ots@ohrtorahstone.org.il

The Darkaynu Program enables students with special needs to spend a year in Israel in a unique ‘sidestreamed’ environment that enables them to learn, volunteer, work and experience everything the country has to offer, providing them with an intense connection to the land and the Jewish people.

When the holidays approach, most yeshiva students pack their bags, leaving the Beit Midrash and dormitories for a well-earned break with friends and family. But Darkaynu Program participants continue learning and living together. “It’s important for us to take care of our students throughout the holiday period and to give them an unforgettable experience,” says Darkaynu’s director, Elana Goldscheider.

“An integral part of spending a year in Israel is experiencing the multifaceted richness of the festivals here,” explains Goldscheider. “It reinforces what they’ve been studying, as well as the life-skills they’ve been learning outside of the classroom.” This year, Darkaynu students spent the first week of the traditional Pesach break on Kibbutz Ein Tzurim in the south of Israel, helping the kibbutz families cultivate lemons, persimmons and artichokes as well as rearing cows and turkeys. “After so many months of working, volunteering and learning in the Beit Midrash, our students were thrilled to be out in nature, working the fields and beautifying the kibbutz. It was a concrete way of connecting with all they’ve been learning about the Land and people of Israel,” she says.

Likewise, preparing for the Seder was a unique blend of frontal learning with hands-on experience. After a session dedicated to studying the laws of making matzot, the students boarded buses and set out to a bakery in Beit Shemesh. “Putting their knowledge into practice by kneading the dough, rolling it out and baking it into matzot really made the mitzvot they’d learned come alive,” relates Goldscheider. “At the same time, each student was able to contribute to the Seder and explain to their friends and families everything that they had learned and experienced.”

A Personal Link

A concrete way of connecting with the land and people of Israel

In preparation for Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut, students were taken to the Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv, where they discovered the intensity of the 1948 struggle for a Jewish state. Another outing took them to the hideouts where underground fighters lived while preparing for the War of Liberation. “While they had already learned the background, the trips enabled our students to develop a more personal link to Israel and to their place in Jewish history,” attests Goldscheider. Darkaynu students stood for the Memorial Day siren at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, silently mourning Israel’s fallen soldiers alongside the rest of Israel; the next day they marked the state’s 61st year of independence by hiking the country and enjoying the quintessential Israeli barbecue.

On L’ag B’Omer, the boys program joined the Koby Mandell Foundation’s annual walkathon, helping to raise funds for families whose loved ones have been victims of terror, in memory of the murdered 13-year-old boy from Tekoa. For the Darkaynu participants, it was a wonderful feeling to contribute to a distinctly Israeli cause, while highlighting that the Jewish festivals are also traditionally a time of giving to others.

The final festival of the year, Shavuot, marks the giving of the Torah; for many of the Darkaynu participants it also signified the end of their Israel experience. But at least one student plans to return: when Chavi Schupter from London found the Afikoman at the Pesach seder this year, her parents asked her what she wanted for a gift. She answered without hesitation, “Another year in Israel, at Darkaynu!”

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