H2H – To be continued….

After participating in Harbor 2 Harbor, a special exchange program sponsored by the JDC, Hillel and the Associated Odessa Hillel activists started to think about the future of relationship between Odessa and Baltimore Jewish communities. One of the purposes of the trip was to strengthen the links between the communities. Project participants have seen a lot, learnt about new things, but also strengthening the links should be reflected in specific cases and general projects. While it is too early to speak of follow through on the project as a whole, there is one specific case we wish to highlight:

In one of the last day of our visit to America, after guided tours, meetings with government officials, and many other interesting experiences, we had planned to visit one of the Baltimore JCC (Jewish Community Center). Our group met the family of American Jews and their eldest son. The young man has a bar mitzvah project and used some of the money from his gifts to put toward tzedakah. When he learned that soon a group of Odessa Hillel students would come to his community, he broke his piggy bank and bought a lot of books, coloring-books and different useful resources for Jewish children in Odessa. When he met with participants of the project, he asked us to convey these books as gifts to children at the early childhood center in Odessa. We were very touched and considered it an honor to bring these gifts to our homeland.

On March 10, 2009, the feast of Purim, all the H2H participants solemnly went to the early childhood center in Odessa to give gifts to young Jewish children. Diana Bukhman, the head of the center, was moved in the same way as we were when we met this young boy in America. It means that the first steps were taken to further our cooperation with the Baltimore Jewish Community and we expect to grow and grow.

Sasha Zlobina
Deputy Director, Odessa Hillel