2001 Newsletter

As we write this so soon after the carnage of September 11th, we are powerfully aware of the heart-breaking events that have wracked the U.S., the Middle East, and our communities. Yet stubbornly, especially at this time of year, we look for signs of hope:

In the spirit of planting and healing, wholeness and peace, we send you our 14th annual accounting of the Amy Adina Fund. From the interest earned on the endowment base built over these years since the death of our daughter, our sister, and now our aunt, Amy Adina, the Fund has awarded 247 grants totaling $135,000, including 22 grants in just this past year. The Fund's young recipients have undertaken a commitment of time, compassion, and talent to learn about and to try to effect change in what they see as gaping wounds in the fabric of society here in the U.S. and in the Middle East. They understand they will not be able to complete the task, but are passionate to start; please do take a few minutes to read some of their statements. We hope you will share our sense that our collective investment has been well-spent.

We extend sincerest thanks for the 355 contributions received during these past 12 months, a total of $41,000, and we ask for your continuing support to help nurture idealistic young people. All contributions remain fully tax deductible and go directly into the endowment base; all administrative costs are covered by the Schulman family.

In April 2001 the Fund's annual lecture series in Princeton featured Linda Gradstein, Jerusalem resident and Middle East correspondent for National Public Radio. We invite you to check our web site for a listing of previous speakers, earlier grantees, more information about the mission of the AmyAdina Fund, and the process of applying for a grant.

MICHAEL F., 27, grew up in Cleveland, graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in Environmental Geology, and was a nature specialist and climbing instructor at Camp Ramah and Camp Wise. After graduation he worked as a counselor/teacher in a wilderness therapy program for at risk youth in North Carolina. He is currently a student in a two year M.A. program in Sustainable International Development (SID) at Brandeis. This year he is doing his field work.....

studying the state of Israel's water resources and their management structures which borders on crisis…It is my intention to address the social consequences of water management practices as well as the environmental effects… It is my belief that cooperative management of water resources within Israel and between Israel and her neighbors can provide the corner stone for peaceful coexistence…

In this proposal I outline a method to assess the strategy of water development that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) uses. I will examine the quantity of water produced by the development strategy, the effects on water quality, the economic efficiency of the investments, and the effectiveness of planning and implementation. My aim is to take the first step on an assessment that will take many years and several disciplines to be done well. My framework will be a road map for future research…

I will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. To assess the quality of water I will take samples twice a month for eight months from three reservoirs with similar catchment areas and climate conditions and measure these samples for Total Dissolved Solid and Biological Oxygen Demand… My primary tool to determine the degree of coordination between the JNF and other stakeholders will be structured and open-ended interviews (with these personnel.) I will also use the matrix methods recommended by the World Bank to evaluate the nature and strength of relations between stakeholders.

Michael's letters of recommendation by his faculty describe him as "an orthodox Jew who finds both justification and meaning in his faith and worries deeply about the consequences of conflicts over water and other natural resources in Israel and the surrounding States… He is destined to become a leading scholar and policy-maker in issues of water resources in the Middle East."

BECKY E. just turned 18. She is participating in a 10 month Habonim-Dror Workshop in Israel, spending 5 months working on a kibbutz and learning Hebrew, 1-2 months in community service work such as teaching new immigrants English, and various week long seminars such as Arab and Jewish co-existence, environmentalism, and Jerusalem. Becky has been involved with Habonim Dror since she was nine years old.

I became politically and socially active during the school year, going to rallies, working at homeless shelters, and speaking out against racial and sexual intolerance among my friends and schoolmates. The first half of this year I also had an internship working with teenage boys with severe mental retardation and autism… This (past) year I am co-Rosh (head) of the Washington, DC ken (group) in charge of planning and coordinating all of the school year activities connected with Habonim-Dror for the 140 kids in the D.C. metro area.

I plan to be socially and politically active in whatever university I choose to attend. I will likely focus on expanding the Homeless Outreach Program Efforts, an organization I founded two years ago at my high school… Thank you so much for awarding me this scholarship. Without it I do not think I would have been able to go to Israel for this year!

Two grantees this year were interns in the Jewish Organizing Initiative (JOI) program in Boston. They were given in-depth training, mentoring, and placement in community-based organizing groups to encourage them to pursue careers in social justice work. The JOI experience focuses on building community institutions and developing relationships with low-income people. Rather than providing direct services, the interns try to empower these individuals to shape their own future.

I wanted to spend a year practicing my skills as an anthropologist and serve the wider community before entering a long program of rabbinical school… I have a one year fellowship with JOI working at the Irish Immigration Center. I am learning how to earn trust within a community, and how to create sensitive multicultural programming…

I do community organizing in the Irish, Irish-American, African-American, and Caribbean communities in Boston. Boston has a terrible history of race relations over the past century. I plan programming that will bring these diverse groups of people together to celebrate their unique cultures, while learning to listen to and understand one another. It is my job to build connections with people in each of these neighborhoods, and to encourage them to reconsider their own prejudices and misunderstandings in dialogue with people from opposing backgrounds… The program is called "Mirrors, Myths, and Misunderstand-ings" -- the myths that America is a classless society, that all citizens have access to services such as health care, transportation, and education… Hopefully they will have a shared sense of each other's underlying humanity as well as an action project to pursue… In addition, I work on long-term legislative advocacy on immigration… working on strategy together with immigrants from Haiti, Brazil, Cape Verde, Ethiopia…

I attend weekly JOI meetings where we study Jewish texts and discuss the interconnections between Judaism and social justice work… Next year I will bring these experiences with me; they will make me a more visionary leader and rabbi in the future.

SUSI K. grew up in Florida where she co-founded her synagogue's NFTY (youth) chapter. She is a Dartmouth graduate with a double major in Religion and Middle Eastern languages and literature. The Associate Director of JOI enthusiastically praised Susi's effective leadership within the JOI: guiding her peers through the development of a required group project focusing on learning how the Jewish community responds to the needs and interests of adults in their twenties, and her participation on the JOI curriculum committee which plans seminars to instill an understanding and appreciation of how Judaism can inform the lives and work of the interns themselves. Also, "…Her work with `Medical Students for Choice' has helped drive campaigns to include lectures on abortion and contraception in the curricula of local medical schools.." Susi's placement is as campus organizer and volunteer coordinator at the Massachusetts affiliate of NARAL.

I work with students throughout the state in order to explain the pro-choice position… I make classroom presentations.. much of the work I am currently doing focuses on educating students about emergency contraception and getting them to organize to increase its accessibility at student health centers… I have created more inclusive training addressing the various perspectives from which different racial and ethnic groups approach the subject of reproductive rights. I am also responsible for recruiting new activists and keeping our 700 plus volunteer base engaged and invested in the issue…

EZRA W. graduated from Hampshire College, and noted that Amy Adina was his first counselor at Habonim's Camp Galil. He was admitted to and applied for funding to participate in the Conflict Transformation Across Cultures (CONTACT) graduate program. This program "brings together peace builders from both sides of heated ethnic conflicts around the world to train them in theories of non-violence and conflict transformation…to engage in a learning process and develop skills to help heal and prevent inter-communal conflict…" Ezra spent 4 weeks this summer at the School for Inter-national Training in Vermont, and is now in a 10 month field-based practicum in Israel.

As a recent college graduate coming to Israel with the purpose of seeking a career in Jewish/Arab peace building, I know that I have not chosen an easy path to follow. The peace building movement has been shattered by the last year of violence. The grassroots inter-cultural peace movement needs to be built up again. I want to be part of this revival, but I need to be trained by people who have been doing this type of Peace work for a long time. Unfortunately there are no programs currently in Israel training the next generation of peace builders. That is why I decided to apply to CONTACT…

I am fortunate to be living on an Urban Kibbutz in Jerusalem that allows me freedom to pursue my professional interests. Like the original Kibbutz model we do not value work based on monetary value. Practically that means some people work full time, some are students, and some work part time and volunteer part time. Given the recent political situation in Israel, I know that it's going to be nearly impossible to find paid work in the peacebuilding field. Living in this collective framework allows me to work a part time job and spend the other half of my time volunteering for peace building organizations.

ART G. worked with B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, an organization monitoring, documenting, and advocating the advancement of human rights. It has a staff of Israeli and Palestinian workers and two foreign interns who learn about documentation, research, activism, and advocacy.

Art e-mailed us about two areas of his research: the consequences of repatriation for colonizers once they go back to their motherland (i.e. the Dutch leaving Indonesia and resettling in Holland, the Portugese leaving Africa and going back to Portugal, and the French leaving Indonesia.) This was a comparative analysis for if and when Israeli settlers have to move back to Israel-proper after a peace accord. 2) Cases of reparations by states to a group of people who have suffered a hardship and demand compensation (i.e. Japanese Americans who were interned during WWII, possible reparations to descendants of black slaves, Germany & Austria paying Jews/Israel for Holocaust reparations.) Research for possible compensation to Palestinians after a peace accord is signed.

I have been in Israel for 16 months in some of the most turbulent moments of the state's history. The conflict is tragic. It can be nerve wracking to be here. Everyone is on edge. Sometimes I've doubted myself or the usefulness of the work B'Tselem does; it is very depressing to be a Peacenik at this time. The conflict can really knock the wind out of you and tear away your hope and optimism. But I remain positive and continue to believe. These two peoples are destined to live together side by side on this small tract of land. Peace will eventually come to pass. Perhaps not in the near future, but it will happen.