The Taglit program is celebrating its thirteenth anniversary. More than 300,000 young people between the ages of 18 and 26 who are eligible for repatriation have already visited Israel as part of this program. The goals of the program are to connect the Jewish world, to open the diverse modern Israel to the Jewish youth of the Diaspora, to remind them of their roots, and to strengthen their Jewish identity.
On February 5, Tel Aviv University’s Smolarsh Auditorium will host the program’s “bar mitzvah” celebration and educational fair, where several important projects will be presented. Among them is the “Mahut“ program for Israeli army officers, which helps strengthen their national identity. The evening will also include the presentation of the new “Phoenix” project for graduates of the “Taglit”The evening will also include the presentation of the new “Phoenix” project for Taglit alumni, aimed at studying the Holocaust in the Soviet Union.
A special version was developed for Russian-speaking Jews from different countries “Taglit”A special version of “Taglit” was developed for Russian-speaking Jews from different countries. Part of the program is a unique interactive educational seminar “ Generations “ , developed by the Am a-Zikaron Institute with the support of the Genesis Charitable Foundation. It was first launched in 2008, but since 2009 it has become a mandatory part of the Russian-language “Taglit.”.
– The seminar participants immerse themselves in the atmosphere of Jewish history, from the ancient days to the present day, to understand their role in this chain of events, to realize that all of this has a direct relation to them ,” says Malka Hagoel-Spitzberg, Project Manager at the Am a-Zikaron Institute.
In the second part of the seminar, each participant receives a certificate telling about the origin of their surname. For this purpose, young people are asked in advance to fill in a detailed questionnaire about four generations of their relatives. And sometimes surprises await the Institute’s researchers: searching for data on ancestors helps to find unexpected relatives among the seminar participants. The latest discovery was the discovery of two descendants of Tzadik Levi Yitzhak from Berdichev, who did not suspect each other’s existence.
– It’s rare luck, but it happens sometimes,” says Malka Hagoel-Spitzberg. – In such cases, I tell the guys that two hundred years ago, they were one person.
From a surname, experts can often identify the area where a family lived just a few generations ago, or calculate the occupation of an ancestor. The Cohens, Katz and Kaganovich, as well as the Levys, Levins, Levitins served back in the Temple in Jerusalem, the Rappaports lived in Portugal 20 generations ago, the Shapiros lived in Germany, and the Katzenelbogenes, Landau and Lifshitzes are descendants of RASHI, who was a descendant of King David.
– Once in one group we had several people with surnames like Reznick, Shoichet and Shechtman, and their ancestors were involved in the ritual slaughter of animals,” Hagoel-Spitzberg recalls. – Curiously enough, most of their descendants are medical professionals. The shoyukhtim also studied anatomy in order to do their job properly. This is how we show them that everything stays in the family and does not go anywhere. That these guys are flesh and blood from those people who lived in Eretz Israel two thousand years ago.
– In the absence of basic Jewish education and taking into account the fact that many families were separated in the twentieth century, it is difficult for Russian-speaking Jews to realize themselves as part of the Jewish people, because they lack material ties to it,” says Sasha Britavsky, executive director of the Genesis Charitable Foundation in Israel. – This project opens new perspectives for the children. They suddenly begin to realize that the whole Jewish history is not just a collection of fairy tales, but, in fact, the history of their family. Our people are too small, and it is genealogical research that helps us to find ties – not blood ties, but to restore lost family ties.