Write On For Israel 2009-2011
On June 13, 2010, we em-barked on an unforgettable, life-changing journey. Admittedly, the majority of teens who take trips to Israel claim their trips to be life-changing, but our trip with Write On For Israel (WOFI) was a truly unique experience.
WOFI is a two-year Israel advocacy program for high school juniors and seniors that [...]
The intense workload and time commitment made me hesitant to apply for Write On For Israel. Amnon Ophir, who runs the program, repeatedly told me to apply and eventually I did (to stop his nagging). If not for Amnon, I would have missed out on a truly outstanding program and an unforgettable trip to Israel.
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In covering the tiny but diverse country of Israel, the media usually narrows its scope to bombs, tanks and war. But Israel is so much more.
To share with the community, both Jewish and non-Jewish, another aspect of Israel, WOFI utilized soft advocacy focusing on culture. On January 22, teens from myriad area high schools [...]
On February 16, 2011, six Write On For Israel seniors traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby six Ohio senators and representatives and their staffers. In preparation, Amy Kaplan, director of government relations for the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, worked tirelessly with us for four months. We divided into pairs, each pair researching a particular Israel-related [...]
I can’t help but love graffiti in all its rude glory. On a previous Israel trip, a friend led me around the nation and described why each tag and mural we saw was good or bad, commissioned or fly-by-night, ‘flow’ or messy. While I’m no aficionado, I have developed a taste for the art in [...]
To watch a foreign film or study a painting is one thing, but to understand the story behind the work is quite another. Escaping the scorching Netivot heat in a cool, air-conditioned theater, we gathered to hear three Sephardic artists: painter Neta Elkayam, and the film directors Ronen Amar and David Gavro [3]. These talented [...]
It is always exciting to meet someone who is extremely passionate and ardent about her work. This summer, we had the privilege of spending the day with the beautiful young artist Neta Elkayam [4] in her hometown, Netivot. She graciously brought all of us to her house where she led us up a flight of [...]
There was not a dry eye in the house as the audience stood for an ovation and then made its way onto the stage to greet the actors. Being an audience member at “Not by Bread Alone,” a play comprised of eleven deaf-blind actors, was certainly one of the highlights of my spectacular journey in [...]
Taking place in the home office of Ella, a psychologist [2], the play “Oh, God” initially seemed quite dull until there was an unexpected knock on the door .An old man in a black coat walks in to tell Ella that he needs an emergency session: He has fallen into a deep depression and wants [...]
For most, attending an Israeli concert is a unique cultural experience. For WOFI, simply attending Israeli band Karolina’s concert was not enough. After the fun concert, we got to have a backstage interview with Karolina [2]. She told us she didn’t start singing until high school when she was around 16-17 years old. Once she [...]
When someone says “Yellow Submarine,” I usually think of The Beatles and start subconsciously humming “We all live in a yellow submarine…” But when I entered the door of a warehouse-looking club in Jerusalem called The Yellow Submarine, all I could think was “cool.”
I was there to see MC Karolina, an Israeli singer who [...]
Watching David Gavro’s prize-winning documentary “Sisai” was part of our preparation for our trip. This film is about a 20-year-old Ethiopian Jew (Sisai) adopted by the Gavro family in Israel, who goes on a quest to find his birth father. Directed by Sisai’s stepbrother David, “Sisai” won Best Documentary Award at the Jerusalem International Film [...]
Experience Israel Through Film
WOFI Cleveland, CJN, Siegal College, The JECC, the JFC and @Akiva invite you to
(May 3-16, 2011)
Films are free & open to the public.Write On For Israel is a joint project of
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