Newsletter Category

Club Israel Impacts Classrooms Across Chicago-Area

Posted Wed, 01/04/2012 - 15:52 by Sharna Marcus

Who do you call if you need to teach your students about Israeli culture? Who do you contact if you want to schedule an Israeli cultural performance? Where can you find the best programs related to Israel? Club Israel! Ask the 57 classes that Shorashim has visited this semester and they will share with you the highlights of our programming. 

Chicago area students have attended excursion days at the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, experienced hours of Israeli culture, learned about Israeli pop music, debated about democracy and freedom of speech in Israel, watched presentations on Israeli hi tech inventions, and much much more thanks to our staff in Chicago and visitors from Israel. 

Our second semester calendar is filling up fast, but we still have dates available to bring Israel to your classroom. Contact Director of Education Sharna Marcus for more information at sharna@shorashim.org or 312-239-8428. 

Welcome to Our New Israeli Educator: Lior Chacham!

Posted Wed, 01/04/2012 - 15:49 by Adam Stewart

Shorashim welcomes Lior Chacham to Chicago where he will begin his special educational role in late January.  Lior is no stranger to the Chicago area and has visited several times. He also has led the high school summer programs in 2009 and 2010 as well as countless Alternative Spring Breaks, Alternative Winter Breaks and Taglit-Birthright Israel trips.

Lior is from Kiryat Gat, Israel and is known for his uncanny knowlege of American culture, the English language and, of course, the history and people of Israel. His purpose in Chicago will be to deliver engaging and authentic Israel programmimg in schools, synangogues, and other youth settings.

If you would like Lior to speak or run a program at your synagogue, youth group, or school, contact the Shorashim office. 

Hebrew in Public Schools

Posted Fri, 01/15/2010 - 10:07 by Adam Stewart

Shalom, and welcome to another update from Shorashim.

These past few months, Shorashim - along with a number of partners in Chicago, including parents and students - have been dedicated to expanding and preserving Hebrew learning in the public schools in the Chicago-area. We are proud to say that last Monday, the Glenbrook High School District voted to add Hebrew to their course offerings and the Niles High School District elected to preserve the program that was considered for reduction. At the Niles High School District Board meeting, we were proud to see over a hundred community members - parents and students - come out to support the program (see video on our facebook page and the article in the Pioneer Press).

The new addition gives Chicago its seventh public-high school Hebrew program, and along with the offerings at jewish day schools and camp programs such as Chalutzim at OSRUI, makes Chicago the largest community of teen Hebrew learners in the world outside of Israel. For Shorashim's Club Israel, public high school Hebrew classes are where we are able to do some of our most creative work and we we continue to engage hundreds of students a month in Israeli culture and Hebrew language.

Shorashim Welcomes New Shaliach to Chicago

Posted Fri, 01/15/2010 - 05:03 by Sharna Marcus

Shorashim, in partnership with Habonim Dror - Camp Tavor and the Jewish Agency for Israel, welcomes its first Shaliach (emissary) to Chicago: long time Shorashim staffer Shahar Gal. Shahar’s passion for youth education started as a branch leader in the Hanoar Haoved movement in Israel. In the army, he served as an infantry solider and also worked with disadvantaged youth. Shahar is a licensed and accomplished tour educator in Israel.

Since arriving to Chicago, Shahar has been running Israel programs in local high schools and Israel clubs. He has also been reconnecting with Chicago Community Taglit-Birthright Israel groups that he has staffed in the past. During his time in Chicago, Shahar is also a fellow in Project Incite, a cohort of youth professionals who are to become part of the next generation of innovative Jewish educators. As part of the program, he participated in the ten-day seminar in Israel, after which he staffed a Chicago Community Taglit-Birthright Israel trip with students mostly from the University of Illinois.

Shahar is married to Lee Perry Gal - also a Shorashim educator - who is pursuing an advanced degree in ancient history and archaeology. They live in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago.

Chag Sameach - Happy Passover

Posted Wed, 04/08/2009 - 09:00 by Adam Stewart

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! Drawing by a kindergarten student at Temple Chai in Long Grove as part of an activity with Gilad Shalit's "When the Shark and the Fish First Met."

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.

Club Israel's March Madness

Posted Wed, 04/08/2009 - 08:30 by Miriam Brosseau

On Sunday, March 29th, Shorashim's Club Israel gathered eight teams of American and Israeli teens and their many fans in the Chicagoland Jewish High School gym to play for a cause - Israel.

The day began with the teams shooting hoops and listening to Israeli dance music to warm up. Gabe Axler, Shorashim’s Director of High School Programs, then gathered the group on the bleachers and introduced the afternoon. “Kiryat Gat has had a tough year,” Gabe recalled. “It sits within firing range of the missiles from Gaza. And that’s what makes today so much more meaningful- we have a group of Israeli teens here from that city, we’ll play some basketball, and help make some positive change in Israel.” Four teens from Kiryat Gat - Lachish - Shafir, Chicago's Partnership 2000 Region, then stepped up and introduced themselves.

They were visiting the States as part of a JUF-sponsored program called Kolot, which also focuses on philanthropy and teens making a difference in Israel. They talked about what the program meant to them, and how amazing it was to be a part of the games that day.

Upcoming Events and Opportunities

Posted Wed, 04/08/2009 - 08:00 by Adam Stewart

  • Join Shorashim, Young Judaea, Habonim Dror, and the Israel Scouts in an Israeli-style, community-wide Teen Yom HaZikaron/Yom Ha'atzmeut Ceremony on Sunday, April 26th, 5:00-7:00pm at Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah, 3220 Big Tree Lane, Wilmette, IL. More at clubisrael.org
  • Rediscover Israel - a moderately-priced program for young adults to reconnect with Israel this summer, July 29 - August 6, 2009. More information at www.shorashim.org/specialprograms
  • JNF Alternative Spring Break for Adults - an adult version of our partnership program with Jewish National Fund. More information at www.jnf.org/summerservice

Shalom from Shorashim

Posted Tue, 12/09/2008 - 18:26 by Adam Stewart

It's been a long time since many of you have heard from us.

We hope to change that with the launch of our newsletter, and also hope that you will be interested to hear all of the new and exciting ways that Shorashim continues to make Israel and Israelis a part of the lives of high school students and young adults.

Of course, the Shorashim/CCP High School Program (you may have known it as CCP, Shoresh, or Shorashim - it's all the same great program where Americans and Israelis travel together) is still the heart and soul of what we do. Last summer, two groups - over 50 high school students - traveled together to Poland, and then met 30 Israelis for the summer of their lives! This summer was marked by the inclusion of Israeli participants from the area of Sderot, who over the past year have had to endure relentless rocket attacks.

Many alumni do not know that Shorashim is also one of the largest providers for the Taglit-Birthright Israel experience - a free trip for Jewish 18 - 26 year olds who have never been to Israel on a peer program. This past year alone, Shorashim has brought over 1500 young adults on their first trip to Israel.

Club Israel Envisions Israel in 60 More Years

Posted Tue, 12/09/2008 - 16:15 by Miriam Brosseau

Shorashim launched Club Israel in 2004 in order to help bring high school students all over Chicago the very best in Israel educational and cultural programming; since then, thousands of students have benefited from this enterprise. Today, Club Israel is taking on new and innovative projects including high school excursion days, two year-long fellowships, a new website, and programs for public school Hebrew classes such as "Israel 2068,” which looked at the future of the Jewish state through the eyes of four writers and statesmen.

Etgar Keret, Israeli Author In September, Shorashim’s Club Israel visited several schools in Chicago (Niles North High School, Deerfield High School, New Trier High School, Evanston High School) offering a glimpse into the future of the Jewish state in honor of Israel’s sixtieth birthday.

Israel 2068 is a program based on TIME Magazine’s feature, Israel in 2068.  The premise of the feature was to ask twelve prominent writers, statesmen, and thinkers the following: Israel has existed for sixty years so far…how do you feel it will respond to the challenges and opportunities of the next sixty? Club Israel selected four of the twelve responses -  Israeli writer Etgar Keret, Talmudic scholar Adin Steinsaltz, former U.S. national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Holocaust survivor/writer/humanitarian Elie Wiesel. 

Why I Give Back to Shorashim

Posted Tue, 12/09/2008 - 14:10 by Josh Cohen

Josh Cohen 88 and Anne Lanski at the Alumni Reunion It wasn’t long ago that I re-connected with Shorashim, almost 20 years after my “Shoresh” trip to Israel and Poland. I was amazed to learn of all the things that they were doing - from Taglit-Birthright Israel to Club Israel, and of course, the summer program. I couldn’t believe it: Anne and Yossi were still there and the program had sent thousands of kids to Israel. They had a high school program reaching out to thousands more, ran an Israeli-American summer camp, and had launched many other successful projects and programs.

I felt pretty guilty. After all this non-profit organization had given me, and was now doing for thousands of others, it had not once called upon me for help. I started wondering if other alumni felt the same way and were interested in getting involved and reconnected, so I helped put together the reunion last Spring. Many of us were so fortunate to experience Shorashim or CCP because we had parents who understood the impact this program would have, and also could afford to send us.