UJF and JAFI, is the new community-wide Israel engagement initiative designed to foster Jewish continuity through building a greater connection to Israel.
For Dinur Dikla of Karmiel, 20, Partnership 2000 provided her the opportunity to visit the United States for the first time.
She said the many programs of Partnership 2000 are deeply rooted in the daily lives of the people that live in Karmiel/Misgav. Dinur recalls her family having hosted Pittsburgh visitors that came to Karmiel when she was about 15 years old. She later attended a camp through Partnership 2000, where she again meet people from Pittsburgh.
After recently completing her service with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Dinur decided to come to Pittsburgh and be a counselor with the Jewish Community Center after talking with friends who had fulfilling experiences through similar Partnership 2000 projects
Itamar Ronen, 23, from Misgav is now in Pittsburgh for the third time, with two of those three times as a counselor at J & R.
"I had such an amazing time last year that I knew I wanted to come back again," said Itamar. His experiences at J & R have led him to think about a career in education. Dinur and Itamar are among the counselors using a new educational product, Shirat Ha'aretz, to infuse Israel into the camp activities. This program uses Hebrew songs as a way to engage Jewish children with Israeli culture.
On this visit to J & R, the camp was celebrating "Israel Week", giving both Israeli and American counselors the opportunity to infuse different aspects of Israeli culture into the daily activities of the camp. Whether it's learning Israeli songs or playing "the memory game" with Hebrew words, the Israeli counselors add a very important aspect of Judaism - a celebration of Israel and its culture - to the camp.
Itamar works the ropes course at the camp and has integrated into the course a fun and innovative way for the children to learn Hebrew words. Throughout the ropes course, he has put signs up in "Hebrish", a mixture of Hebrew words spelled in both Hebrew and English characters and their meaning in English, enabling the children to discover the meanings of different Hebrew words while going through the ropes course.
Additionally, Itamar hopes to re-instate "Hebrew Word of the Day", a program he found to be successful last year, in which counselors would put on a skit explaining the various puns of Hebrew and English words that sound similar.
Dinur and the other counselors in the Tira unit (different units in camp have been named after cities in Israel) have taken upon themselves the task of building the Kotel, or Western Wall, out of shoe boxes, that is. After its construction, campers put their personal notes in the cracks. There is also an 8 by 15 foot map of Israel, on loan from the United Jewish Federation, used to teach Israel's geography to the campers.
The campers are not the only ones who benefit from having the Israeli counselors. "They make Israel more concrete," said Boaz Munro, a recent high school graduate from Pittsburgh and a counselor at J & R. "It's not just an idea anymore. It's good to see real people from Israel - it shows that there is more to Israel than just the conflict."
"It is important that all Jewish people in the world feel a connection to Israel," said Dinur. "I am here to represent the people of Israel, which is important especially because of the misconceptions brought about by the media."
"Within the structure of the camp, I try to bring in the spirit of Israel," said Tzachi. Here at J & R, the mission of Partnership 2000 is successfully implemented in that lasting impressions and friendships are created among the people of Pittsburgh and Karmiel/Misgav.