Stephanie Leen’s Visit Part C

“Hatmarim” preschool- Religious class -Akko The teacher: Efrat Sigaron “If you have a guest in your gate” Dancing and honoring Stephanie A special card was made for Stephanie with different pictures from the class’s activities

The Rabbi participated in Stephanie’s activity Watching the Class’s Rabbi telling the children a Jewish story for Shabbat The Rabbi participated in Stephanie’s activity The class’s Rabi was very pleased with Stephanie’s activity about friendship, wisdom and Pirkey Avot “Who is a wise person”- reading a story

Meeting with Bney Hamenashe- The Jewish children who made Alia from India to Akko The activity with the thumb’s print The children baked 2 Challa for Stephanie

Visiting “Hadkalim” kindergarten-Akko A religious class The teacher: Eti Gimani Art work with the children thumb printing “Pirkey Avot” activity

Honoring Stephanie with a dance Activity about” Kne Lecha Chaver”

Getting a memory card

Friday night dinner at Margalit’s home with the other partnership delegation from Des moines

Margalit summarizes the visit to her class It was a short , meaningful and experimental visit The minute Stephanie entered the class we felt her great personality and with the singing, playing in an orchestra and dancing we had a great time The topic of friendship strengthen the values which we teach through the whole school year and we found out that in is a human universal topic which concern each and every one of us! When we asked the children at the end to say which part of Stephanie’s activity they liked the most- they loved it all! Finally and personally speaking, you are the one and only! I enjoyed being with you, you taught me a lot in spite the short time that we spent together! I found a lot in common with you and I feel like we have been knowing each other for a long time! Miss you already and I am looking forwards for our mutual activities next year The children of Austin are lucky to have a teacher like you! With love, Margalit .

Summery: The children who met with Stephanie finally saw the “face” behind the great power point that they got from Austin this year Stephanie brought her “Pirkey Avot” topic to the Israeli children in her own unique and interesting way and helped us in connecting the Israeli children to our own mutual heritage. The idea of bringing every Israeli’s child thumb print to Austin, is great as it is really the unique thing that each and every one of us have. The Israeli teachers were very proud to host Stephanie in their class and all of the parents knew about that visit Around 300 children met Stephanie during her visit and for all of them and for their families, the partnership became more meaningful!

While planning Stephanie's visit I tried to expose her to the different styles of teaching which we have in our Western Galilee. I think that now she knows us better and that will make it easy for her to plan mutual activities in the future. We took time to Brainstorm about next year and agreed that” Dor to Dor” topic will be about songs and folk dancing that we can learn from the old generation I explained to Stephanie the basic idea of “Music that counts” (which can be done only face to face) and I am sure that next year we will be able to implement that knowledge in our mutual activities. Finally I want to tell Stephanie that it was my great pleasure to host such a pleasant personality with such a great passion for teaching and for connecting her students to Israel and to their Jewish roots. I think Stephanie that your visit to Israel gave you another perspective of our life in Israel, about your Jewish identity and even connected you to your own family roots!

Thanks: I want to thank Dalia and the Jewish community of Austin for sending Stephanie to Israel and I wish it will become a tradition every year! I want to thank Heidi and our Western Galilee partnership for helping in organizing her visit! I want to thank Orit Assayag from Akko municipality. I want to thank Ethan Horovitz for taking a meaningful part in that visit. I want to thank the Sisi and “The treasure in the wall “museum. I want to thank all of the teachers who cared so much and made this visit a great experience for Stephanie and for their Israeli children! With love, Efrat Srebro Hava Nagila Gan Coordinator