Bat Yam 2009: Cuba, El Salvador, Toronto, and Yemin Orde

Last week we recieved a visit to the Kadima centre by a Birthright Group from Toronto, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was a great opportunity for the kids to meet jews from all over the world, and for the birthright group to give back for the wonderful 10 day gift that they had recieved. The leaders of the kadima centre explained to the birthright group how life in Israel differs from life everywhere else.

Making specific reference to Gilad Shalit, the leaders explained to their group that life here is effected by many different events and actions. Afterwards they got the opportunity to build gift care baskets for Soldiers with the birthright group. The kids really enjoyed the activity and our group also had fun building these baskets with the group.

Then on Sunday we had the unique opportunity of visiting a youth village in the north, called Yemin Orde.

As we arrived there we met Racheli, who gave us a tour around the beautiful village. Yemin Orde is home to more the 500 disadvantaged, homeless or at-risk youngsters from twenty-two different countries. As we toured around the village, we learned about the many students who called Yemin Orde their home.

The collection of cultures brought by individual students from various different parts of the world made Yemin Orde a very interesting and important place to visit.

While we were there we took time to learn about the Ethiopian culture, and to see some unique cultural props which we might not have seen anywhere else.