Aug 4, 2014 By: admin
This summer marked the ninth year that Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) operated Counterpoint Israel, which is tailored for Israeli teens from low socio-economic development towns in Southern Israel. This program is operated in collaboration with local municipalities and the mental health agencies in the region. Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, the newly-installed David Mitzner Dean of the CJF, wrote the following in light of the situation in Israel this past summer that saw many programs change course:
“In past years, our students were greeted enthusiastically by the government, the communities, the campers, and their families; this summer, they were greeted as well with missiles, and we needed to reorient to ensure they were always within close proximity of communal bomb shelters. Counterpoint and all other summer programs were forced to shut down in Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Malachi. Along with our partners in the South, we have searched for ways to provide the Israeli teens with a sense of continuity - an opportunity to enjoy what Counterpoint has to offer - in a careful and safe way. Dimona has been under attack, and as a result we transported the teens from Dimona to a campsite in Arad, so that they too can have the summer experience they had been waiting for. “