Newsletter Category

Shorashim has entered the blogosphere and our published articles and photographs are making a splash internationally. This summer, the CCP and Taglit-Birthright Israel groups frequently posted blogs created by participants to offer their friends and family a glimpse into life on Shorashim program. In addition, Shorashim staff members are contributing writers to blogs in the Jewish blogosphere including OyChicago and Project Incite.

• Taglit- Birthight Israel Blogs: http://israelwithisraelis.com/advanced_blog/list
• CCP/Shorashim High School Program Blog: http://shorashim.org/ccp-blog
• Shaliach Shahar Gal writes post his reflections of Yom Haatzmaut. http://projectincite.blogspot.com/2010/05/reflections-on-yom-haatzmaut.html.
• Program Director Sharna Marcus is a monthly contributor to OyChicago at http://www.oychicago.com/bio.aspx?id=2802.

We wish you a very happy Passover holiday and hope that you have an enjoyable and relaxing Seder tonight. May the meaning of freedom bring you joy and give you strength in all that you do!

These past couple of months have been busy ones here at Shorashim, as we finished up our Taglit-Birthright Israel season by bringing over 700 participants on their first trip to Israel. Although allocations are somewhat down for the summer, we enjoyed record registration for our summer groups, and look forward to bringing many more people on this amazing experience.

We were proud to partner again with the Jewish National Fund (JNF) on their fourth annual Alternative Spring Break to Israel. College students and young adults engaged in awesome and meaningful projects like "Earth's Promise" in which they helped Ethiopian immigrants in Beer Sheva build sustainable urban gardens on neglected city land. Many of the participants attended the opening of the new indoor playground in Sderot - a reinforced structure that gives children in the area a safe place to play.

Nearly twenty-two years ago, I made a decision that would change my life. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that participating in Shorashim/CCP’s inaugural high school venture to Poland would have such an impact. How could I have known? After all, I was just sixteen years old.

At the time, Hard Rock Café t-shirts from around the globe were the rage. While my high school peers set off for their 1987 summer adventures vowing to grab trendy Hard Rock t-shirts in Los Angeles, London, Chicago, etc., my CCP traveling companions and I joked about Hard Rock Café Warsaw and Hard Rock Café Auschwitz. Yes, we joked. We had to – out of nervousness of course.

While others sought summer fun at camps, on family trips, and on teen entertainment adventures, we were choosing to go to Auschwitz. The payoff was five promising weeks in Israel; but Auschwitz? No doubt, we thought each other to be nuts. Recently, I have been thinking a lot about Auschwitz. Not because I have a morbid fascination with the Shoah, but more because twenty-two years after stepping foot in Auschwitz, after seven additional trips to Poland as a counselor for Shorashim, after countless summers teaching and preparing Shorashim groups for their upcoming trips, and after teaching about genocide in my own high school English courses, the current world climate dictates that the Shorashim experience, and remembering and traveling to Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Warsaw is more important than ever.

While we don't intend to overload you with news every month, there is a lot going on at the moment (some good, some not) that we thought you would like to know. Israel is at war on its southern border as Shorashim safely continues to operate its Taglit-Birthright Israel programs. We successfully brought to a safe conclusion our partner programs with JNF (Alternative Winter Break) and JUF (KOLOT: The Israel-Centered Teen Giving Circle). The conflict, however, has a deep impact on the lives of our Israeli alumni and staff. In particular, Yakki and Yossi Samet - brothers who have been participants and staff on countless Shorashim trips - are currently serving in and around Gaza. Yakki who is a surgeon and who also served in Lebanon in the Summer of 2006, is now one of Shorashim's medical consultants. Just recently, he was seeing sick participants in his living room in Jerusalem. Yossi was the lead staff person for one of our JNF Alternative Winter Break trips when he was called to reserve duty. These are just two of the many alumni, their fathers, brothers, husbands, and friends, who have been called to duty. We all pray for their safe return.