Israeli Shlicha Letter to the Communities
April 27 , 2008
Dear community members of Alton, Belleville, Benton, Cairo, Carbondale and Paducah!
It's been a long time since I last wrote to you. The last couple of months have been by far the busiest I've had here, and I waited till I have some quiet time to do write in peace. The past week I've taken some time to rest and relax and now I feel ready for another one of these letters.
Since my last letter to you there have been many activities and programs in the different communities, far too many to list them all here, but I enjoyed the chance to see people from the different communities and interact with them. We've had Israeli book club meetings, movies, discussions, cooking class, Hebrew classes, Shabbat services together, etc.
I also had the chance to do more programs with the non-Jewish communities, like co-leading a Christian Seder in Symsonia, KY, and giving presentations of Israel, "Israel beyond the news", in different non-Jewish forums in Southern Illinois and in Western Kentucky. I'm looking forward to giving more of these presentations, so if you know of places (churches, schools, colleges, etc.) that would be interested in having one of those presentations, please let me know. The month of May would be a perfect time to do just that. Thanks to Anita Cooper of Alton and Becky Solomon of Paducah for arranging speaking opportunities for me, it was a lot of fun and I enjoy wearing the T-shirts I got from the schools...!
Last month we had a big Purim party with people attending from all distant corners of the huge area that our Federation covers and it was a lot of fun. We had music, games, good food and a wonderful Purim Spiel. This is my chance to say a big THANK YOU to Rabbi Jean Eglinton of Paducah for having given of her time, energies and creativity and for taking time away from her family to stage a wonderful Megillah reading at the party. Everyone enjoyed it so much and I kept hearing comments on how wonderful, cool, fun and creative Rabbi Jean is. I've always said she's amazing and this was a chance for others to see what I was talking about..
I also got a big help from Steve Low and Mike Schacter who brought booths from St. Louis and helped plan, prepare and set up for the party in addition to leading parts of it. Thanks also to Karen Uban, Isaac Uban and Eric McCormack from Benton for all the hard work they have done.
In the last couple of months I was glad to complete two more of our Israel @ 60 event series with having Israeli TV (channel 2) journalist, Sagi Bashan, speak in both SIUC and Murray State University (KY) on his experiences covering the different events in Sderot, a small town near the Gaza border, which has been under missile attacks for the past seven years. Thanks to Todd Hatton, MSU Hillel Director, for working hard on hosting this event and getting us such a good crowd. Thanks also to those of you who attended Sagi's lectures.
We also had the privilege of having Dr. Inon Schenker, director of international affairs for the Jerusalem AIDS Project, speak at SIUC on Israeli Humanitarian Aid missions in different areas in Africa and Asia. We had a good crowd there and Inon was interviewed to the DE. You can also find this at http://tinyurl.com/4o9gsv .
The two crown events of the Israel @ 60 series are just ahead of us. Next Sunday, May 4th, we're going to have a big, exciting and fun "Israel @ 60" Festival in Carbondale's Civic Center (11:00am - 4:00pm) with lots of music, performances, folk dancing, arts and crafts, games, food, face-painting and other fun corners in addition to booths with Israeli books, food products, chocolate and snacks, informational brochures and more. We'll start the event with a short ceremony for Yom Ha-Zikaron and continue to celebrate Israel's Independence Day immediately following that. I managed to get enough volunteers to help me operate the different booth, but we would appreciate some extra hands to be there and be available to help in case we need more help. If you're interested, please let me know soon. Admission fees are $5 per person, free for kids 12 and younger. Those of you who play musical instruments are welcome to bring them with you for some nice music workshop with an Israeli musician at the festival. Also, if you'd like to bring plain T-shirts to paint on, we'll have a workshop for doing just that, so don't miss this chance!
Our next event in the series will be a march for Israel,"Walk the Land", in Noble Park, Paducah, June 1st, 1:00pm. More details to follow soon, but if you're interested in participating, please register with me soon. Thanks.
Also, November 2008 we're going to have a Federation Mission to Israel. We sent out the information a couple of weeks ago and will send it again soon. If you're interested in going, please contact Steve Low at silfed@simokyfed.com soon.
Community news:
Congratulations to Dr. Samuel Goldman of Carbondale for being appointed interim chancellor for SIU Carbondale. Sam, we all know you're going to do a wonderful job in your new position and we find this well-deserved!
Congratulations also to Dr. Jonathan Wiesen of Carbondale for being chosen as Outstanding Teacher of the Year at SIU Carbondale. We're proud of you, Jonathan!
Quiz 7:
Our quiz from last time was:
She's an Israeli actress that appeared in Stargate (1994) and in some episodes of Law and Order (she also dated actor David Schwimmer of Friends). What is her name and what was the latest Israeli movie she starred in?
Patricia Hinton and Arlene Katz of Belleville were correct in naming Mili Avital as the actress. The winners, however, are Becky Solomon (Paducah) and Brad & Moira Bernstein (Belleville) who were the first to send me the correct answer.
You'll have a chance to watch Mili Avital starring in her latest Israeli movie, "Noodle", on May 18th at the Jewish Film Festival at Don and Vivian Ugent's house in Carbondale (more details to follow soon).
Quiz 8:
It's a beautiful kibbutz, a man-made oasis, in the Arava valley in S. IL (Southern Israel), not far from Eilat. It was established by American Jews of the reform Zionist movement. This kibbutz still adheres to the classical principles of the first kibbutzim and hasn't gone through privatization. It has a bird watching center and an ecology program that draws many people from around the world. The kibbutz members themselves insist on living their lives in an environmentally friendly way and many of them specialize in different alternative therapies, including watsu (water-shiatsu). What is the name of this kibbutz and what year was it established?
Wishing you a wonderful week,
Revital
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Revital Yona
Israel Emissary to the Jewish federation of Southern Illinois, Southeastern Missouri and Western Kentucky
314-956-9247
revitalsimokyfed@gmail.com