In celebration of my twentieth year at Wise, it was my wish that we would provide a means to support our young adults who seek to devote a few months or a year to meaningful efforts to mend our world. With the generous donations of many, we established the Wise Tikkun Olam Leadership Scholarship. Our first young adult scholarship went to Ava Zeidler, a long-time Wise member, graduate of our Religious School, teaching assistant, and an important member of our Wise Camp staff for years. Ava requested the scholarship for her to participate in the Young Judaea Year Course in Israel and volunteer in service to the country. This week’s kavanot will feature Ava’s account of her experience in Israel and her reflection on the impact it had on her life. If you know of a high school graduate (and older) wishing to devote significant time to community service who would benefit from scholarship funds, please share this link with them.
— Rabbi Ron Stern
During the first lockdown, in September 2020, I quarantined for the first two weeks in a room with three other roommates on the Hebrew University campus in East Jerusalem called Kiryat Moriah. After a few weeks, we started to have daily routines and a schedule. My favorite classes were: Ulpan (intensive Hebrew language learning), MasterChef (an interactive class taking us to local homes where we got to learn about new cultures, meet families and try new homemade foods). I really enjoyed my class called Politics Behind the Conflict. In our studies we traveled anywhere from the old city of Jerusalem to the Border of Gaza to get a visual perspective on the issues.
Towards the end of our first semester, which was in mid-December, we were sent on (Birthright) Taglit! This was by far one of the best weeks out of my whole time living in Israel. I joined a group of 25 young adults along with their incredible staff and tour guide. We all had the best time going on hikes in Sde Boker and doing water sports down in Eilat. Sadly our trip got cut short a few days due to the second lockdown at the end of December. We were then sent with our bags packed to Tel Aviv. They were not able to move us into our permanent housing since the lockdown had begun so abruptly so for that one month we stayed in the Abraham Hostel located near the very well known street Rothschild Blvd. This lockdown was different compared to the first one. We were able to explore the city of Tel Aviv limited to 1 kilometer from our home. Wisely avoiding the hostel food, we enjoyed preparing our own meals after shopping in Israeli markets. Time passed quickly and on February 30 we moved just down the street into a smaller, cozier hostel called The Little Tel Aviv Hostel. The other 70 participants stayed at the Young Judaea near the Sarona Market. I was very happy with my placement and the people I lived with.
— Ava Zeidler