44 | APRIL 8 • 2021 

ERETZ

A

n experimental program has made 
it possible for Detroit Jewish teens 
to personally share experiences 
with Ethiopian teens in Israel. The first par-
ticipants in this new BBYO program report 
enormous success.

NITZAN’S STORY
I am always amazed by how quickly teens 
connect to each other and how they form 
these connections in their 
own unique ways and develop 
friendships that often last a 
lifetime. After COVID-19 
descended upon us last spring 
and forced everyone to shelter 
at home, I decided to make 
lemonade out of COVID 
lemons and create a platform 
to enable these beautiful teen connections to 
form in a digital world.
BBYO joined together with the Ethiopian 
National Project (ENP), an organization in 
Israel that works to ensure the successful 
integration of Ethiopian Israelis into Israeli 
society, to launch a program called Bridges 
Buddies. The initiative is a Federation-
supported ENP program that helps ENP 
participants improve their spoken English 
and allows American Jewish teens to learn 
about Ethiopian Jewish culture.
Without knowing how it would turn 
out, we arranged virtual meetings every 
other Sunday between Ethiopian Israeli 
teens and BBYO teens from the U.S., 
and created a partnership based on the 
Partnership2Gether twin cities in Israel: 
Migdal HaEmek-Detroit and Ashkelon-
Baltimore.
The program enabled teens from differ-
ent backgrounds to meet, laugh, learn and 
explore their cultures together in a very 

natural way. Each meeting focused on a 
different topic and, during our sessions, 
we started out as one big group and then 
divided into smaller breakout rooms, which 
allowed conversations to evolve and become 
more personal. 
As a leader in the group, I could have 
taught BBYO teens about Chanukah cele-
brations in Israel or about the alyiot (Jewish 
immigrants) from Ethiopia, but it was so 
much more personal for them to learn about 
it from an Israeli teen. And the same goes 
on the other side; I could have talked about 
celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving 
to Israeli teens, but it was better for them to 
hear it firsthand from American teens who 
grew up with these holidays and traditions. 
I chose to work with Ethiopian commu-
nities in Israel because I felt their stories and 
traditions needed to be heard, and I wanted 
to expose Jewish teens in the U.S. to this 
special community. Ethiopian Jews have a 
beautiful culture and traditions that show 
Israel in a very different way than most 
others. 
This program truly brought light into 
my life and filled my Sundays with joy 
and hope. It demonstrated how teens can 
become friends and form connections 
through virtual spaces (in addition to real-
life spaces), and I’m excited to share that we 
are starting three new cohorts of the pro-
gram this spring!

DREW’S STORY
As a teen participant in the ENP program 
from BBYO Michigan Region, I am fortu-
nate to have experienced the power of this 
incredible program. I had an opportunity to 
learn about the culture of other teens, who 
are Jewish like me, but live halfway across 
the world and have very different traditions 

than I do. 
Despite a pandemic that has lasted more 
than a year, and thanks to the power of tech-
nology, I learned firsthand 
there are still opportunities to 
connect with others no mat-
ter where they live. The ENP 
program brought this to life. 
I never could have imagined 
meeting Ethiopian teens from 
Israel from the comfort of my 
own home. 
One part of the program I especially 
enjoyed was the social interaction. During 
the week, it was hard to get out of my house 
as the COVID-19 numbers were getting 
worse in Michigan. However, on Sunday at 
11, I knew I had the chance to be social at 
our weekly ENP program meetings.
Another part of the program I liked was 
learning about a different culture. I found 
it surprising how differently we do similar 
things such as celebrating Jewish holidays. 
I am so thankful that Michigan Region 
was a part of the first test run of the ENP 
program. I hope other regions can par-
ticipate in this even after the pandemic is 
over because it is not every day one gets 
the opportunity to create relationships with 
peers across the world in a “face-to-face set-
ting” through a Zoom lens.
I learned a lot from the ENP program, 
and I am certain that anyone else who par-
ticipates in future cohorts will, too. 

Nitzan Ben-Shaya is the Washington, D.C.-based 

Maccabi World Union Shlichah at BBYO. To learn 

more about the Bridges Buddies program, contact 

her at nbenshaya@bbyo.org

Drew Cohen lives in West Bloomfield and is a senior 

at Bloomfield Hills High School. He is a member 

of Fisher AZA and currently serves as the regional 

shaliach of BBYO Michigan Region.

Nitzan 
Ben-Shaya

Drew Cohen

BBYO connects Ethiopian 
Israeli and American teens.

Bridge Over
International
Waters

Ethiopian Israeli teens and Michigan teens joined in weekly Zoom calls.

