TAGLIT in Ashkelon 10 January 2011

Three busloads of happy university students from Baltimore spent a night in Ashkelon as part of their Taglit-Birthright tour of Israel.

The next day they volunteered at locations all over Ashkelon; making their presence felt by teaching English and talking with students at high schools; planting trees and teaching songs at kindergartens; planting vegetables at the Ashkelon Community farm; and painting walls and beautifying Beit Canada, the absorption center for new immigrants.

The Taglit students also visited Michael Lapidus Baltimore Park and Lynn Stacie Getz Playground.

At lunch, the Taglit students enjoyed meeting Otzma participants and hearing about the Otzma ITC volunteer teaching program in Ashkelon. Many Taglit participants expressed interest in coming to work and volunteer in Israel for 10 months with Otzma and other programs.

To see more photos click HERE

To see more photos click HERE

To see more photos click HERE

Morei Derech Delegation Visits Ashkelon

A delegation of teachers representing the Gesher Chai (Living Bridge) Project between our two communities spent a day in Ashkelon during the "Morei Derech" seminar trip to Israel in June.

The day was organized by our Gesher Chai coordinator, the one and only Marcelo Burdman.

The Baltimore teachers were matched with teachers from their partner schools in Ashkelon. They went to visit the schools and discussed joint projects for the future.

They took part in a seminar about Jewish identity and connections to Israel and then expressed their artistic skills at a mosaic workshop led by Tova Shafran - an artist who also teaches at the Ashkelon School of the Arts.

Before Dinner we all went to visit the Michael Lapidus Baltimore Park and the Lynn Stacie Getz Playground where the delegation saw other mosaic art pieces done by Ashkelon artists and other groups from Baltimore.


Joel and his young "assistants" from the Art School with their mosaic creation.


Claudette and Rita with their masterpiece


Salit from Ashkelon with Flo and Hasia


Tova Shafran (in emerald green shirt, behind) ran the mosaic workshop
More photos of the mosaic workshop HERE

Josh Schwartz's Barmitzvah Project

Soccer Jerseys for Or Chaim kids soccer team in Ashkelon

Josh Schwartz and his family visited Ashkelon in June. They were eager to meet the Or Chaim Soccer team kids and hand-deliver the jerseys that they designed, as Josh's bar mitzvah project.

The Or Chaim soccer team kids were thrilled to receive the soccer shirts and immediately tried them on. Gavriel, their coach grabbed a soccer ball and the Schwartz kids - Josh, Andrew, Joseph and Allison joined them, trying to score goals!

Or Chaim soccer team with the Schwartz family

MARCELO BURDMAN, our Gesher Hai coordinator organized this program.

Josh Schwartz read a speech he wrote in Hebrew, and shared how excited he was to share his love of soccer with new friends from Ashkelon.

After their visit to the school, the Schwartz family visited the Michael Lapidus Baltimore Park and Lynn Stacie Getz Playground that they helped to build two years ago. They were excited to see how green and colorful the park is now, and they inspected each and every mosaic piece of art in the park.

Magnificent Moms Mission Mosaics !

The colorful mosaic wall panels, created by women from Ashkelon & Baltimore during the "Moms Mission" to Ashkelon in July 2009, were hung in the Michael Lapidus Baltimore Park & Lynn Stacie Getz Playground in Ashkelon this week.

The panels portray Israeli flowers and are now situated next to the Jerusalem plaques created by the Plant Futrovsky family in June 2008.

See photos of the plaques being created by the MOMs at a workshop run by Ashkelon artist Nira Portugaly HERE

Each panel is unique

Sigal's daughter Gily admires the panels

The panels are located to the right of the panels created by the Plant Futrovsky family.

nicole