schools

HAFTR joins ‘twinning network’

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For over two decades, the Jewish Agency’s P2G Global School Twinning Network has paired hundreds of Jewish schools in diaspora communities with schools in Israel, in order to create direct connections between educators, young Jews, and their Israeli counterparts, thereby strengthening the participants’ sense and understanding of belonging to a worldwide Jewish community.

Through the undertaking of joint programming, educators and students engage in vibrant dialogue that deepen their understanding of Jewish and Israeli identity and their sense of connection to Israel, and develop meaningful long-distance relationships.

HAFTR High School’s ninth grade Hebrew language honors students recently joined the network, connecting with two schools in Israel.

In Israel, Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi approached Amihai Bannett of the Jewish Agency to connect schools from his region with Jewish schools abroad. When HAFTR was looking for a twin school, they were paired with the Orot Yehuda Yeshiva for boys in Efrat and the Oriya Ulpana for girls in the nearby Gush Etzion Region.

The program is run by the English language teachers in Israel, Roochie Sinai in Oriya and Nellie Klein in Orot Yehuda, and the Hebrew language teacher at HAFTR, Mia Rubin.

The connection is coordinated by Amihai Bannett of the School Twinning Network, who also gave sessions in all three schools (in New York via Skype) about the challenges facing the Jewish people today, and ways to strengthen connections between Jews worldwide.

The students have already exchanged letters, and Ms. Rubin, Ms. Sinai and Ms. Klein are planning to upgrade the connection in the coming months with videos and joint study as well.