It’s the end of the academic year, and for graduates of Bay Area Jewish high schools, it is time to move on to exciting new adventures. For some, that means moving to Israel. For others, it means taking a meaningful volunteer position before heading off to
college.
He’s in the army now
Havneh Feder-Haugabook, whose first name means “ebony tree” in Hebrew, will be planting roots in the Jewish state. The 18-year-old graduating senior at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco leaves for Israel on June 18 to join Garin Tzabar. The program run by the Friends of Israel Scouts–Tzofim supports diaspora Jews who choose to move to Israel and serve in the Israel Defense Forces.
Havneh will become an Israeli citizen, study Hebrew and do some preparatory training for several months before being formally inducted into the army in November. Two of his JCHS classmates will be joining him and going through the same process.
“Although I’ve experienced a lot in high school, I still didn’t feel I was ready to become independent and live alone at college,” Havneh said. “The IDF will give me some grounding and some structure.”
This unusual young man doesn’t think his choice is all that unusual. “I’m patriotic for Israel, and I believe every Jew is responsible to contribute to the state in some way. Mine is to serve in the army,” he said.
Havneh is used to standing out, given that he is both Jewish and African American. His mother, Dvorah Feder, who supports his decision, lived for many years in Israel. His late father, James Benjamin Haugabook, was a civil rights figure and the first black painter allowed to work on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Although Havneh has visited Israel many times, it wasn’t until he did a week of pre-army training last summer during a trip with his NCSY youth group that the thought even entered his mind. Then, the idea to join the Israeli army crystallized even further after some recent tragic events.
“I really did some self-reflection after my dad died last November and my older sister died in February,” Havneh shared. “I applied to colleges, but going that route just didn’t feel right to me now.”
A hard-working and affable student who has been active with NCSY and in CrossFit, the high-level fitness training program, Havneh expects people to take notice of him. “I expect there will be Ethiopian Israeli soldiers, but there probably won’t be other soldiers with my background,” he said.
“Since people are always looking at me, I take it to mean that they are looking to me to take responsibility and be a leader,” he said.
“My goal is to get into Sayeret Matkal [an elite special operations unit]. You need a lot of mental strength for that,” Havneh said. “I’m going to choose the hardest and most accomplished thing. I aspire to be the best I can be.”
Doing good far from home
Sara Cramer plans to go to the University of Maryland, but not until after her gap-year program in Israel. For the next year, the 17-year-old from Sunnyvale will be living on an urban kibbutz in Gilo, a diverse neighborhood with a large number of immigrants in southern Jerusalem.
“I am going to be in the Mechinat Beit Yisrael program together with five other Hebrew-speaking Americans and 50 Israelis,” explained Sara, a graduating senior at Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto. “The mechina is a preparatory program for Israelis who defer the start of their army service. While some mechinot are focused on getting ready for the army, this one is not.”
Sara, who has attended Bnei Akiva summer camps and served as Kehillah’s Jewish life commissioner for the past two years, was attracted to the program because of its pluralistic Jewish nature, as well as its focus on Jewish learning and community service. She will be sharing an apartment with other participants and spending her time working with children in summer camps, schools and mentoring programs.
“I came home from Kehillah’s Israel trip last year really pumped,” said Sara, whose parents raised her to be a Zionist. “I decided I wanted to go back for an extended period, but I have to say there are moments when I get a bit freaked out about being so far away from home.”
Giving back first
Even before beginning pre-med studies at UCLA in the fall, Ester Liberman will be spending lots of time this summer in a hospital. The 18-year-old valedictorian at Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy in San Francisco plans on logging 100 or more volunteer hours in the ambulatory-care unit at the Pacific Heights campus of California Pacific Medical Center, where she already helped out last fall.
“I’ve been thinking about going into the medical field,” said Ester, who was just 2 when her family came to San Francisco from St. Petersburg, Russia.
As a new high school grad, she will be helping out by cleaning up rooms, bringing patients food and blankets, wheeling patients out of the hospital upon discharge, and doing paperwork. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s rewarding. “It’s important to give back to the community,” she said.