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Filed under: In The News
High school grads tutor refugees. Credit: Garin Tzedek
Case in point: Fifty-two high-school grads taking part in a year of study in Israel have launched Garin Tzedek (Hebrew for "Seed of Justice"), a group supporting refugees of the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region who have taken shelter in the country.
The teens, most of them alumni of Young Judaea summer camps, which focus on learning about and supporting Israel, are students in Young Judaea's post-high-school "Year Course." Since the fall, they have renovated and manned day care centers for the refugees; taught them introductory English; worked to secure medical and legal services for them; increased awareness about their plight; and raised more than $1,600 for supplies and educational materials.
The teens say that, for them, the work is part of their goal of living lives guided by Jewish values and social justice.
"Garin Tzedek wasn't some isolated incident in my overall education," says cofounder Noah Berman, 19, of Minnetonka, Minn., who has been accepted at the University of Minnesota.
He first met refugees from Darfur on a youth trip to Israel in 2008. "I wanted to continue the experiences of tikkun olam [the Jewish concept of "repairing the world"], Jewish thinking, and active learning that I had in Young Judaea. I kind of put two and two together with my peers and the Garin was started."
His experience, Berman says, has taught him that every person should constantly "assess his or her surroundings and try to improve them."
For him and his peers, that means supporting the refugees. For other students, in other courses in other countries, it may mean something else.
"For those who aren't yet involved, all it requires is to make the effort to do something. Do whatever your abilities allow."
Related: Should America Be English-Only, or Speak More Than One Language?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-17-2010 @ 2:22PM
JAN KULICK said...Great work!
Reply