By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Jewish students who will enter the ninth or tenth grade next year and who have demonstrated leadership qualities at their synagogue, Jewish school, or youth group may become eligible to travel to a European country next July with peers from Sha’ar Hanegev, Israel, under the auspices of the Global Ambassadors Program administered by the Jewish Federation of San Diego.
This last July, eight students who are now in the ninth grade traveled with chaperones to Sofia, Bulgaria, where they met students of the same age from Sha’ar Hanegev, which is the Israeli partnership region of the Jewish Federation of San Diego. There, both groups enjoyed home hospitality with Jewish families in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. Youths from the three countries made presentations to each other about Jewish life in their respective cities, then toured Sofia together to learn about the resurgence of Jewish life in the post-Nazi and post-Communist periods.
Afterwards, the three groups went together to Thessaloniki, Litochoro, and Veroia, Greece, to visit Jewish communities that had been eradicated in the Holocaust and where, now, only vestiges of those communities remain, principally as museums. With no thriving Jewish communities there, the entourage shared hotel rooms.
Miri Ketayi, the Jewish Federation’s Director for Israel and Global Communities, commented that a priority of her organization “is fostering people-to-people relationships with Israel and with Jews all around the world to strengthen Jewish peoplehood and the feeling that we are all responsible for each other.”
The local Global Ambassador Program started two years ago coincident with the international Maccabi Games being held in San Diego. Among the teenage competitors was a contingent from Bulgaria, who enjoyed home hospitality here and were joined in pre-game activities by contingents from San Diego and Sha’ar Hanegev.
This last July, the second cohort of San Diego teens met with their Sha’ar Hanegev counterparts and Bulgarian teens in Sofia. Next July, a third cohort of San Diegans will meet with one from Sha’ar Hanegev to explore another European city, yet to be announced. It is known, however, that Madrid, Spain, is one city under serious consideration.
Wendy McCreary, the Jewish Federation’s Manager of Teen and Young Adult Engagement, said the reason that both Bulgaria and Greece were chosen for this most recent trip was to show the contrasts. “Whereas in Bulgaria, the Jews were saved from the massacre [of the Holocaust], in Greece almost all the Jews were killed by the Nazis.”
“To see the stark difference was very important and eye-opening to a lot of the kids,” said McCreary, who traveled with the group. “Basically, they all came back wanting to be even more involved with their community,” she added. “They all said that it was important to share the story of the Bulgarian people and to make sure that their friends and families would know.”
Ketayi said, “We are grooming future leaders with a much different understanding of the Jewish community and the value of being connected to other Jews, and what Jewish ‘peoplehood means beyond being a nice long word. They understand that there is so much to be learned, and even challenges are shared. They understand that antisemitism that we have here is also in Sofia, Bulgaria. And they share their fears and they feel closer to their fellow Jews.”
Participants in next year’s cohort will be recommended to the Jewish Federation by directors of youth programs at various synagogues and Jewish organizations, and then will go through an application and interviewing process. Cost of the program is underwritten by the Jim Joseph Foundation, which describes its mission as being “devoted exclusively to supporting Jewish education of youth and young adults in the United States.”
Now that the teens are back home and in school, follow-up is informal, with some teens emailing each other and talking together via WhatsApp or FaceTime.
Because Sha’ar Hanegev and San Diego are partnership regions, more formalized contacts among those communities are assured, McCreary said. “The cool thing about the Sha’ar Hanegev piece is that a lot of San Diegans go to Sha’ar Hanegev on various trips, and these are relationships that they (the San Diego teens) really could maintain because they know that they are going to Sha’ar Hanegev.”
“Two kids from the Jewish Academy were on our trip; they will be going to Sha’ar Hanegev during a school trip, I think in the 12th grade, so they know that they are going to see them,” McCreary added. “Synagogues also have trips to Sha’ar Hanegev, so they too will see them.”
Names of the students who participated in the trip were not released.
*
Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com