Stories and Pathways

Last Wednesday, the Joseph and Rebecca Myerhoff Community Center threw an end of the school-year party/recital for the Beit Shemesh community. Many ENP participants performed for their parents, teachers, and friends. It was a sweet evening with lots of giggling voices and the consumption of way too much popcorn!  -- Lily

On June 10, a group of new interns travelled to Beersheva to assist and document the visit of a Birthright group from all over the United States. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to learn traditional Ethiopian dance from Dege  Hanoch Levi (whose own amazing story was posted by  Nisha Khorasi below). It is absolutely as hard to do as it looks! ENP volunteers, Beersheva staff, and local students. -- Lily

From a young age, we have all perfected the art of complaining—I’m starving; It’s so hot outside; I need water; When will we be home?—The list goes on. This past Wednesday, I had the wonderful opportunity to hear the story of a woman who knows not the meaning of a complaint. Dege Hanoch Levi was too busy trekking hundreds of miles from Ethiopia to Israel to have time to complain. Dege was born in 1976 in Wozaba, an Ethiopian village in the district of Gondar. Dege grew up in a Jewish community, working in agriculture and herding shepherd at a young age, while the rest of us were probably in preschool, swinging on monkey bars and dipping on seesaws. The Jews in her community practiced their religion with great devoutness according to the biblical law and never deviated to a different code of conduct. Their hearts’ desire was always to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, “the land of milk and honey.” In 1983, Dege’s family made the decision. They were going to make the journey to Jerusal...

Written by Amber It's early June, and I've been in the field three times since beginning ENP -- once at the youth center in Beer Sheva, and three times at the youth center in Beit Shemesh. Each time and while in commute, I worried how I would connect with the youth. My Hebrew is a work in progress, and I had heard that many Ethiopian-Israeli youth are not English speakers. People have told me various reasons for this. One, is that these youth are dual language learners from birth, with many hailing from Amharic-speaking homes. Their parents, too, might struggle with literacy in both Amharic and Hebrew. Therefore, having English-learning support in the home is difficult and rare. Also, these dual-language learning youth also may or may not receive adequate engagement and/or attention in schools to meet their unique linguistic needs, even in Hebrew acquisition. So, acquiring a third language is, thus, even more daunting. And finally, Ethiopian-youth may not get the oppo...