Wishing emissaries ‘Shalom’
As one shaliah bids farewell, a new shliha arrives
Sael Abecassis welcomes his replacement, Yisca Shalev, who takes over this week as the Israeli emissary to the Central federation.
Photo by Elaine Durbach
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September 2, 2009
Yisca Shalev was barely off the plane from Israel on Tuesday, Sept. 1, before Sael Abecassis began clueing her in on the Central New Jersey community.
They had to talk fast; Abecassis, the Israeli shaliah — or emissary — to the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey for the past 12 months, was leaving the next day. Shalev had arrived just in time to take over the reins.
As it turns out, jumping right in is just her style, jet lag or no jet lag. “Do I look tired?” she asked with a grin. “I believe in doing what you need to do, without thinking twice. That’s why I’m here.”
Abecassis took his successor to the kosher Dunkin Donuts in Elizabeth “for a cultural experience,” gave her time to shower at the apartment she is taking over from him on the other side of town, and brought her over to the federation offices in Scotch Plains.
A delicate scar on her throat indicates what gave rise to the attitude she exudes. In recent years, she went through two bouts of surgery for a tumor in her throat. “Coming through that changed the way I see the world,” she said.
It also convinced her of the importance of serving a larger cause, she said. The emissary program run by the Jewish Agency for Israel provided just that opportunity. Shalev said she would have gone anywhere they sent her to represent Israel, but she was particularly pleased to be coming to the United States.
Just as Abecassis has put a personal face on his hometown of Sderot and the Moroccan Jewish culture of his family, Shalev said she hopes to show the human side of life in a West Bank settlement, and her own family’s mixed heritage. Her father comes from a Russian/Romanian family; her mother’s family was from Yemen. She grew up in Kedumim, the settlement where her parents met 30 years ago and brought up their six children.
‘What I wanted to do’
Like Abecassis, Shalev also wants to share Israeli culture, and the specific wonders of all the different parts of Israel. “I love traveling all around the country,” she said; she wants Americans to share that passion.
Abecassis nodded in agreement; he has measured his success in the community, in part at least, by how many people he could inspire to travel to Israel. “Even if they are not going to live there, if they go to visit, it helps build the bonds within the Jewish community,” he said.
Shalev has almost completed her studies in filmmaking at a school in Jerusalem; she only needs to finish her final project, a movie based on her medical experience and the role that religious belief plays — or doesn’t play — in recovery.
Teaching, which she will be doing lots of during the next year — at synagogues and community centers and schools — is already something she loves to do. She has been teaching filmmaking to people of different ages and skill levels throughout her own years of study.
Abecassis told her she couldn’t have landed in a better community, with wonderful people and an ideal location, combining small-town benefits with proximity to New York City. “Leaving is supposed to be bittersweet, but right now it’s just bitter,” he declared.
“If you like it so much, why aren’t you staying for a second year?” Shalev asked him. He said he thought very seriously about staying. “But I decided that it’s time to get back on track.” Since leaving school, he has spent time in the army and more years in volunteer service. “It’s time to go back and start college,” he said. He will be traveling around the United States for a few weeks, and then Europe, before heading home in late October. But just maybe, if things work out, he will return to take part in a program next year.
Like him, Shalev comes from an Orthodox family. Asked how her parents feel about her coming alone to an unfamiliar place for a year, she fumbled for the English words and then said simply, “They trust me. They have always let me do what I want, because they know that I am responsible. And this is what I wanted to do.”
Telling, and showing, Israel’s story
Outgoing shaliah Sael Abecassis had a few key pieces of advice for Yisca Shalev, the Israeli emissary replacing him in the Central community:
• Plan ahead: Israelis tend to be very spontaneous, he said. Americans expect events to be scheduled well in advance.
• Focus on teens: Teenagers were a priority for Abecassis. They were much more motivated to play an active role, he said, if he gave them specific titles and official tasks that they could list on a college application. “Even the 13-year-olds are already thinking that way,” he said.
• Make it personal: Abecassis gave lectures across the state and country about the rocket bombardment of his hometown of Sderot, and the factors leading to Israel’s operation in Gaza earlier this year. A young cousin of his died in one of those rocket attacks, lying at the side of the road shielding her little brother.
• Show, don’t tell: His favorite experiences in Central Jersey, he said, included the Israel Day festivities at the JCC and Union Y summer camps, the Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration with the band from Sderot, sharing Yom Hazikaron Israeli-style, observing the Moroccan post-Passover festival of Mimouna, demonstrating how to cook Moroccan dishes, and sharing his passion for Israeli music.
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