Agnon Kids' Lessons Take Them to Israel

David Kaye is returning to Israel soon. He’ll visit friends he hasn’t seen in years, dive into the Red Sea and marvel at the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv.

But what he said he’ll enjoy most is the tzedakah.

The Hebrew word means “charity,” and it is the reason he is going to Israel next Wednesday with his eighth-grade class from . All 17 students in his class are fulfilling the school’s tzedakah social justice project by delivering clothing to the poor Ethiopian children who live in Israel. It is an annual rite of passage for the Jewish community school’s eighth-grade and senior classes. Students have gone every year for at least two decades, except for a couple when it was deemed unsafe.

“When we’re giving it to them and we see the faces of the people when they get the clothing, I think that’s going to be one of the highlights of the trip,” said David, 14. “It’s got to be amazing to come to a country with nothing and automatically get clothes.”

Money was raised to purchase the clothes through fundraisers such as raffles and auctions held for students and teachers.

David said he has already been to Israel at least five times to visit family and he plans on seeing them again during the free time he will have during the 17-day trip.

Since only one of the days will be devoted to donating clothing, teachers from the school who will be going with the students will provide educational lessons like visits to museums, tours of historical sites and religious experiences. Fun activities will also be mixed in, including paddle boating, hiking and a scavenger hunt when they visit Tel Aviv, the country’s financial center.

Jerry Isaak-Shapiro, head of The Agnon School, said the trip continues the education that students receive at the school.

“Israel plays an essential role in the life of the school, from early childhood on, and certainly it becomes more and more sophisticated as they get older,” he said. “It’s clearly a highlight socially, academically vis-à-vis their identity, but we clearly also don’t see it as an endpoint.”

Isaak-Shapiro said many students return to Israel after this experience, whether it be the traditional “Gap Year,” in which Jews spend a year after graduating high school in Israel before going on to college, or just throughout adulthood with their families.

David said that most of his classmates have never been to Israel, so the trip allows them to get an up-close look at all the places they have learned about. Israel is incorporated into several school lessons, especially during history classes. For example, the ancient Greeks are discussed while the story of Hanukkah and the war between Jews and the Hellenistic people is taught, said school spokeswoman Kathy Peskin.

A school assembly was held for the eighth-graders last week in which the kindergartners presented them with pictures and notes they made in their classes to wish them well. The kindergartners and eighth-graders have a special bond because they often partner up for different school projects: in fact, the kindergarteners recently took a make-believe trip to Israel, where they pretended to board an airplane and then teachers took them on a pretend tour, visiting the different landmarks in the country that the eighth-graders will see.

“When you start an Agnon education there’s very much a connection to Israel in your roots and that starts in kindergarten,” said Peskin.

Itamar Nurko, also 14, said he’s looked forward to the Israel trip since he was very young and wants to see everything that his teachers have been talking about.

“We’ve learned so much about Israel and all about the cities and it’s cool actually going seeing it in real life,” he said.

Itamar and David are the only Beachwood residents in the eighth grade at The Agnon School, which has students from cities all over Northeast Ohio. Also like David, he has family and friends who live in Israel and has already been there many times.

One aspect of the trip that neither David nor Itamar seemed concerned about was their safety while in Israel, which has been known to erupt in deadly violence from time to time. Both students said they have never felt unsafe when they were there with family, and Peskin said every measure is taken to ensure their safety, including having an ex-soldier as their own armed guard and medic, knowledgeable tour guides and staying in constant communication with authorities about any dangers.

“It’s taken very seriously,” said Isaak-Shapiro. “All tour guides have to check in about not just sites but also routes to those sites and decisions are made when and if it’s appropriate to either make an alternative stop along the way or even to take another route.”

The students will return May 12.