Temple Sinai's Book Drive Delegation
Hand-Carries Books to Buena Nujidaat

On the steps of Buena-Nujidaat's junior high school, (from left to right)
Diane Smith from Congregation Shomrei Torah, Santa Rosa, California, Rabbi Jonathan Biatch and Walter Furman, both from Temple Sinai of Glendale, California.
 

Kayla Furman, Walter's daughter,
with Flagship Coordinator,
Wieded Slieman, and with two of the
junior high school students,
Yara Dalashe and Sana Dalashe
both members of the same very large village extended-family clan.

Widad, Yara, and Sana greet the guests.

Rabbi Biatch, Kayla, Yara, and Sana open a suitcase containing over 150 books.
"This," said Rabbi Biatch,
" is only the beginning!"
More books are being collected, sorted, and boxed up at Temple Sinai's book drive and will arrive later this year.
 

Widad joins in the excitement
of unpacking the books
that were hand-carried
to Israel.
Most of these books in this
initial donation were collected
by Kayla and her friends.
 

Tarek Murad, a high school English teacher
joins Rabbi Biatch to his right.
Ilan Bar-Shalom, Books for Israel webmaster and one of the prime coordinators for the project in Israel,
joins in at the back.

The nearly empty shelves of the English
language library at the junior high school
before the hand-carried package was added.
 

Although the books will be formally processed and registered later, there is a great deal of excitement in filling up the shelves with the newly donated books.
There will be even more joy later when the students return from the winter break and discover their newly enriched opportunities to read.
 

The first set of shelves,
donated by parents in the
Buena Nujidat community,
begin to fill up!
 

Some of the junior high school students take a first look through the books.
They sit on comfortable mattresses
on the floor, in a set-up that resembles  typical living rooms in the community.
 

This English room is the first of its kind in the village.
Donations from adopting communities will help make this reading room a choice place for the students and a functional example for other schools to advance literacy.

Challed Slieman, the Vice Principal of the junior high school, hosts the guests and shows the magnificent view of the surrounding mountains and  Albatoff valley as they can be seen from the school rooftop.
 

Diane on the school rooftop,
surrounded by a view of mountains
and low clouds.

Tarek is joined by Salech Chamuda, the school Arabic teacher, who meets the guests on the roof overlooking the view.

Wiedad gives Diane and Walter an explanation of the view,
the  natural surroundings,
and the settlements surrounding the Albatoff.


 

 

 

 

 



Kayla meets Janan Dalashe,
a senior high school student from the village. The two strike up a friendship that will continue later as they begin to exchange e-mail messages to one another.





 





 

   Rabbi Biatch speaks to Sana
   and Yara, inquiring about life and
   education in the community.

In early January 2004, a delegation from the Temple Sinai Book Drive of Glendale California visited Buena Nujidat, their adopted flagship community. The visitors were a contingent on an organized trip to Israel and they made special time in their busy itinerary to visit the school and deliver the first installment of their fabulous upcoming donation.

Rabbi Jonathan Biatch and members of his synagogue's group hand carried over one hundred and fifty books to help establish the junior high school's first English language library. Many of these books had been collected by Kayla Furman (daughter of Walter Furman) and the Fifth Grade Religious School class in which she is an assistant.  Kayla's presence was particularly exciting to youth from the Buena Nujidat village who found themselves fast friends.
 

Diane Smith of Congregation Shomrei Torah of Santa Rosa joined Rabbi Biatch's group. An anthropologist by profession, Ms. Smith was very intrigued by community life and the warm reception the group received. She pledged that she would appeal to her community to join in Temple Sinai's book drive campaign.

The group was initially picked up from their hotel in Haifa by Ilan Bar-Shalom, B4I webmaster and one of Books for Israel's main coordinators in Israel. As they drove to Buena Nujidat, Ilan gave them a tour of the surrounding area and explained some things about the history and communities of the area.

When the group arrived to Buena Nujidat, they were greeted by Wiedad Slieman, flagship coordinator for Buena Nujidaat village and the surrounding area, the school's vice principal, some of the teachers, and a few of the students. This visit was made during the winter vacation break and so the staff and students made a special trip to the school and opened its doors in order to meet their honored guests.

In a celebratory ceremony, a number of the village women got together, including the wives of school principal Muhamed Fukra and vice principal, Chaled Slieman, to cook up a kosher feast! As Mr. Fukra, the school principal, was abroad finishing his doctoral degree, Mr. Slieman, the vice principal hosted the guests at his own home. He kept piling the guests' plates with food as if they might never get another meal again! Everyone was overwhelmed with the wonderful taste of the food and the courses that kept appearing. After dessert, the guests were presented with small trophies by the village women.  The guests agreed that the hospitality they experienced was beyond all expectations.

In addition to receiving a view of the area from the school rooftop, the guests were taken by car to see the surrounding area and later to visit the city of Nazareth.

Buena Nujidat is making a tremendous effort to overcome budget cutbacks and shortages within the school and the constraints of a community financially strained by the general conditions of economic collapse due to terror and other factors effects on tourism and other industries in Israel. As a result of the great encouragement from their donors, the community decided to construct an English language reading room. Parents and community members got together to donate supplies, funds, and labor for this construction.

The idea of setting up a reading room without desks or hard chairs in order to encourage the children to read was first proposed by Ilan Bar-Shalom to the school principal, Mr. Fukra. The proposal was brought forth to the parents committee, and the parents and community members came through, once again, donating carpets and mattresses so that the students would be able to sit and read comfortably in a set up that much resembles their own living rooms at home. The idea of a reading room, and a room furnished to encourage extensive engagement in relaxed reading, is new to education in this area and exemplary for many schools in Israel. The junior high school hopes that its donors will continue to be generous so that the library will grow and continue to be furnished with donated equipment and supplies. Moreover, as the flagship for the village and the surrounding areas, the school administration and the flagship coordinator look forward to helping other schools similarly set up programs and facilities for enabling English language literacy.

The visit was a very special event for all concerned. Writing to her visitors a short time later, Wiedad Slieman expressed how the hand-delivered donation and exchange of human kindness has affected everyone locally:

"It is very kind of you to do what you have done. Your aim to do good and help us in spite of the geographical distance is much appreciated. Good souls can affect and reach through any distance of place, religion,
and nationality. Your visit to our village had shortened the long distances between us. I quickly felt that I had known you a long time ago and was somehow brought back to people I should have known all along. I miss you already and I'd like to meet you again. 

"People in our small, poor village would deeply like to thank all the people in charge of this great project. They say they find it difficult to find words to express their true feelings. They also say that a wonderful and fruitful project like this has lightened a side of their dark lives because they always blame themselves for the bad conditions that their children live in.

We are eagerly waiting for you to return and we thank you for your great efforts. I hope that this is just the beginning of the co-operation between us. Your kindness has filled our hearts as we hope your books will fill our libraries."

Thank you, Rabbi Biatch, Water Furman, Kayla Furman, and Diane Smith, for your visit!

Special thanks to everyone at Temple Sinai in Glendale, California, for adopting Buena Nujidat and making this donation and this visit possible. We do sincerely hope that Congregation Shomrei Torah of Santa Rosa will join your book drive campaign.

Very special thanks to Eileen Moskowitz who started up and coordinates Temple Sinai's book drive, and who patiently handled all the communications and coordination involved in helping to make this visit and book delivery possible.

We are grateful that you have chosen to be an affective force in enabling English language literacy throughout schools in the Buena Nujidat village and in schools in the surrounding areas that will be supplied by distributions made through this flagship.

Your efforts help give all our young people hope for the future!