November 2007

Advanced

Home

Aliyah & Absorption

Partnerships with Israel

Jewish Zionist Education

Regions

You are here :		Aliyah & Absorption		Publications		Ibim Newsletter		November 2007

Aliyah Application Form

November 2007, Volume 55

Dear Friends,

We are in the midst of the Chanukah season – the Festival of Lights and fabled Jewish heroism. The holiday has been a treat for all the Ibim students, giving them the opportunity to feel our community spirit and participate in a variety of activities.

We lit the first candle in our own, newly renovated and reinforced Ibim dining room, now a certified safe refuge from falling rockets. After traditional blessings and songs in three languages – Hebrew, Russian and Amharic -- the one hundred and fifty students played Bingo, learned the art of juggling, won prizes and ate healthy rations of jelly doughnuts.

Ibim's Natalie Yochina standing between Jewish Agency Chariman Zev Bielski and Natan Sharansky as she receives her Israeli citizenship card.
For the day of the second candle, the Selah students, already three months in Israel, set out on a journey in the footsteps of the Maccabis. After a day of adventure in the very spots where Antiochus was defeated, the students participated in a national event commemorating the struggle for Soviet Jewry. Presiding over the event was Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who welcomed the students as the second candle of Chanukah was lit. Students on the Selah program are granted Israeli citizenship and its accompanying identity card after three months in the country. Ibim student, Natalia Yochina, was one of the four student representatives who received an identity card directly from the Prime Minister as part of the celebratory proceedings of the evening.

I take this festive opportunity to wish you and yours a happy Chanukah.

Best Regards,
Soni Singer and the entire staff of
the Ibim-San Diego Student Village

Walking Ben Gurion's dream

The visionary leader of the Jewish Yishuv in pre-State Palestine and Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion never relented on his dream of settling the Negev. Setting a personal example, he resided in Kibbutz Sde Boker and regularly refreshed his soul and spirit in the awe-inspiring magnificence of the desert's serenity. The annual Ben Gurion March follows a seven kilometer path which he frequented, stretching over stark ridges and valleys of the Central Negev desert. Selah students joined the thousands of marchers as they passed David Ben Gurion's home in Sde Boker, the Valley of Zin and the Ben Gurion Study Center. The March culminated with a visit to the site of Ben Gurion's grave which overlooks the expanse of the Zin Valley.

Of Sound Body

Ibim played host to groups of immigrant students from Negev Absorption Centers from Arad in the East to Nitzana in the West for a day of sporting competitions. The group from Calanit Absorption Center in Ashkelon won first place and Ibim came in third. But Ibim received resounding accolades for its hospitality and spirit.

Ibim's proud athletes and supporters