in the Israeli Army with Michael Levin,
the Philadelphia native who made ali-
yah in 2002, joined the army and died
in combat in 2006. As Yehuda recalled,
his relationship with Levin was the fi rst
time he understood the perspective of
an American Jew who loved Israel.

But there was still so much more he
wanted to learn.

“It was a mystery. How is that con-
nection made? Half of the Jews in the
world don’t live in Israel,” he said. “For
me, it’s important to teach my family
about Jews in America.”
Benaya Yehuda was perhaps inter-
ested in this connection because his
parents had made aliyah from the U.S.

And it was on a visit four years ago to
Ayala and Benaya Yehuda
his grandmother in Brooklyn that his
wife, Ayala, became intrigued as well.

In more than 10 years of marriage,
she had never met her husband’s
American family. And, by the end of
that trip, their eight-year-old daughter
started speaking English.

“I was amazed to see that,” Ayala
Yehuda said.

About two years aft er that trip, the
pandemic showed the Yehudas that,
if they wanted to see America, they
couldn’t wait.

“So we started to live and do what we
want. Not only dream,” Ayala Yehuda
said. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Photos by Jordan Cassway
with Peace of Mind!
Compassionate Care
V isit!
Come The Yehuda family
of study. It’s to deepen it.

As Rabbi Marshall Lesack, Barrack’s
head of school, explained, his insti-
tution focuses on three core areas in
Israel education: formal education in
the classroom, experiential learning
through eighth- and 11th-grade trips to
Israel and relational education through
exposure to a shaliach. Lesack believes
that American educators simply can’t
replicate the perspective of people who
have lived in Israel.

“You get tied to a place and country
through the relationships you develop
with people from that place,” he said.

“Th at’s why a shaliach is important.”
Rabbi Chaim Galfand, the school
rabbi at Perelman, and Emily Cook, the
principal of Perelman’s Stern Center in
Wynnewood, echoed Lesack’s point
about relational education. Galfand
called a shaliach “an ambassadorial
role.” “It also just adds to the richness,”
Cook said. “And then our students pass
that on to their families, and it just
builds on that love for Israel.”
Benaya Yehuda fi rst became intrigued
about this connection between Israel
and the United States when he served
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