This blog post was written by Spencer Levin a Yahel Social Change Fellow living and working in Rishon LeZion
I’m writing this in the last week of the last month of 2024. I arrived in Israel on the Yahel Social Change Fellowship in October. After a month of orientation and volunteer placement interviews and the first month of volunteer work that followed on this month, I feel settled in and at the same time, each day surprises me. I’m writing this now from our seminar in Beit Shemesh, where we are meeting local community leaders from wildly different religious and cultural backgrounds. Some, socialist kibbutnikim, some ultra-religious Haredi leaders. Apparently the two are in conflict, and this trip, amongst other elements, is about learning what it means to exist alongside those so different
In Ramat Eliyahu, the neighborhood of Rishon Lezion I live in, I can relate in some ways and in some ways I can’t. The area is heavily Ethiopian Israeli. However, the ethnic differences are the only obvious ones. To me, there’s not much difference whatsoever between the community members from other parts of the city, to those in the Ramat Eliyahu neighborhood. I have observed that kids from every side of Rishon are into American basketball, European football, American rap and rock music, and sport in general. On the other hand however, when I venture into parts of the city outside of Ramat Eliyahu, the economic disparity in infrastructure and other material differences is clear. My neighborhood is comparatively lacking in resources. That’s a big part of the reason I chose Yahel compared to other programs, though. I wanted to be in communities in Israel that had the most need, respectively. Still, compared to the city I’m from, Chicago, I feel incredibly safe and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
My volunteer placements are centered around kids at risk in my immediate community. I work as a teacher's assistant at an after school program assisting sixth and seventh graders. The class is based around media production using AI. The classes are advanced for the age of the kids, but I appreciate the high bar the school sets for them. After school, kids don’t want to learn about much of anything for the most part, but it’s important that they push themselves intellectually to best prepare for the real world, and I see the difference this rigor makes on them firsthand. I enjoy the blooming personalities of the kids in the class, and making sure they’re all having the best time they can is a rewarding challenge day in and day out.
Outside the classroom, I work at an elderly social center. Members of a surrounding area retirement living community are bussed in from 9 AM to 1 PM to socialize and enjoy activities, including tea time, board games, reading the newspaper and talking with friends, listening to different expert speakers, and participating in musical concerts. I highly appreciate this place because it allows me to absorb the wisdom from older folks as well as show them by example that the international Jewish community is still here to support them, and cherish the founding work that many of them did for the state of Israel. I know it means a lot to them from the way that I’m received each day and it’s a beautiful thing to mean something so special to someone.
My last two placements are grocery delivery for low income families, as well as working at the welfare office in a big brother little brother program. The grocery delivery program is called Sachi, and is very fun and important at the same time, especially during the holiday season. In the big brother little brother program, I work with a 13-year-old boy, Lior, and for two hours a week I try to spend enjoyable time with him from his perspective and my own. We play basketball, ride electric
scooters, skateboard, and just walk and talk. He enjoys the stuff we do together and I do too.
That’s it! I love Ramat Eliyahu, I love Israel, I love Yahel, and I’m very privileged and honored to be where I am today.
Comments