Shalhevet

Shalhevet ("flame" in Hebrew) is a once-in-a-lifetime experiential learning opportunity for Bay Area Jewish teens (11th &12th grade).

Inspired by the international March of the Living program, Shalhevet is a way for local Jewish teens to participate in a program tailored specifically to the educational and cultural environment of the Bay Area. Shalhevet includes a 10-week spring semester in addition to a two week travel component to Poland and Israel.

The program immediately established itself as a wonderful opportunity for students to build relationships with local Jewish peers, to intimately reexamine their Jewish identities and to strengthen their understanding of Israel.

Shalhevet includes a journey of Jewish history, beginning with the life of pre-WWII Polish Jewry through the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. The class culminates in a two-week trip to Poland and Israel with a Holocaust survivor and an educator and includes walking through the gates of Auschwitz and exploring Israel. Shalhevet participants will have the unique opportunity to meet with their Polish peers to discuss the impact of the Holocaust in modern day Poland. Students will also meet their Jewish and Arab counterparts in Israel and participate in a conflict resolution discussion program.

Shalhevet is a dynamic collaboration between the Holocaust Center of Northern California and the Bureau of Jewish Education.

For more information, contact Morgan Blum at mblum@hcnc.org or (415) 777-9060 ext. 203, or Yaron Lipschitz at ylipschitz@bjesf.org or (415) 751-6983 ext. 106.

Information sessions for Shalhevet 2009 will begin in Fall 2008.

Shalhevet is funded, in part by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund; Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties Endowment Fund; Alexander M. and June L. Maisin Foundation; The Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation; William J. Lowenberg; Rubin Family Philanthropic Fund; Marc and Ellen Brown Family Philanthropic Fund; Jewish Community Endowment Fund's First Time in Israel Experience Scholarships; The Gift of Israel Program, sponsored by the JCFSF and the Janet A. Schultz Teens to Israel Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund; The Israel Trip Scholarship Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of the Greater East Bay; Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties; Congregation Beth Abraham; Congregation Emanu-El; Congregation B'nai Shalom Temple Sinai; and Claire Mikowski.