By Marina Moldavanskaya
The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) youth summer camp “City of Roads and Masters” took place in Odessa from July 5-12. An amazing world of Jewish life was created by the JAFI madrichim (counselors). Children of different ages gathered to make their first steps into the Jewish world. On the first day of the camp the children were asked such questions as: “What is the Torah?”, “What do you call the cap that Jewish men wear?” and “What is Shabbat?” Before this camp, these children, ages 7-12, knew close to nothing about Judaism and Israel. By the end of the camp all of them could explain what a Mezuzah, Torah and Shabbat are. At this age it’s sometimes difficult to perceive information in the form of conversation or lecture. For this reason the organizers chose to educate through creative forums. Each group of children were making a special collage and working with different materials. By the end of the camp the participants presented their collages, made of plasticine, paper, cloth, etc. The collages were the reflections of children’s perception of Tanach stories and characters. The topics of each day varied, so the participants had a chance to get to know a lot, not only about Jewish history and traditions, but also about Israel. “Israel Day” gave the full picture of the contemporaneity: history, different layers of the population, traditions, holidays, food, etc. At the end of the “Israel Day” children, many for the first time, ate Israeli falafel. All the participants left with memories, impressions and Jewish knowledge.
