Bat+El's+Project

toc ﻿Ifaces 2011- Michael Wilshansky:



**Research question** : how did medical researcher, Michael Wilshanski, make an impact on Israeli society and the world? What can I learn from him about contributing to my society? =Rationale: = I chose to do my project on Michael Wilshanski. Michael is an immigrant from America, his a doctor in Hadassa Ain Carem hospital. For a long time Michael was working on finding the gin that carries Cystic Fibrosis. After a long time of hard work and persistence Michael and the crew he worked with found it.

After capturing that goal, Michael and the crew are working on finding a cure. I chose to do my project on Michael because I think it's amazing the fact that Michael hasn't given up, even when he thought it's an impossible mission. Also, I chose Michael because he thought what he is doing is important. Therefore trying, and then succeeding to make a big impact in the subject. Michael is a true example of a person that made an impact on the world.

I hope to learn from Michael his diligence, believing in yourself, not giving up even when it seems impossible. Also, I hope to learn some more general medical information on cystic fibrosis.

=Profile:=

Michael Wilshanski's message to today's youth is**:" Never give up, if you have a goal you should go for it"**. That practically describes him in a sentence.

Michael, a middle-aged Gastroenterology pediatric doctor in Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital is definitely on his way to achieve his goal. For nine years ,Michael and an international crew have been working on a cure for the horrible disease called "cystic fibrosis ".They are starting to see results in small steps, yet it's very hard. Not even once did Michael ever want to give up. Why, you ask? Because he's focused, because he's a hard worker, because he cares.

Michael is never satisfied where he is standing. He often quotes his dad "the biggest room is the room for improvement". Therefore Michael never rests always trying to improve.

Michael first visited Israel when he was eleven, Michael was part of a choir, that would often perform in Israel. In the first show Michael participated, he fell in love with Israel. By thirteen he already knew he was going to move to Israel. On 20th of August 1985 in the afternoon with a wife and one child that dream came true. Right from the start Michael defined himself as an Israeli. He never had a problem integrating with Israelis; he likes the standard typical Israeli except for there driving habits, which he wishes they would change.

Michael chose his job for two reasons- it involves children and it is about the study of the human insides. A lot of times Michael and the department's crew have to deal with mental pain. A recent event they had to deal with involved a hurting father, who couldn’t see his son suffer anymore. He decided to hospitalize his son, not understanding that it wouldn’t improve his son situation. After a lot of convincing, the father understood that their home is a better place for his son.

In the hospital Michael has no difficulty interacting with Israelis. He says he simply "shouts at them". JAs you see laughter is a big part that defines Michael along with persistence and modesty.

When asked to provide 5 adjectives to describe himself, Michael had a hard time finding an answer. He kept on saying, lazy and obsessive- compulsive. He decided to ask his wife for assistance, who immediately revoked his answer, exchanging lazy and obsessive-compulsive with: //focused on achieving the goal, anything but lazy, caring and a hard worker//. Looking back, Michael is at peace with his life choices, except for his absence from home; he wishes he could have been more at home and been a more active father and husband.



When not at work, Michael's hobbies include running, traveling around Israel and helping without getting anything in return. In the Yishuv Elazar, Michael's present home, you can often see people from in and out of the Yishuv on there way to ask Michael for medical advice. He will always, ignoring the time or place, help with a smile on his face and in his heart.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%;">Michael's other half of his message to today's youth is-"**marry the right person".** After all these years Michael understands that without his supporting, encouraging and loving wife he wouldn’t accomplish what he had.

=Background Research:=

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What are the symptoms for Cystic Fibrosis and what does it affect?

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Cystic fibrosis or as it called in short CF, is a disease that is inherited from your parents genes to you. In order of having CF, you need to inherit two faulty genes, one from each parent, your parents most likely not to have the disease.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">There are a few symptoms to diagnose CF. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Mamas Health concludes, "The most characteristic symptom of cystic fibrosis is the excessive production of thick, sticky mucus in the airways. Another characteristic is very salty sweat." [Cystic fibrosis] Despite what Mamas health say, CF symptoms change from person to person. Another sign to CF is rectal prolapsed. Frequent coughing or problems passing stools can cause rectal tissue from inside you to move out of your rectum. Also, imbalance in the level of minerals may require as a symptom to CF.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">If parents or their child carry CF they might, as the cite CDI states "increased risk for diabetes or a bone-thinning condition called osteoporosis. CF also causes infertility in men, and it can make it harder for women to get pregnant . " [ What is Cystic Fibrosis?]

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">When having CF there are a few changes in your body function.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">First, your sweet taste buds turn slightly salty. Secondly, your mucus becomes sticky and thicker. The mucus when having CF accumulates in the area of your lungs. That allows the bacteria to easily grow .that causes very serious lung infections and with time it may cause damage to the lungs. Mucus can also block the tubes in your pancreas, causing the enzymes pancreas produce not to reach your small intestine. Also, food is not digested until the end so the body can't absorb nutrients. According to Lori Alma, CF also "causes secretions, which are normally thin and watery in healthy people, to become very thick and sticky" [ Cystic Fibrosis: More Than a Lung Disease]. Another thing CF affects is your Nasal Polyps; they might develop if you’re diagnosed with CF.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">

=Creative Connection:=

<span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">My own Israel- <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">My land of Israel is beautiful and blossoming <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">Who built? Who planted? <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">All of us together. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">We got here fearless and we built her together. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">Settling down, we bloomed the wilderness. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">Hello to you great Israel, <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">Your humble servant writes to you a poem. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">Even if I sometimes we wander around, <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">It's good to wander but even better to come home. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">The modern Israel the 2000 country isn't really attractive, <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Let's start to destroy. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">So many, <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">Jews hate Jews, <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">I don’t know if I should cry or just be furious. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">30 years a person builds, he has a wife; he has children and great grandchildren. They grew up under the trees he planted, and they raise their children. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">He plants himself a garden and a little business, living thank god not that bad. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">Until a "leader" wearing a tie with Manicured fingers arrives, telling him his mission ended. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">Run the bulldozer Eric. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> We left, we immigrated to different places. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">To Israel we will always come back.

<span style="direction: ltr; display: block; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">"My own Israel"- is built from a lot of Israelis songs. I took a few words from the lyrics that I feel connected to and that I feel they belong to "my own Israel". The reason I chose to express my feelings through songs and lyrics, Is probably the fact that the way I show emotion is through music, lyrics and singing. <span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">"My own Israel" shows the "birth" of Israel, how it started, the dream, the togetherness, the real meaning of an Israeli country. As the years go by, in my eyes Israel started to change, leaving the dream behind. turning in to a disappointing country. Split into half filled with so much hatred. The biggest crack in my opinion that happened to us is the- "disengagement plan". I was hurt from the disengagement plan .I think it weakened us and weakened the unity of Israel.

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">The key in my eyes to return back to how Israel was conducted at the start is mainly-persistence. This automatically relates to the known personality- Michael Wilshansky. In his eyes persistence is a way of life. I will personally never give up on us, on Israel, on the dream. As it says in the last sentence –" We left; we immigrated to different places, to Israel we will always come back". The immigration that I mean is not physical, its meaning is to leave the "old" Israel, the dream of Israel, but, sometime, somewhere we will come back. We will always come back.

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">This is my Israeli face.

=Reflaction:=

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">The first time I met this project, I was sitting in English class, listening to my English teacher explaining to us the project. I had one thought passing through my mind-not another project! Well, this is definetely not just another project. <span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">The truth is, when asked to write our expectations from the project I laughed. Why? Simply because I had no expectations. Never did I imagine I would laugh from the project, enjoy it, and feel connected to it. Never did I imagine I would go back to my Israeli roots, feeling proud to be an Israeli. Never thought I would be inspired.

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">So, the answer to the question –" have we met our expectations?", is a definite no. the project went way beyond my expectations.

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">There are a few parts of the project I felt connected to. First, was when I interviewed Michael. Listening to his life story, understanding the sacrifices he had to make and how much internal strength he has, moved and inspired me. Second time I felt connected, was when I wrote the creative part. The reason, is because the song insisted that I face my buried feelings toured Israel, that was a very strong experience.

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">There would be one thing I would probably change if I would to the project again- I would learn before the project the important and very hard skills of understanding "word".

<span style="direction: ltr; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">I'm grateful of this project because it improved my writing skills; it made me understand the importance of Israel and of being an Israeli.

=Work Cited:=

[] - day i enterd website- 23/3/11

[] - day i enterd website- 6/4/11. updated- June,30,08

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/he/thumb/2/21/Hadassah.jpg/140px-Hadassah.jpg