MIKE ROSENBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
T
An exchange student offers
some insights into the ways
Americans and Israelis view
each other
he goal is communication on
an individual level between
Israelis and American Jews.
To achieve it, Israeli and
American Jewish organiza-
tions put a great deal of time and
energy into exchange programs,
where students from each country
live with families in the other, speak
to students and other groups and
attend schools. The success of these
programs depends greatly on the in-
dividuals who travel to represent
their country. In Metro Detroit, Is-
rael is currently being well repre-
sented by 17-year-old Omri Kauf-
man.
Now in his second visit to the
U.S., Omri was nominated by his
high school for this exchange pro-
gram because of his good grades and
involvement in student government.
He passed through a series of inter-
views to become one of five students
chosen to participate in the program,
sponsored by the Eisendrath Inter-
national Exchange, a Reform organ-
ization with offices in New York and
Jerusalem. Thirty-five American
Jews are currently in Israel under
the EIE program.
Temple Israel of West Bloom-
field agreed to make arrangements
for one of those five students. The
temple contacted the Mellen family,
says Marge Mellen, because of her
son Michael's involvement in the
temple's youth group. Michael, 17, is
vice president of the group, which
also includes his sister Cheryl, 16.
The Mellens have another daughter,
Melissa, 11.
"We felt it would be an ex-
tremely worthwhile experience for
our family," said Marge. "I suppose
that (husband) Bob's and my philos-
ophy is that, being Jewish, we open
our home to other Jews. But more
than anything, we felt that it would
just be a wonderful, worthwhile ex-
perience for our own children and for
ourselves."
Temple Israel, the Kaufman
family and the EIE share Omri's ex-
penses.
After spending three weeks in a
Jewish camp in Warwick, N.Y., with
300 kids from several different coun-
tries, Omri arrived in Michigan Aug.
10. He will return to Israel in late
December. He attends West Bloom-
field High School, where he is a
member of the varsity swim team,
and tries to answer the many ques-
tions his fellow students have about
Israel.
Omri visited the U.S. for the
first time on a one month tour in
1985, sponsored by the New York-
based Israeli-American Friendship
League. The tour involved speaking
to high school students in Portland,
Me. and Memphis, Tenn. He gave a
20-minute speech with general in-
formation about Israel, then an-
swered questions.
"I found a lot of difference be-
tween the questions that I get now
and the questions that I got then,"
he says, because last year's tour did
not take him to any predominantly
Jewish areas.
Some of the questions came be-
cause of ignorance, because people
didn't know about Israel. So they
ask, 'where do we park the camels,
when we come to the high school?'
So I like to make jokes of it, I say,
we don't eat hot dogs in Israel, we
eat hot camels.'
Most of the questions were
about our hobbies as teenagers in Is-
rael, what is our attitude toward
United States, about our food, cul-
ture, langauge. They were really in-
terested in the Hebrew, because
when I came, I said, 'My name is
Omri,' and I wrote it in English and
Hebrew, so they say, 'Hey, you write
backwards.' And I had to explain,
this is not backward, you write
backward, because Hebrew is more
ancient.'
Now I get much more compli-
cated questions because I found out
that a lot of Jews in West Bloomfield
have been to Israel. So they know a
great deal about Israeli history and
about places in Isreal. So sometimes
they ask me questions that I'm not
always comfortable with, because I
have certain opinions, and it's not
always representative of Israel."
Omri lives in the Mellen's West
Bloomfield home, sharing the base-
ment with Mike. The walls near his
bed have been somewhat
Continued on next page
WEST BLOOMFIELD
H1G
SCHOOL
Omri, center, with
his host "brother"
and "sister", Cheryl
and Michael
Mellen.
,
Bo b McKeow n
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