H EADLINES
Kedma Launches ‘Marking Milestones’ Program
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
ISRAEL-BASED nonprofit
Kedma hopes that b’nai mitzvah
and wedding celebrations will
be more than just parties.

Orit Seif, Kedma’s director,
created “Marking Milestones,”
a customizable volunteer
experience and chesed oppor-
tunity for those celebrating
simchas, to help do just that.

Marking Milestones, which
launched last month, gives
Jewish families from across the
globe the opportunity to partner
with an Israeli organization of
their choosing and help design
a volunteer experience that is
personal to the family and will
have a lasting positive impact
on Israeli society.

“Our goal is to tailor the
volunteer experience to the
interest of the family, so that the
family feels that what they’re
doing is adding a lot of meaning
to their celebration,” Seif said.

Founded in 1996, Kedma
has a myriad of programs
geared toward students taking
a gap year in Israel or those
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outside of Israel looking to give
back to the country.

“Our mission is not just to
support Israeli society, but to
really to get to know Israeli society
and feel connected to it through
volunteerism, and to strengthen
the ties between diaspora and
Israeli Jewry,” Seif said.

Th e Kedma Volunteer and
Cohort Programs matched
hundreds of volunteers —
many of whom were gap-year
students from the United
States, Great Britain and France
— to Israeli organizations such
as Leket Israel and Girls Town
Jerusalem. Volunteers helped
organize food donations and
plan parties for immigrants
and disadvantaged youth.

Marking Milestones emerged
as an organic next step for
Kedma, as it provided a way for
more personal bonds to be made
between volunteers and Israeli
organizations. For Sharon Weinstein’s
family, Marking Milestones
gave them the opportunity
to connect more deeply with
Israeli society. Th ey made
aliyah from New Jersey to
Ma’ale Adumim fi ve years ago,
when their son Ayal was 8.

Th e program’s inaugural
participants decided to work
with Th e Michael Levin Base
for their son’s bar mitzvah
chesed project.

“He naturally connected to
the idea of lone soldiers who,
like him, immigrated to Israel
and had to fi gure out how to
acclimate to society here,”
Weinstein said.

The Weinstein family
attended Th e Base’s draft party,
where soldiers received essen-
tial supplies. Th e family helped
organize and distribute the
supplies, with their children
personalizing each package with
a thank-you note to the soldiers.

Th ey asked friends and family
attending the bar mitzvah to
bring supplies to customize and
distribute to soldiers.

Because it was a way of
integrating into Israeli society,
having a chesed project for the
bar mitzvah was important to
the family, Weinstein said.

“Having some help in
craft ing a chesed component
helped ensure that this integral
aspect didn’t get lost in the
shuffl e,” she said.

Though the Weinsteins
held their Marking Milestones
event in Israel, olim aren’t the
only ones who can volunteer
through Kedma.

Kedma’s remote programs
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JEWISHEXPONENT.COM helped pave the way for
Marking Milestones,
which is available remotely
and for those living in
Israel. When
COVID-19 began, Kedma expanded
its mission to help those
isolated by the pandemic,
initiating a host of remote
volunteering oppor-
tunities. It launched
Dial-A-Savta, encouraging
volunteers to connect over
Gap-year students volunteer at Leket
the phone or Zoom with Israel and learn about the importance of
seniors and those who were food rescue in Israel. Courtesy of Orit Seif
immunocompromised. It
also created Homework Helpers, aft er the transition to remote
a remote tutoring program for learning. According to Afriat,
gap-year students to assist young the program was a success.

students in the U.S.

“Th e volunteers are just
In December,
Kedma lovely, helpful, eager people
connected with the Torah who really have a heart in
Academy of Greater Philadelphia helping these kids,” Afriat said.

through Homework Helpers, a
Seif hopes that Marking
school to which Seif has personal Milestones will bolster Kedma’s
connections. A Philadelphia impact of helping those in need
resident for 12 years, Seif had and growing local relationships
some of her six children attend to Israel, particularly as the
the school.

pandemic continues to hinder
Seif reached out to Nicole international connections.

Afriat, the school’s coordinator
“We see Marking Milestones
of student needs, and they as a way to reignite that fi re,”
partnered volunteers in Israel Seif said. ●
with students at the Torah
Academy who were in danger srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
of falling through the cracks 215-832-0741
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AUGUST 26, 2021
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