Havayah (Hebrew for “experience”) is a ten-day trip to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, in which twenty teens from Boston join teens from Haifa and the Ukraine in running an English-language vacation camp for children at a Jewish day school. The Havayah model empowers teens to lead using the full power of informal Jewish educational experience in a variety of fascinating environments. The results are nothing short of astounding and transformational for the participants in the program.
Havayah allows each participant to establish deep personal relationships while at the same time empowering a group of teens in to work together and create an educational program for children in Dnepropetrovsk. Havayah helps to build leadership skills amongst each participant while putting these skills to use throughout their experience. It is a unique opportunity to explore one’s rots while working to understand one’s own place within the Jewish community.
During the past fourteen years, nearly 400 teens from Boston, Haifa, and Dnepropetrovsk have participated in Havayah and joined together to share and strengthen their Jewish identities with the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk. Havayah has allowed the participants to develop leadership skills while discovering the powerful common links that exist amongst the three communities. Whether it has involved teaching students in the Jewish Day school, singing with the Bet Baruch choir, working with a child at the Special Needs Center at Bet Hannah, or just having powerful and meaningful discussions with our friends from Ukraine and Israel, Havayah has strengthened the Jewish identity of the Americans, Israelis and Ukrainians in a way that creates lifelong friendships and a deeper commitment to K’lal Yisrael, while building a sense of belonging to a global Jewish community.
Havayah is a life-changing experience that has transformed the lives of its participants. Don’t miss out on a chance to participate in this transformative experience.
Havayah will take place from February 19-29, 2012. The cost of the program is $2300, and financial aid is available. For more information, or to receive an application, please contact Meir Sherer, Director of Havayah, at msherer@prozdor.org.
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