Hebrew Academy kids bond with Israelis on visit to Ra’anana junior high school

by Allison Kaplan Sommer
Special to NJ Jewish News

RA’ANANA, Israel — As they clustered in groups in the junior high classroom at the TALI Ra’anana school, it was nearly impossible to tell the visiting students of the Nathan Bohrer-Abraham Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County from their Israeli counterparts.

Ask the teens, however, and the differences as well as the similarities become apparent.

“The Israelis are very lively — less conservative than the American kids,” said Aaron Krasnew, 14, from Morristown. “I really like them.”

“The Israeli kids and the New Jersey kids are very different in some ways — we speak different languages, our schools are very different, and have different teaching methods,” observed Daniel Cizin, 14, of Ra’anana. “Israeli kids are more open and spontaneous — American kids are more polite. But we are all Jewish and we have that background in common, and that’s important.”

The HAMC students’ visit to Israel and the Israeli school was the culmination of a process begun three years ago, when Daniel’s mother Sheri Cizin moved with her family to New Jersey and enrolled him in HAMC along with his brother and sister. Sherri began a twinned relationship between the Randolph school and TALI Ra’anana, with a pen-pal program on the elementary school level, and a contribution of English-language books by the HAMC students to the TALI school’s library.

“I’m really excited to have the HAMC students here in Ra’anana,” said Sheri, whose family recently returned to Israel. “We hope this visit will help strengthen the relationship and lead to more visits and more joint projects in the future.”

For Daniel Cizin, the event brought together two chapters of his life.

“When I was at the Hebrew Academy, we were taught how to make Judaism a real part of our lives and here in Ra’anana, TALI is trying to do the same thing,” he said.

Cizin’s family was among 39 in Ra’anana that began an initiative eight years ago to bring TALI Jewish education to the city, north of Tel Aviv. TALI is a network of government-supported schools committed to teaching Jewish tradition from a pluralistic perspective.

In Israel’s strictly bifurcated education system, divided between Orthodox religious schools and secular schools, TALI offers an alternative. Its schools expose students to the diverse range of Jewish religious practice, with a curriculum in which Jewish content and values are integrated into general studies.

Though part of the non-Orthodox educational track, TALI Ra’anana students participate in morning prayer, and the curriculum includes study of the weekly Torah portion and kabalat Shabbat, and celebrations marking Rosh Hodesh and the Jewish holidays.

In suburban Ra’anana, known in part for its large population of immigrants from English-speaking countries, the TALI movement has grown to include more than 235 families and 340 children from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, and has received support from the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ as part of its ongoing relationship with Ra’anana.

The 16 HAMC students, in their last year at the K-eighth grade school, were joined by a similar age group from a school in Norfolk, Va. as they took part in a full-scale tour of the country led by Moshe Vaknin, the assistant principal and Judaic Studies head at HAMC. Also accompanying the students was Michal Zur, the youth shlicha, or emissary, for MetroWest.

According to Vaknin, it is the first time in the school’s 37-year history that students have come to Israel as a group. During the two-week trip, they visited ancient sites in Jerusalem, hiked in the north of the country, and basically “[saw] all of the places they have learned about over the years,” Vaknin said, adding that he hopes it will become an annual tradition.

‘Jewish and proud’

During their TALI visit, communication between the young people wasn’t a problem, as several of the HAMC students spoke Hebrew, and many of the Ra’anana students, like Cizin, were the offspring of American immigrant parents.

“Talking to the Israeli kids, I’ve been really surprised how much we have in common with them even though we live oceans apart. It’s amazing how much they know about America and it’s great how many of them are fluent in English so we can really talk,” said Allison Brand, 13, from Sparta.

After their initial meeting, both groups of kids participated in a lesson led by TALI teacher Sheffi Spiegel designed to help them get to know each other better — and then to focus on the meaning of Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day), and Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day).

The students were handed worksheets with pictures of a Memorial Day and Independence Day stamp and the Israelis described to their American visitors how the country is solemn as it remembers its fallen soldiers, and then, at sundown, breaks out in celebration of Israel’s birth in 1948.

Brand huddled together with classmates Rebecca Santiago, 14, and Sarah Dabah, 13, both from Morristown, carefully composing an answer to the question that was posed by the group’s tour guide: Why do American Jews celebrate and care about Israel’s Independence Day?

Brand read the group’s answer: “We’re Jewish and proud, and we love Israel and consider Israel our homeland, even if we don’t live there. Celebrating Israel Independence Day helps us to define our Jewish identity and unite us as a people,” she said.

The Israelis responded in kind when they were asked why the support of the American Jews was important to them, citing the need for Jewish unity and continuity and the support that the American government offers Israel.

Dressed like his students, in a T-shirt and baseball cap, Vaknin observed, “Our kids are getting along great, and really absorbing the culture and the history. It’s a culmination of what has been for most of them, eight to 10 years of Jewish education. This is a good age to show them Israel — they are old enough to appreciate and learn about what they are seeing, but they are still young and not really teenagers yet.”

Vaknin said it was valuable for them to interact with Israeli peers in addition to touring the country. “They liked the interaction, and learning about what they had in common — they all asked to come back and visit Ra’anana again.”