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September 20, 2002
VTT welcomes Israelis
Visit brings friendship and a better understanding.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Some distinct differences between Israel and Canada became clear
as soon as 20 visiting Israeli high school students stepped off
the plane at YVR: They were greeted by Vancouver Talmud Torah (VTT)
officials and boarded a bus that was not armored. There was no armed
chaperone either.
The students spent a week billeted with Talmud Torah students' families
and participated in events at the school, including a community
evening, where they were introduced, and a morning event where they
performed a short dramatic presentation on the theme of forgiveness
in anticipation of Yom Kippur.
Aside from security issues, there were other things that struck
the Israelis immediately.
"It's quiet in Canada," said Ravid Navo. "Israel
is more fast."
He also noted that Diaspora Jews, based on his observation in Vancouver,
tend to be more observant Jews, while the residents of his community
at home are fairly secular. At his school, the students refer to
their teachers by their first names, so the honorifics used at Talmud
Torah struck him as formal.
Yuval el Maliach shared Navo's observations and added that images
that strike fear in Israel are met with nonchalance here.
"When you see an ambulance [in Vancouver] you know it is for
an accident," she said.
She also noted the open space and the enormity of ordinary North
American life.
"Everything is big," said el Maliach. "The houses,
the food, the people."
Though there are differences between the two societies, what impressed
Israeli and Canadian students the most was the similarities they
shared.
"We're teenagers and we like the same things," said Navo.
The students, from VTT's twin school, Har Va Guy in the Upper Galil,
visited the Vancouver Jewish high school for a week, returning to
Israel on Sept. 12. They left behind new friends and promises of
future visits here and in Israel.
"We want to go back, but we don't want to leave," said
Navo the day before the trip ended.
The trip was the first visit to North America for most of the students
and, while it was a learning experience for the Israelis, it was
also an eye-opener for some of their new Canadian friends.
"I didn't think I'd be able to relate to these people, but
I did," said Esty Yekutieli, a Talmud Torah student whose family
billeted one of the Israelis.
Elysha Ames, another VTT student, said the bonds came quickly. Soon
after the Israelis arrived, the group marched en masse into a Starbucks
where they got to know each other over cups of West Coast fuel.
Long-stay Israelis
Though the Har Va Guy Israelis have returned home, two other young
Israelis are here for a longer sojourn.
Inbal Lando of Beersheva and Galit Yager of Petah Tikvah are in
Vancouver for a year, working with both VTT and Shaarey Tefilah
Synagogue. Their visit here is part of a national service program
that is an alternative to military service. The pair arrived about
a month ago and will be here for a full year, helping VTT students
with their Hebrew and Talmud studies, and organizing Shabbat programs
for children at Shaarey Tefilah.
Lando acknowledged that she can be a bit homesick, noting that everything
she encounters here is different from the religious community she
lives in at home.
"We miss Israel a lot," she said. "We miss the country
and we miss people too."
While some of the visiting high school students noted that Canadian
Jews seemed more religious than some Israelis, Yager has a somewhat
different view.
"In Israel, the religious people are religious and, if you're
not, you're not," she said. While Israelis tend to be either
Orthodox in their observance or secular, the Canadians Yager met
tended to be somewhere in between.
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