Metro October 24-30, 2006 $1599 / person double occupancy Airfare from NYC included 3 days in Jerusalem • 2 days in the North = I unforgettable trip! Meet with people who have suffered from the recent war and let them know they are not alone. Let Israel know that Hadassah is here! Teachers Viki Shayna of Temple Beth Emeth, Cheryl Sugerman of Beth Israel Congregation, Karen Shill of Beth Israel and Beth Emeth, Ramona Brand of the Jewish Cultural Society, Eva Solomon of the Hebrew Day of Ann Arbor and Aaron Goldsmith of Beth Emeth. For more information about this and other Hadassah Renaissance missions, please contact Ayelet'', Ltd. 800-237- 15 17 • ayelet@ayelet.com www.ayelet.com It's not ,ust ass ststuse it, tar, Teachers travel to Israel for hands-on experience. Matt Kaplan Special to the Jewish News Ann Arbor nape the Detroit Jewish News delivered to your door every Thursday 248.351.5171, visit www.1Nonline.us call (click the subscribe link) or fill out and mail the form below II year@$56 1 2 years @$88 JAM me payment enclosed charge my card # Visa MasterCard exp date signature(required) name phone# street address city state zip email address would like to be contacted about special offers and/or sending a gift subscription mail to: Detroit Jewish News • PO Box 2.267. Southfield Ml 48034-2267 Please allow 2-3 weeks to begin delivery. In-state subscriptions only. Out of state price $75 for 1 year, $132 for 2 years. 28 September 14 • 2006 1N nachnu morim may- Amerika!" The sentence — We are teachers from America! — echoed off the hills and back to the 16 of us standing on Masada. It had become our group's motto in Israel. After 10 days, we shared a common identity as teachers and friends, and so it was somehow quite appropriate to hear that sentence spoken to us by the desert hills as we reached the end of our trip to Israel. The Ann Arbor teachers were part of the Israel Fellowship Program sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County and through a gen- erous gift from an anonymous donor. Patterned after a program of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's Alliance for Jewish Education, the program is designed to thank Jewish educators and enable them to learn more about Israel so they can bring that knowledge and passion back to the chil- dren in their classrooms. Six of the 15 teachers had never traveled to Israel. Four others had not been there since the 1970s or 1980s. Teachers came from Temple Beth Emeth, Beth Israel Congregation, the Early Childhood Center of the Jewish Community Center of Washtenaw County, the Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor and the Jewish Cultural Society. . Teachers included Lisa Bernstein, Ramona Brand, Ruth Freedman, Carol Gannon, Aaron Goldsm ith, Peretz Hirshbein, Lori Moizio, Judy Musket, Cindy Saper, Viki Shayna, Karen Shill, Eva Solomon, Linda Smith, Cheryl Sugerman and Stacey Tessler. Our trip focused on learning and, over the course of the trip, we learned in so many different ways. We learned about projects in our Partnership 2000 region in the Central Galilee, areas hard hit by the recent conflict. Partnership volunteers took us into their homes for dinner and told us about their lives in Israel. Hebrew Day School teachers met with their counterparts at the Nahalal School to discuss deepening their con- nections through an expanded curricu- lar exchange. Teachers from the other schools visited Israeli classrooms in the Nofim School in Migdal HaEmek, and had a chance to talk with teachers and administrators. Members of the Druze Women's Employment Project taught us about the economic struggles of the Druze and the incredible resilience and talent of Druze women who learn skills for starting their own small businesses. We learned from Jewish educa- tors who talked to our group. Beverly Gribetz told us about her experience as the principal of an Orthodox school for girls in Jerusalem. Yehuda Stolov of the Interfaith Encounter Association creates opportunities for people of dif- ferent religious backgrounds to gain a greater understanding of one another's cultures. We learned about courage and sacrifice from Adina, who fled Ethiopia and walked to Sudan before being able to make aliyah to Israel. How is it possible to convey to stu- dents the power of being in Israel? We will be talking about such practical issues in follow-up sessions here in Ann Arbor. A photography exhibit from the trip will run from September through mid- October at the JCC in Ann Arbor. E Matt Kaplan is the coordinator of Ann Arbor's Israel Fellowship Program.