ISRAEL

Judy Solomon and Ma'ayan Bashan feed calves at Beit Hashita.

A Different Class

American teens discover a different world
during a one-year course in Israel.

16-year-old to leave home for
a year and go to Israel?
AVA CARMEL
Some are children of Israeli
Special to The Jewish News
expatriates who want their
children to experience life in
he twelve 11th-grade
the "homeland!' Others, like
students are on their
Mitchell Caplan of London,
way back to class after
Ontario, wanted to "do
lunch. In Israel less than a
something supportive for
week, they meander barefoot
Israel, not just watch the
across the broad kibbutz
news about Israel on televi-
lawn, griping about the
sion. Here you can do
`gross" food and marveling
something about it. I would
about the fact that you don't
have liked to have been here
need money here.
during the Gulf War."
This is this year's
Avraham Harris of Hollis,
American Class" at Kibbutz
N.H., on the other hand, came
V eit Hashita. It is an offshoot
purely to "experience the kib-
of a similar one-year program
butz, where everybody does
for 10th-graders, operating
his share and is held in equal
since 1969 at Kibbutz Kfar
esteem."
Blum.
Pinchas Rimon, recently
The U.S. and Canadian
retired director of the Kfar
students spend a year on kib-
Blum program, immigrated
butz and attend the kibbutz
from Chicago over 40 years
high school five days a week.
ago. The aim of the program,
In addition to Hebrew, Bible
he says, is to "enhance
and Israeli geography, they
Jewishness, Jewish knowl-
study a standard American
edge and identity, a sense of
curriculum in English with
nationhood and Jewish cul-
veteran Israeli educators and
tural values!' He explains
immigrant teachers from the
United States and other ' that short, summer trips
don't give the youngsters a
English-speaking countries.
chance to "cast off their
What prompts a 15- or

T

`

tourist mantle!' An entire
year on kibbutz allows them
to "begin to view Israel as an
Israeli!'
Participation in daily com-
munal life means working
one day a week in the cow-
shed, orchards or hatchery
with other young kibbutz-
niks, eating meals in the kib-
butz dining room and spen-
ding evenings with one's
"adopted" kibbutz family.

An entire year On
kibbutz allows
them to "begin to
view Israel as an
Israeli."

About 20 percent of the
students eventually opt to set-
tle in Israel. Avi Fisher, a
wistful 26-year-old from
Memphis, Tenn., graduated
from the program 10 years
ago. After studying English
in college, he returned to
Israel to serve in the IDF.
Now in his army uniform,
with his rifle at his side, he
lunches on felafel in the kib-

butz dining room.
"Most of my friends are now
studying medicine," he says.
"I also started pre-med, but
now my priorities have
changed. Army service won't
give me something concrete,
but if I ever do decide to make
aliyah, I'll feel I've done my
part. The army is the best
way to integrate into Israeli
society!"
Kippy Flur, a spunky
mother of three, hails from
Los Angeles. She was in the
third class at Kfar Blum in
1971 and later returned to
marry one of the kibbutzniks.
"I came in the early '70s at
the end of the Vietnam War,"
she says. "It was very popular
to be unpatriotic in America
and I was looking for
something to identify with.
When I came here I found a
very healthy peer group. Even
the partying was good, clean
fun — just letting loose — and
no drugs!"
The Flur family now adopts
a member of the American
class every year. Why?
"That's the way we are on the
kibbutz — hospitable. We

open our homes and our
hearts. My own children love
having a big brother or sister
around and some years we
develop really close relation-
ships with the Americans. I
am still very close with the
family that adopted me!'
The Kfar Blum class num-
bers 18 this year. Friday after-
noon they are cleaning the
yard outside their rooms —
joking, laughing, already feel-
ing at ease with one another,
but still awkward in their
new surroundings. By the end
of the school year they will
blend in and speak fluent
Hebrew. Most will be able to
read the Bible in Hebrew and,
after 24 days of hiking tours,
will know the country pretty
well.
Pinchas Rimon is proud
that during the Gulf War not
a single member of either
American class left. Kippy
Flur adds, "When the war
broke out I got a lot of phone
calls from former American
class students we had adopted
years ago. It was such a good
feeling to have so many peo-
ple caring about us!' ❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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