AvitalA

My name is Avital and I am fifteen years old. I am the youngest of two children. I have a sister who is two and a half years older then me and we get along very well. As well as being close as sisters we are also close as friends! I was born in England and at the age of ten my family and I moved to Israel. I now live in Jerusalem, in Baka. I am in my second year in Neve Chana school for girls, which is in Alon Shvut. Before I learnt in this school, I learnt in a school called Chorev. I didn’t enjoy learning there at all and therefore I decided that after two years of suffering, I was going to move school. This was the second time that I had left all my friends and went to a whole new group of friends. I am extremely happy with my decision and so far I am thoroughly enjoying Neve Chana. My favourite books are: To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher In the Rye, Of Mice and Men and several others. I have now started to read many books about the Holocaust, which is something that I believe is very important to learn about, especially now, when the number of Holocaust survivors is getting smaller. I enjoy reading in English but even after living in Israel for five years, I find it quite hard to read in Hebrew. I love traveling and learning about different cultures and religions. I have been to Rome, Venice, Switzerland, France, America, Morocco and several other places. In addition to learning about cultures through traveling, I am also a counselor in the youth group "Bnei Akiva" in an absorption center for Ethiopian immigrants. Until now I have learnt many interesting customs that Ethiopians have and I hope to learn many more. I am in Bnei Akiva every Tuesday and every other Shabbat. I love going and I am getting very close to my little Ethiopian campers. Though it takes up a lot of my time, I am enjoying myself so much, and learning so many new things and I think that this experience is something that will be extremely beneficial for me. In addition to loving my campers, I also get along very well with my fellow counselors. When I started working with the Ethiopians, I didn’t know any of the other people who were already working there. However after only three short months I have a whole new group of friends who I feel very close to. I hope that we all benefit from this project and also have fun with it!