ANT KATZ

Better life for all

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TIKKUN OLAM – This Jewish injunction is playing out right now in Durban where the Jewish Agency has set up its sixth ‘Project TEN’ enterprise worldwide. (The word ‘ten’ in Hebrew means give.)

A comprehensive story will appear next week, together with interviews, but for today here are some pictures of the first cohort of 12 Jewish volunteers – from as far afield as Chicago – who arrived on Tuesday.

GIMME TEN! Some of the new recruits having fun on Tuesday

HANGING TEN: Relaxing at the Project TEN Bayit Tuesday evening

The volunteers are all young and dynamic Jews who pay their own way and simply want to make the world a better place for all.

RIGHT: Their first ground view of Durban, the Airport

Volunteers are young Jews from around the world and South African youngsters will also be encouraged to sign up to volunteer at Project TEN facilities around the world. They usually come and go in three-month rotations. 

The Durban programme director, Shani Silove is an Oleh who was born in SA. Her full-time education coordinator is Inbal Magen.

The programme is co-sponsored by the Jewish Agency and a South African benefactor and cost almost R2-mil to set up. Read much more about Project TEN and the crew in next week’s Jewish Report.

That story starts out quite simply as follows…

“After my first experience of a township, I knew that Project Ten was something that the Jewish Agency and the South African Jewish community could do to make a difference for underprivileged communities in the country.” So says the Shaliach of the Israel Centre – Aviad Sela, who set about making his vision into a reality. In the broadest sense, tikkun olam – for all!

Since his arrival two years ago, Sela’s approach to the JA’s role in SA has seen a steady increase in SA Jewish youth visiting and studying in Israel, in the numbers of people making Aliyah – which has shot up both last year and this, and in bringing to the attention of South Africans, what services the Jewish Agency is able to offer them.

Watch for it all next week!