Stories and Pathways

By: Matt Goldkind  ENP Volunteer Hillel Onward Israel  Student at Washington University in St. Louis  This week marked the start of the summer camps that the interns have been planning. All of the volunteers split into three camps and met the Ethiopian kids  on Monday . The highlight of my week was getting to know them. I was surprised to find the campers so energetic and friendly. To start off the week we played soccer with them. It was clear from the start that they were really passionate and skilled. Whenever they got their hands on the ball they would start dribbling and doing tricks. We also played some icebreakers in English. The entire time they were laughing and joking. The thing that makes the camp so enjoyable is the free-spirited nature of the kids. Overall the week felt like the start of a big-brother relationship with the kids. I know that as the weeks progress, we’ll get closer and their enthusiasm for our activities, especially the ones in E...

By: Rachel Kraus ENP Volunteer Career Israel Student at Brandeis University It has been a very exciting and eventful first week of my internship with the Ethiopian National Project! I was really looking forward to my involvement with ENP because of my background with the Ethiopian population in Israel. I volunteered at a school in Kiryat Malachi with Ethiopian children. I also worked in a daycare in Arad, Israel and one of the teachers was born in Ethiopia and walked the long journey to Israel when she was 16. I loved sitting and talking with her when the kids were napping and hearing about her story and her life, and it sparked an interest in me to find out more about this growing population in Israel.  Fast forward to now, and I already feel like I have a better idea of the Ethiopian Israeli story. I have the opportunity to go to ENP’s center in Lod a few days a week to plan activities for a group of local Ethiopian Israeli teenagers, as well as just to hang out with them...

By:  Jessica Shankman ENP Volunteer Career Israel Student at University of Minnesota- Twin Cities      The first week at the Lod site has been filled with surprises. Finding the site was, of course, the first part of the adventure. Being my first week in Israel at all, it was natural that I would be unsure of how the navigation from Tel Aviv would progress. I was so pleasantly surprised to find myself being led around by various Lod natives. They were friendly, direct and so willing to help out. And I did end up making it to the site, just a few minutes over time.             Upon arrival to the ENP center I was amazed at what they had done with the place. The building was filled with radiant colors, handprints, signs—so many signs of the activity of the people in the center. Our coordinator pointed out each spot that volunteers had stepped in to help renovate the center some years back. One wall was fi...

By: Maya Katz-Ali  ENP Volunteer Boston Onward Israel Student at Clark University A couple of days ago I started work at the Ethiopian National Project (ENP) branch in Kiriyat Bialik, right outside of Haifa. Here I am learning the stories of the children and their families. I am particularly interested in learning and documenting the stories of young people as they strive to overcome the obstacles they find in becoming a part of Israeli culture. I have studied Hebrew for four years in high school as well as a semester at Clark University. I have also spent considerable time in Israel, volunteering at inner city schools and touring the country. I wanted to take my learning experiences a step further with ENP by working with the stories of the students. I hope to learn more of the Ethiopian community’s struggles, fears and triumphs by working in this center.   On the way to the center I met up with another wonderful young woman working at the center under a different...

By: Allison Kaminsky ENP Volunteer Onward Israel Boston Student at Northwestern University As my first two weeks at the Ethiopian National Project come to a close, I am very thankful for this opportunity to reflect on my experiences. I have learned so much in just a few weeks, and I know that I will gain even more knowledge by August. These past few weeks have been humbling, and I look forward to being further humbled. I began my internship feeling confident that the background research that I had done on Ethiopian-Jews gave me a good picture of the community. I will be the first to say that I was wrong. It was very ignorant of me that my basic research would suffice. This summer I am focusing on bringing international awareness of the Ethiopian-Jews by creating an informational PowerPoint and writing a comprehensive article on the history and customs of Ethiopian-Jews. However, before I could inform the American public about the history and customs of Ethiopian-Jews, I nee...

By: Elliad Dagan ENP Volunteer Onward Israel Boston Student at Tufts University Two days ago was the first time I actually worked at the Ethiopian summer camp where I will be working for the rest of the summer. Until that moment I was planning the summer camp, coming up with ideas for activities, and making a budget and shopping for supplies. It was fun and at the end of the day I had some finished product but it didn’t feel as rewarding or fulfilling as I hoped. I still enjoyed the work because I got along well with my co-workers and I knew that I was working towards something greater, the actual summer camp. I have only worked there for two days and I already feel a connection to the children but even more the ENP cause. I remember discussing with one of my fellow interns during the planning stages about the culture of the girls. She was worried that their culture would be so different from what we expected and that we needed to plan for that but I wasn’t that worried and...

By: Elyse Waksman  ENP Volunteer Onward Israel Boston Student at Clark University During my first two weeks at ENP, I’ve worked with the other interns to plan a summer camp program for Ethiopian-Israeli youth. Camp started on Monday, and from the start we could tell that it wouldn’t go as planned.             We began by asking each camper to introduce herself, but most of the campers were too shy to participate and would barely even mumble their names. This initial shyness disappeared for the most part by the end of the first day as we encouraged the girls to come out of their shells and participate, but there are still several other challenges we have to face. My Hebrew knowledge coming into this was slim to none, which is about the same as most of the girls’ English knowledge. This makes communication extremely difficult, and subsequently being in charge of the girls becomes a challenge because I can hardly und...

By: Amanda Schwartz ENP Volunteer Summer 2014,  via Hillel Onward Israel Student at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ani lo medaberet Ivrit.  When I came to the volunteer-organized ENP summer camp at the Gonen school in Jerusalem on my first day, this was the only Hebrew expression I knew.  How was I supposed to teach English to a group of children when I couldn't even speak their language?  While waiting in the lobby for the kids to arrive on my first day, I could hear them arrive before I could see them.  I heard excited shouts coming from down the hall and then I saw my future students running by in a blur of color.  The first hour I had with them was a challenge because my coworker could speak Hebrew to them, so everyone understood each other except for me.  My moment of clarity came later in the day, not in the classroom, but in the gym.  The boys all wanted to play soccer and I automatically went to sit on the sidelines and watch, a h...