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OTS Newsletter - Winter 2007
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Awards…Again!
It has become a regular occurrence for soldiers from OTS’ Hadas
Program, which combines Torah study for women with IDF service, to sweep all
the awards available for excellence at the close of basic training. A recent
Education Corps’ commencement ceremony was no exception: Natasha Stern, a
“lone soldier” immigrant from Canada, was named “Outstanding Soldier,”
and Chana Kupitz, (pictured), a graduate of the OTS Neveh Channah High
School for Girls, received the award for “Exemplary Soldier.”
There are 150 participants in Hadas this year, including 22 officers.
Nearly 70 of them are currently studying in the beit midrash on the Yaakov
and Chana Tilles Campus, while others are serving in the IDF’s Education
Corps, Intelligence Corps and the top-secret General Security Services.
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 Fostering
Independence
The Darkaynu Program, which “sidestreams” young women with
developmental disabilities to study in Israel alongside their peers
at the Maria and Joel Finkle Overseas Program at Midreshet
Lindenbaum, has added travel training to its life-skills curriculum.
“We will work with second-year students on traveling independently
to their vocational-training workplaces, which include offices,
kindergartens, a nursing home, a clothing shop and a
food-preparation service,” says director Elana Goldscheider. Now
in its fifth year, Darkaynu has a total of 18 participants,
including first and second-year students as well as two women –
one in her fourth year of the program and another who has been with
Darkaynu since its start – who now reside in an apartment
maintained by the program to teach independent living skills.
 Building
upon the success of the women’s program, a parallel Darkaynu
program for young men was established last year in Gush Etzion. This
year, four students have returned, joined by four new participants,
including one from Australia.
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 OTS’
Henry Everett Institute of Ethics and the Columbia/Barnard
Hillel co-sponsored a lecture by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin on “The Israeli
Palestinian Conflict: The Anatomy of an Ethical Dilemma” in late
October, at the Kraft Center for Jewish Life.
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Torah Stone
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