Family Focus

A Scout's
Perspective

Israel Scouts experience
America on national tour.

Yosef

Aaron, 5, of

Southfield
with Scout

Asaf

Mazursky of
Ganey Tikva

marks his

birthday at
Rothstein

Park in Oak

Park.

Scout Sharon Valevski of Tel Aviv performs at Rothstein Park.

Robert A. Sklar
Editor

S

he waited seven years for the
chance to sing and dance in
America with the Israel Scouts.
Now that she has the opportunity, Sharon
Valevski is ecstatic.
"It has been a real eye-opener;' says the
17-year-old from Tel Aviv."It makes you
more mature as a person and more loyal to
your country"
Valevski is the daughter of Aviva, a pedi-
atric neurologist, and Ari, a psychiatrist.
She is one of 30 special ambassadors in
the Tzofim Friendship Caravan, part of the
Israel Scouts' U.S. delegation this summer.
She and nine other Scouts on a 10-
week singing and dancing tour of 18
states performed in Ann Arbor and Metro
Detroit July 9-17. Performance sites for
Caravan Meyron (Mountain) included
Tamarack Camps in Ortonville, Temple
Israel and Congregation Beth Ahm in
West Bloomfield, the Washtenaw County
JCC in Ann Arbor, the Eugene and Marcia
Applebaum Jewish Community Campus
in West Bloomfield and Rothstein Park in
Oak Park. Caravan Meyron co-leaders are
Ido Brum of Ramat Gan and Yael Altshuler

B16

July 24 • 2008

of Petach Tikva, both 24.
After the army, Valevski hopes to "do
Part of the Scouts' mission is to help
something that allows me to feel I did all
North American Jews deepen their Jewish
that I could for my country"
identity and their alliance with Israel. In
Valevski, a secular Jew, has visited
return, the Scouts experience our tapestry
America three times. She has family living
of ways to be Jewish.
in New York.
Caravan Scouts are all just one year from
Israeli kids grow up feeling all Jews
enlistment in the Israeli Defense
Forces. Valevski is an incoming senior
at Alliance High School in Tel Aviv.
She joined the Scouts in the fourth
grade. Since then, she has been a reg-
ular participant in all that the Scouts
have to offer in helping community,
supporting Zionism and developing
character. This year, she also was a
counselor at a boys' boarding school.
Valevski tried out for the Tzofim
Friendship Caravan in January. A rig-
orous five-month schedule of perfor- Arielle Wittenberg, 3, of Berkley with Scout
mance rehearsals and cultural semi-
Hilly Perlman of Ganey Tikva in Oak Park
nars followed. She missed 11th-grade
final exams, but will take them in the fall.
should live in Israel.
Valevski looks forward to joining the
"But as they get to know Americans, that
army after high school to serve her two-
impression changes;' Valevski says. "It's so
year commitment. Her brother, Dani, 24,
amazing how much Americans believe in
has completed his army service. He's now
Israel."
studying at the University of Tel Aviv and
She says Israeli teens are more mature
working at Google's offices in Modi'in. Her
than their American counterparts. She says
brother, Uri, 22, is an IDF officer.
her peers by necessity are more interested

in world affairs.
"In Israel, teens listen to the news
and read newspapers:' she says. "Here in
America, teens have their own subjects
that they care about. And there's no man-
datory army service; teens go directly to
college."
Valevski has high regard for Young
Judaea, teen missions, Birthright Israel
and other excursions that bring young
Americans to Israel.
"The participants not only become more
mature, but also more connected to Israel
and more involved with who they are as
Jews," she says. "It's so amazing what a trip
to Israel can do."
Israeli teens closely followed news
developments leading up to the Israeli-
Hezbollah prisoner swap on July 16.
Israelis didn't have much hope the
two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in
2006, reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud
Goldwasser, were still alive. Hamas cap-
tured a third soldier about the same time,
Gilad Shalit, who remains in captivity.
"Every time we got to the Internet, we'd
try to find out what was new;' Valevski
says. "The soldiers were so close to us.
"We dedicated one of our songs to
them:"

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