| Over the past four years, Tawonga Teen Service Learning (TSL) has traveled to El Salvador, Alaska, Costa Rica, and in 2007 we will launch TSL Israel. Our TSL programs allow teens to simultaneously learn about culture while contributing to it. Through a combination of service projects focused on sustainability, general site seeing, guest speakers, and Tawonga's service learning curriculum, teens will leave this experience with not only a taste of Israel but also an understanding of what it is to be a Jewish Global Citizen. They will understand the Jewish principle of B'tzelem Elohim—to be create in God's image—and its underlying values of tzedakah (justice and mitzvot) and hesed (compassion), and the corresponding concept of tikun olam—to repair the world. They will gain the tools necessary to become Jewish Global Citizens and hopefully, the desire to rise to the occasion.
To get a taste of Israel, teens will visit the many places that have come to represent the nation – staying in the Holy City itself, Jerusalem, visiting the Kotel, camping with Bedouins, climbing Masada, wandering through the busy streets of Tel Aviv and the bazaars of its older counter part Jaffa, and of course, experiencing the buoyancy of the Dead Sea. Beyond the beauty of Israel, they will also get a more expansive and diverse view through service, immersed in several communities for 4-7 days each. They will work alongside the people of each community, sometimes to help provide essentials of daily life such as stoves, beds, or tables, or sometimes to promote tolerance among Israel’s many different cultures seeking peaceful co-existence. Not only will this offer a different perspective on Israel than the typical tourist visit, but it will open teens’ eyes to the many challenges the world, and thus Israel, faces.
The final step in the TSL program is for teens to articulate their experience to the community – first by returning to Tawonga, sharing their new insight with fourth session campers, and then, in the fall, by presenting to parents and the greater community. We see these two presentations as a bridge to teens starting their own paths to betzelem elohim and hope they continue on these journeys long after their TSL experience, following the words of Mahatma Gandhi to "be the change [they] want to see in the world."
Four Tawonga TSL trips have shown their remarkable impact. The opportunity for this type of learning, this type of immersion in community service, with simultaneous connection to Jewish heritage, is unique. We hope to see you in Israel this summer.
"Being human means being conscious and being responsible."
~Viktor Frankl, noted Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist
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