Israeli counselor Orit Shitrit “sells” fresh rolls to campers at the Y’s Israel Day shuk.
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July 16, 2009
Maybe a waterslide isn’t the first thing you would think of as a teaching tool about Israel’s Galilee region, but then this is education with a difference. The seven young Israelis serving as camp counselors in the Central community this summer have their own ways of bringing Israel into the lives of New Jersey youngsters.
Led by Sael Abecassis, the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey’s shaliah, or emissary, for 2008-09, the counselors took over the YM-YWHA of Union County on Monday, July 13, and turned the Green Lane venue into a little piece of Israel.
Think of Lake Kinneret in the Galilee, and there you have the waterslide connection. That was just one of three Israeli locations represented, with the theme a passion for hiking the land. The other two locations depicted — Arad and the Negev, and Tel Aviv — also turned into opportunities for fun.
The three Israelis assigned to the Y, Reut Stern, Oded Harush, and Orit Shitrit, worked until late every night the previous week, painting posters and working out games and activities. At the crack of dawn on Monday, their four colleagues from the JCC of Central NJ’s Camp Yachad — Nadav Maoz, Yulia Merkulovich, Gili Zerahia, and Ofir Aharon — came with them to the Y to set up for the day’s activities.
It’s a partnership they will continue on Aug. 5, when the Y trio will head to Scotch Plains to help their counterparts with the Camp Yachad Israel adventure.
As part of the Union Y’s Israel activities, Hebrew words are plastered everywhere.
Photos by Elaine Durbach
In the Galilee zone on the back lawns at the Y, kids were slipping and sliding their way from one end to the other, frequently landing on the rear ends. It didn’t look as if they were learning about a foreign land, but by the end of the day they all knew that the “lake” zone was the Galilee.
Arad and the Negev were brought home with a would-be Bedouin tent, constructed from cloths and blankets, and pita-baking over a wood fire. (Arad is the federation’s Partnership 2000 community, and three of the counselors come from the region.)
Tel Aviv’s famous waterfront was recreated in the outdoor swimming pool area, with a wrap-around mural setting the scene for a beach party, complete with wet kids dancing, eating ice pops, singing songs, and playing beach games.
Indoors, there were all kinds of reminders of Israeli culture. In the art class, they were making stars of David and tzedaka boxes; on the walls, everywhere you looked, there were signs displaying Hebrew words.
‘The best falafel!’
The day’s activities climaxed with a “shuk,” a market-style array of stalls, offering souvenirs, food, and drink, to be purchased with Israeli play money won at the three locations. Those who blew all their shekels could earn more by belting out a rendition of the peace song, “Od yavo shalom aleinu.”
The crowded shuk — actually the path through the Levenberg Picnic Grounds — was as bustling and noisy as the real thing. “Come buy the best falafel in New Jersey!” declaimed Maoz. Shitrit was selling halla rolls baked fresh in the Y kitchen and ready to dip in honey. Stern was painting faces. There were cookies and T-shirts and caps for sale, and most popular of all, a collection of Israeli keepsakes — keyrings, night lights, decorative tiles — that the campers clamored to buy.
Eager customers at the Union Y’s Israel Day shuk “buy” souvenirs from counselor Oded Harush.
Asked what their favorite activity had been, most of the campers said that aside from the shuk, the Galilee waterslide was it. Other aspects of Israeli life were on their minds too. One earnest eight-year-old asked an adult, “Do you know that Israel has been fighting with the Arabs for a long time in Sderot?”
Abecassis was thrilled with the outcome at the Y. “Isn’t it terrific! This is just the atmosphere we wanted,” he said.
Jacob Toporek, executive director of NJ State Association of Jewish Federations, who has his office at the Y, came down to check out the activities. Delighted by the mixture of kids milling about the shuk, he said, “We talk about finding ways to do outreach, to build a positive attitude to Israel in the broader community, and what better way could there be than to have the children learn about it having fun like this?”
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