Dear parents,
My name is Natali Basel and I’m the city coordinator for the Jerusalem division of the Aardvark Israel. I can’t wait to meet you and your children, and I hope they are as excited as I am for the experience ahead.
My talented staff is looking forward to meeting you as well:
Maya was born and raised in Kibbutz Ein Tzurim in the south of Israel. After finishing high school she did a year of service through the Jewish agency with the Jewish community in Toronto, Canada. When she returned from Toronto, she joined the IDF and served for two years in ‘Egoz’ — an elite unit which is part of the Commando Brigade. She finished her military service a month ago and started working for Aardvark. She is excited to meet you all!
Sapir was born and raised in Kibbutz Barkai. He is 24 years old. He was recently discharged from the IDF where he served in the Paratroopers Brigade for 3 years and was a commander. He also volunteered at the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. He can’t wait to meet you all.
Chaya is 23 old and was born to south African parents and raised in Efrat, a little town to the south of Jerusalem. In high school, she was acounselor in Ezra, a youth movement in her hometown. After she graduated, she went on to be the coordinator of Ezra in Jaffa as part of her national service, as well as volunteering in a high school in Bat-Yam. After her national service, she went on to study biology in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is very excited to meet everyone and knows it will be a wonderful experience for us all!
Every week you will receive the upcoming week’s schedule with information about our upcoming activities. The schedule will be sent as a table dividing the days into different activities such as classes, day trips and volunteering. In the first few weeks the table will be mostly in English, and every week we will add Hebrew in order to keep your Hebrew skills in good shape!
We have a great semester planned which I’m sure we’ll all enjoy!
Here are some of the activities we will take part in this semester:
- An overnight to Midbar Yhuda
- Yad Vashem museum
- Jeep Trip on Burma Road
- Lunch at Abu Ghosh
- Trip to the town of Sderot
- Tour at thhe Knesset (Israeli legislature)
And the list is going on and on…
The first week of Orientation– For the spring semester
It includes a Shabbaton in the Old City of Jerusalem, a walk to the market place, traveling to the Golan Heights with the Tel Aviv group and much more! Of course, the best part will be getting to know the great people you will be spending with this semester. The goals of orientation are for you to get to know each other and the staff, acclimate to the time change and culture and prepare you for the program. It will be fun and relaxing at times, but we also have a lot of ground to cover, so please be aware of that.
Please bring with you a white shirt/top/blouse to wear on our first Shabbat together.
New students:
When you first arrive there will be a check-in process where you will give us your security deposit ($100), passport and the visa entry card you receive at the passport control. It is very important to keep this card and hand it to us. You will be assigned to an apartment and start your first day of the program.
Feel free to write back to me with any questions whatsoever.
Looking forward to meeting you here!
