Seven students from Maimonides left Sunday for an exciting 2-week trip to the Ukraine. Sophomores Elisha Galler, Rachel Blaszkowsky, Tara Hanau, Ariana Turk, Hannah Ephraim, and Avi Wechsler, as well as junior Elisheva Spellman, were chosen to join Havaya, an incredible teaching program in the Ukraine sponsored by CJP. They will be in the Ukraine from Feb 20th until March 3 for this incredible opportunity to learn about the worldwide Jewish experience and also to give back to a community that does not have the rich resources of Boston's Jewish community.

Led by Rabbi Seth Braunstein, Director of Experiential Education at Prozdor, this program selects 15 students from Massachusetts and pairs them with 15 students in Israel. Together, the students travel to the Ukraine where they learn about Jewish culture in the Ukraine -- and perform community service by becoming teachers. They run a Jewish educational camp in Dnepropetrovsk and teach children aged 6-12 about various aspects of Jewish life.

The students have been working very hard to prepare for this experience. Every Sunday for the past 7 weeks, they attended classes at Hebrew College about life in the Ukraine (including language) and also classes on how to teach. They even had to come up with a lesson plan and work on ideas to make their teaching fun!