Esther Rules
While the Hebrew of the Purim Megilla may have confounded even some of Ibim's best language students, 
not a one missed Haman's name when it was read. Only too reminiscint of Iran's despicable President Ahmadinejad, each time round, Haman's name evoked a hefty chorus of angry jeers. After the Megillah was completed, the students headed off to a big party to celebrate the villain's demise with games, dancing, a costume contest and food stands.
Cats, spacemen, queens and burglars:
Ibim students prepare their costumes
for the post-Megillah Purim bash.
Citizenship has its Advantages
Throughout the month of March, all of Ibim's new Israeli citizens were given an elementary lesson in citizenship, touching on the deeper meaning, as well as the practicalities of their new identity. The Jerusalem Seminar began with a visit to Yad Vashem, a first-time introduction for some into the horrors that were the Holocaust of European and North African Jewry. The next stop was an overview of the workings of Israel's government at the Givat Ram complex, where students got a glimpse of the Knesset, Supreme Court and the Ministry Offices. The rest of the seminar focused on Jerusalem, the capital of Israel and of the Jewish people, its past, its present and its inimitable beauty.
|
 As happens every Spring, Ibim students don khaki and set out for a week of roll-calls, obstacle courses, standing at attention and lots of military jargon. They get an introduction to the IDF in which most of them will eventually serve and a chance to get to know each other in a different surrounding. As usual, Ibim students, thanks to the super-motivated Kedma (Ethiopian) group were awarded titles of excellence.
| |
|
 Grabbing rollers and masking tape, Israeli students from the nearby Sapir College helped new immigrant students paint their apartments before Passover. A swash of hard work and dabs of fun put a new color on this incipient relationship.
| |
Angles on Atlit
The struggles of the Yishuv (pre-State Jewish community) are a fascinating chapter in the long history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. A visit to the town of Zichron Ya'akov, established in the 1880s by First Aliyah immigrants, gave Ibim students a taste of what life was like for those pioneers, and for Jews under Turkish rule in the Land of Israel.
The students commenced their acquaintance with the saga of Jewish illegal immigration during the British Mandate with a trip to Atlit. Even for Jews trapped in war-ravaged Europe of WWII, and later for those DPs desperate to start a new life and find a home, the British stubbornly limited admission to Palestine. Thousands upon thousands tried to enter illegaly, and many of those caught (the majority) were initially placed in the Atlit Detention Camp, south of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast. In a memorable act of daring on a dark night in 1945, a Palmach unit led by Yitzchak Rabin sprang hundreds of detainees, leading them to safe havens throughout the Galilee. After Israel's independence, the detention camp became an immigrant camp receiving many of the hundreds of thousands of new arrivals from Europe and North Africa. Today, the camp is reconstructed as a museum and educational center for youth and adults from Israel and abroad.
The Jewish Agency organizes an annual event at Atlit for all program participants. The riveting history of Atlit and the powerful experience of meeting thousands of young Jews from all over the world left our students with memories, inspirations, hopes and a feeling that they are part of the dream shared by so many before them to create a better home in a Jewish homeland.
For more information about Ibim-San Diego Student Village:
Contact Soni Singer, Director, SoniS@jafi.org