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2015 The NACOEJ/Edward G. Victor High School Sponsorship Program

         We’re delighted to bring you the 10th issue of Bridges, In 1997 the Kasai family left their village in created especially for you. Gondar, embarking on a long, Besides enjoying the stories There they were welcomed at the NACOEJ here, we hope you will also Compound, which included a serve as an Ambassador for school for their children, food, adult Ethiopian-Israeli high school education, employment and a synagogue for students by passing this the family. Their daughter Rivka was born in newsletter to friends and family Addis Ababa. who might want to support our students. Your endorsement Not until Independence Day in 2005 will help ensure that more was the family able to immigrate to Israel, deserving Ethiopian teens get starting their new life in an absorption center the good education that is the in where Rivka entered 3rd grade. key to success in their futures. Leah Barkai (left) and Rivka Kasai (right) continued inside Questions? Comments? Call Karen Gens at 212-233- 5200, Ext. 230 or email her at     [email protected]. She’ll answer questions, contact potential sponsors, and chat (Right) Diana Yacobi shares a special with you about the joys of high moment with one of her sponsored high school sponsorship (she’s been school students, Leah Mekonen. a sponsor for years). And if Diana and her husband Avi visited Leah you have news to share about and their other students at the AMIT your sponsored student, please School in Kiryat Malachi. let her know. Thank you for The connection between Diana and your commitment to these Leah shines through in this lovely photo Ethiopian-Israeli young people! of high school sponsorship. Photo: Win Robins

North American Conference What Do High School Sponsorships Do? on Ethiopian Jewry Since 1997, the NACOEJ/Edward G. Victor High School Sponsorship Program has changed the lives of 255 West 36th Street thousands of Ethiopian-Israeli teenagers. Thanks to their sponsors, they can attend high-quality, local high Suite 701 Basic high school tuition is covered by the government, but Israeli schools charge many additional fees, which New York, New York 10018 212-233-5200 x 230 essentials like textbooks and supplies and to take advantage of all their school’s educational opportunities. Fax: 212-233-5243 As one student says, her sponsorship lets her be “…just like the other kids.” Your partnership gives these teens [email protected] on page 3 \ www.nacoej.org going on to successful futures. Thank you.

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NACOEJ High School sponsorships are vital to enable From Arielle Listokin, Development Coordinator, schools to give Ethiopian-Israeli students the education Tehilla-Evelina de Rothschild Secondary School, to they need and deserve. The schools themselves Leah Barkai: recognize this critical importance. Here is what some of them have written to us this year: Many thanks to you and to NACOEJ for your From Karen Americus, Assistant Director of sponsorship of four Ethiopian students…your Development and Programming, Israel Market, sponsorship has a profound impact upon these AMIT, to Leah Barkai, NACOEJ/Israel Coordinator of students and their families. For these young the High School Sponsorship Program: We wish to express our appreciation to NACOEJ and its supporters for their continued support of students from Ethiopian From ORT Israel to NACOEJ/Israel: !"#!

The scholarships that NACOEJ provided ' $$ of our heart for your choice in donating to ̺ the ORT Israel network, and through it to the to participate fully in all educational and network’s students. cultural activities…The grateful recipients are We are hopeful that through your \ you have lifted for them. quality of the educational work at the schools we operate…and that the fruits that this Israel…one child at a time. you have in us.

Eight years later they moved to chose this school for its motivated to succeed in her chosen , a northern town, where high-level math program because " today there are about 100 Ethiopian she wants to become an accountant. decision to seek help on her own. families. But, as she told Leah at their meeting, We’re proud that Rivka came to she needs extra help with the very NACOEJ, because it is a measure brothers. Her father works as a high-level math courses. She found of the high esteem our educational cleaner in a high-tech company while NACOEJ on the internet, and on her sponsorship programs have earned her mom stays at home to care for own, came to ask for assistance from – high esteem made possible by the the children. #$ partnership of wonderful, dedicated When Rivka recently met Leah Barkai, school student she has known to do sponsors like you – and like William Israel Coordinator of the NACOEJ this. (Usually the requests come from Kadish who now sponsors Rivka, High School Sponsorship program, at the schools or the parents.) enabling her to get the help !" Rivka is a hard-working, she needs. about her clear memories of the conscientious young woman. She You’re also our best Ambassadors for NACOEJ School and Synagogue in works as a cleaner during her the sponsorship program! So please Addis Ababa, and of the meals young school vacations to help her family tell your family, your friends, your co- children ate at our Feeding Center. % workers about NACOEJ. Ask them to Now Rivka attends a special high Bnei Akiva youth movement and $ school near called “Or Hadash”, keys to success for young, smart a 45 minute ride each way from her the elderly. Ethiopian-Israelis like Rivka. So many home. Despite the commute, she But she is also ambitious and self- young people like her need sponsors. Thank you – from all of us.

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Adiel Radau was On the road, Adiel’s family was born in Israel on attacked by armed robbers who geography and English, wants to May 31, 2000. He demanded their money and their serve in the as lives in belongings, taking everything they a combat soldier after he graduates and is sponsored had. from high school, so he can protect at the ORT Givat +% and defend the Israel that has Ram High School where they were sent to a refugee opened its arms to his family – the by long-time camp. The conditions at the camp Israel he and his family love. Adiel Radau NACOEJ sponsors, He is deeply grateful for the Steven and Julie Bram. waiting for rescue, among them sponsorship of the Bram family, Adiel’s family, including four Adiel’s great-grandfather. explaining how necessary it is for generations, had to make a very Adiel’s parents and sister survived himself and his family. It is you - our "/"$ '" wonderful sponsors – who enable 6 where Adiel was born and has grown young people like Adiel to have a their dreams. up. Adiel’s mother is not ablee toto A month before they left Ethiopia, " future.future. they began preparing food for the father is a security guard. He has trip. They left quietly in the dark of two sisters, the one who night, hoping the safety of darkness was born in Ethiopia, and would protect them. They took the other who was born in From: Lishi Sibohi at the Eliezer Ben horses and donkeys to help the Israel. Yehuda High School in very old and very young over the This young man, whose Shalom, it’s Lishi and I am now a treacherous terrain. student in the 10th grade at Eliezer Ben Yehuda High School in Ness Ziona. I !     "  giving me the sponsorship that helped \*

Tadesa Tefere was Israel in a huge way! born in Ethiopia + So here you have a young person on June 7, 1999. – he attends the ORT Givat Ram High who comes from a committed family, He was six months School in Jerusalem – are computer with sponsors who are a committed old when his sciences, math, PE, and history. family. It is a wonderful “family” He hopes to work in the hihigh-gh- situationsituation allall around.around. arrived in Israel tech industry some day. Tadesa Tefere after having left From: 12th Graders in the De Shalit their village and their farm, and Tadesa also gives back High School in then waited for many years in Addis to those around him by repairing computers for We the 12th grade graduates…want to Ababa. express our thanks for the three years of free. Tadesa has four siblings who have all sponsorship, which came out of care and been – or currently are – in service Tadesa is sponsored the wish to create equal opportunities '* by Cyrus and Judy for us. With the ending of our studies [in National Service. Of his three Abbe, close friends high school] and upon our draft to the brothers, one is in the Israel Defense of NACOEJ and of army it is important for us to say thank Forces, one is a security guard for the Ethiopian . The cabinet ministers at the Knesset, and Abbe’s involvement one is a policeman. and commitment go back many years, This is a family that is giving back to even before NACOEJ wasas born.

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Bernice Boltax sponsors Mihret Gemedia who is in the 9th grade at the Hebrew University High School in Jerusalem. Mihret sent a delightful, hand-written note to Bernice and we want to share some of it in its original form (right). Bernice went to Israel in May and met Mihret. She sent this note to Karen Gens, Director of Educational Sponsorship Programs, NACOEJ New York, while she (Bernice) was still in Israel.

Dear Karen, I visited Mihret Gemedia at her school, Hebrew University Secondary School, known as Leyada. She is a conscientious and serious student. Her goal is to become a doctor. She is a poised and attractive 15-year-old. We met for 40 minutes facilitated by Leah Barkai. I found the visit delightful. Sponsoring a student through NACOEJ can lead to Best regards, Bernice heartwarming meetings like this!

From: Shmuel Tzaga at the From: Yardena Tekele at the Oren Ginsburg High School in Oren Ginsburg High School in Yavne I want to thank you for supporting and helping I want to say thank you for all the help I received from me throughout my years of study at school. This you during my years of study in high school. This sponsorship helped me complete the 12th grade \ with success and with a complete matriculation with success. \" the army. ..I am supposed to join the “Amir” course. I am happy to tell you that I graduated high school with It is a course designed for Ethiopian students \" " ready to join the army, the military service is very commanding role. Thank you. important to me…Thank you very much.

Just the Facts )& * "+,$   & Did you know that in the NACOEJ High School Receive breaking news about Sponsorship Program in the 2014-2015 school year… our programs and updates of interest 240 sponsors participated in the program. relating to the Ethiopian-Jewish 1052 students were sponsored. community. 67 schools in 20 Israeli cities participated. 202 of our students graduated high school. Since 1982, the North American Conference on Ethiopian With your dedicated partnership, NACOEJ has been spon- Jewry (NACOEJ) has been providing humanitarian and edu- soring Ethiopian-Israeli high school students for 19 years! cational aid to the Ethiopian Jewish community in Ethiopia There are always more students waiting to be sponsored. "#$%&'*+045465\ We need more sponsors!

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