Students from Orayta Yeshiva Adopt Afikim Children for the Third Year
American Big Brother
This is the third year that students at the Orayta Yeshiva in the Jewish Quarter join weekly activities at the Jerusalem branches of Afikim. The highly successful Big Brother program promotes English studies while emphasizing emotional and experiential activities.
The Big Brother program at Afikim, which has been running for three years, connects different worlds and backgrounds and provides emotional strength to the mentor. The special relationship between the American students and the children from families at risk, brings together “two different worlds” that become one heart, giving both sides unique tools for life.
Close Cooperation
The close cooperation between the educational and spiritual staff at Orayta, including Rabbi Benny Friedman and Rabbi Noam Himmelstein, is amazing, and becoming closer every year. As in previous years, in September 2012, Moshe Yosef Lefkowitz, Director of Afikim, spoke to the new and eager students, who started the third round of amazing giving and volunteering. This year the number of Big Brothers in the study and enrichment program in Afikim, has doubled.
The Students Receive Professional Guidance and Support
The American students meet with mentors and are taught how to teach English, with an emphasis on the connection and communication with the young children from families at risk. The children receive immense strength and enrichment
from their relationship with the American students who open their eyes to a different America than they see on TV. Students, who have participated in this program over the past three years testify to the fact that the mentor is the one who benefits, as the students are left with a feeling that they have gained emotional and personal strength, as is quoted in Talmud “From all those who I have taught, I have learned the most.”
The students talk about meeting a different side of Israel, of having a sense of acquaintance, connection and responsibility with the true State of Israel, the one that is apparent to every tourist visiting Israel for a short time.
