Your Email:

Friend's Email:

Note: (optional)

Subject:

Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/11318/full/11318/15-teen-interns-get-hands-on-jewish-agency-experience/ <br /><br /> <b>15 teen interns get hands-on Jewish agency experience</b> <br /> Friday, August 6, 1999 | by <p>ZEVI GUTFREUND </p> <br /><br /><p>Through a new summer internship program, Bay Area high-schoolers developed programs for Jews in the former Soviet Union, worked on critical legislative issues, helped out in day camps and planned a community Yom HaShoah service.<br /><br /> Titled Avodah, Hebrew for "service" or "work," the program, launched this year, is based on the Kohn Summer Internship for college students. The 15 high-school interns served a Jewish community agency four days a week, meeting as a group on the fifth day to discuss issues ranging from career plans to Jewish identity.<br /><br /> The six-week internship, which ended last week, is run by the S.F.-based Jewish Vocational Service and is funded by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Endowment Fund and the Bureau of Jewish Education's Teen Initiative Project. Participants, who worked in San Francisco and Marin, received $750 stipends.<br /><br /> Intern Naomi Greisman served the Bay Area Council for Jewish Rescue and Renewal, planning a program that will enable five Americans to teach at a camp in Kiev, Ukraine. The emissaries, who are funded by the Union of Progressive Judaism, will teach the Ukrainian kids about Jewish life in America.<br /><br /> The internship was not the first paying job for Greisman, who is entering her junior year at French American International High School in San Francisco. However, it was her first professional experience in the Jewish community, and she hopes it will not be her last.<br /><br /> "I want to work in the Jewish community, so this summer has been much more meaningful for me," said Greisman, who is also the president of the San Francisco chapter of B'nai B'rith Girls. Last weekend, after the internship ended, she took off for a month in Israel.<br /><br /> Ari Baruth, a senior at Westmoor High School in Daly City, researched a California state initiative during his internship at the American Jewish Congress. He helped produce a pamphlet on the Knight Initiative, a proposal to prohibit the legalization or recognition of same-sex marriages in California. The initiative will go on the ballot in March.<br /><br /> Studying the positions of AJCongress and other Jewish community groups on same-sex marriage, Baruth offered suggestions to help defeat the initiative.<br /><br /> The internship was not the first Jewish community position for Baruth, who has spent three years working in the religious school at Reform Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.<br /><br /> "This summer has been a little more intense than my other job because I am in touch with more issues in the Jewish community," Baruth said. "It was a lot of fun in the sense that I accomplished a lot and was able to express my ideas and learn new things every day."<br /><br /> For Abbey Levine, a senior at Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, her summer at San Francisco's Jewish Community Relations Council was a valuable experience in networking. One of her main assignments was working with the Teen Initiative Project to put together a list of internships and volunteer opportunities for teens. She also helped plan next year's Yom HaShoah service, commemorating the Holocaust.<br /><br /> "Working in the Jewish community was always an option for me, but I never really thought about pursuing it before this summer," Levine said. "I feel like I have made so many connections now that I am ready if I ever want to get involved [in the future]."<br /><br /> While many of the Avodah interns have made similar connections, Avodah Program Coordinator Jenni Mangel is planning a series of programs through JVS to involve more teens in the Jewish community during the school year. Some of her plans include monthly workshops on applying and interviewing for jobs and an HTML training class that will enable teens to create Web pages. After the class, the interns will be placed in positions at Jewish agencies next summer.<br /><br /> Mangel said she is planning on publicizing JVS through the San Francisco High School Havurah program and in Bay Area synagogue bulletins. For the time being, however, she is pleased with the first crop of Avodah interns and reported that about half of them are considering professional careers in the Jewish community.<br /><br /> "It was a long process and everyone involved took a leap of faith with this program," Mangel said. "I have heard things from supervisors like, 'My intern is great, I plan to adopt,'" she added, noting that some of the agencies wanted to continue their relationships with the interns.<br /><br /> "I'm glad the interns were able to contribute back to the community that has given them so much over the years and I think they are all ready to start looking for another job."<br /><br /> Other Avodah interns included Leya Babchin, New Israel Fund; Ben Bien-Kahn, Congregation Emanu-El; Julia Brown, Congregation Emanu-El Arts Camp; Natalie Deutsch, Congregation Emanu-El; Robin Foster, Marin Jewish Community Center Day Camp; Juliya Giverts, JVS; Grant Kubel, A Traveling Jewish Theatre; Anna Martin, Jewish Community Center of San Francisco; Alex Nichol and Jackie Vayntrub, Anti-Defamation League; and Daniel Zier, Jewish Museum San Francisco.</p> <p> </p>

Please enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below: