If you happened to be in the Federation building over Chol Hamoed Sukkot, you would have heard loud voices and discussions taking place surrounding questions such as: Is Israel a land for the Israelis or for all Jewish people? Should the Jewish community support the larger community or only Jews? These fascinating discussions came from 6th and 10th grade students taking part in our Tel Aviv/Los Angeles School Twinning Program.
On top of grappling with these questions, helping the students understand the Los Angeles Jewish community and the central role played by The Jewish Federation can be a difficult task. As part of our Tel Aviv/Los Angeles School Twinning Program, all of the participating students – from both Israel and L.A. – learn from a Federation professional about our local community and how the students’ experiences fit into the larger picture of our Federation’s mission.
Over the month of October, six student delegations from Israel visited Los Angeles, during which over 250 American and Israeli students visited our headquarters for “Federation Day.” They learned about the history of Jews in Los Angeles, the origins of how our Federation came to be, and the goals of our three strategic priority areas: Caring for Jews in Need, Engaging with the Community and Ensuring the Jewish Future.
Following a brief presentation, students were divided into small groups and got the chance to act as their own “mini Federations” by raising funds for their chosen priority area through a trivia game created by our staff, and then distributing money to the issues deemed most important by the group. The Federation Day board game is a fun and educational vehicle to help students understand the difficult conversations and decisions that take place at our Federation. In fact, the students engaged in heated debates over questions of communal obligations and priorities.
We hope that through their day at our Federation, our community’s future leaders in both Israel and America gained a deeper understanding of the Jewish community and their place within it.
For more information, contact Ahuva Ron at (323) 761-8332 or ARon@JewishLA.org.
Our Federation’s Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership School Twinning Program is the only initiative in existence that connects schools in Los Angeles with schools in Tel Aviv. Since the program’s inception, it has made a powerful impact on the lives of 60,000 students, parents, and faculty through jointly prepared curricula, teacher training, and delegation exchanges. The program strengthens our shared Jewish identity and destiny, while fulfilling our Federation’s mission of ensuring the Jewish future.
