OKIE experience
Oklahoman, Israeli students are part of ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ cultural exchange
Oklahoma, Israeli students are part of a oncein-a-lifetime cultural exchange.
Maya Ben Yacov, of Israel, looked forward to attending her first American high school football game. Bridgette Ross anticipated visiting many of the sites mentioned in the Holy Bible she grew up reading as a Christian teen in Bethany.
The two teenagers are participating in cultural exchange experiences through Oklahoma Israel Exchange’s Youth Ambassador Student Exchange Program.
Both teens and 20 other young people have been brought together for what the group exuberantly described as a kind of two-week cultural swap.
“It’s something so special. It’s once in a lifetime,” Yacov said.
“You’re basically switching your life for a week. It’s so much fun.”
Susan Robertson, executive director of the Oklahoma Israel Exchange, also known as OKIE, said Bethany High School has been one of the more enthusiastic participants of the youth exchange program.
She said it was started in 2007 with one lone high school student from Jenks. Since then numerous other high schools have participated, including the three Edmond high schools, Santa Fe, North and Memorial; Bartlesville, Seminole, Putnam City, Norman and Heritage Hall. Robertson said Harding Fine Arts Academy students also will be participating later this year.
Edie Roodman, OKIE president, said the
10-year-old exchange program was borne out of a desire to showcase positive aspects of Israel.
“I think initially OKIE felt that this would be a wonderful way for young people to experience another culture, build friendships, better understand and promote goodwill,” she said.
Robertson agreed. “It gives the students an opportunity to form their own opinions, and then when they come back, they have firsthand information,” she said. “It’s really broadened their perspective.”
DonWentroth Jr., principal at Bethany High, said he had students participating in the program when he wasan administrator at Putnam City High School so he made sure he introduced the initiative to Bethany High when he became a leader there. He said this is the fifth year Bethany High has participated in the program. “It’s different from being on vacation. They will be able to experience what it’s like to live with an Israeli family,” Wentroth said of his Bethany students. “It’s just a great program.”
Exchange of culture
As part of the program, 11 students from Israel arrived in Oklahoma on Oct. 26 with two adult advisers and attended classes with their 11 counterparts from Bethany High on Oct. 27, and Yacov and the group attended a Bethany football game that evening. The group also participated in a hiking trip in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and Bethany High’s Fall Ball. The students toured the Oklahoma City National Memorial& Museum and the Chesapeake Energy Arena on Monday and also visited Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City and the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur.
Wentroth said he and the group of students from Bethany High planned to travel with the Israeli students to New York City on Thursday, where they would be touring the9/11 Memorial Museumand the United Nations headquarters. He said the group would then travel to Israel, where the Bethany High students would attend school with the Israeli students and visit many tourist sites.
The Israeli students said they were intrigued by many of the routine aspects of American high school life like football games, dances and even some of the youthful slang spouted by their American counterparts.
Lihi Avni, 16, said she was interested in participating in the exchange program.
“I wanted to go because I thought it would be very interesting to go to a different school and living in a different culture.”
Ellie Mor, also 16, said she participated in the program because she wanted to be an ambassador for Israeland counter some stereotypes and misperceptions people have about her country.
“I had people ask me if we ride camels to school. I had people ask if we hate all Muslims. I had people ask me if we are always at war,” Mor said. “That’s why we are here. I want to change that.”
Lavi Nimrod and Mai Karassin said they were excited to attend Bethany’s Fall Ball because of its Halloween theme. Karassin said Israel doesn’t observe Halloween, although there are masks and costumes and festivities for the Jewish holiday of Purim.
Karassin said she felt the school model was very differentfrom her own in Israel. She said she was interested to see the students sitting in a circle around their teacher and some students even sat on sofas instead of at desks.
Mor said she and other members of the Israeli group had stereotypes of Oklahoma because they thought they would see many cowboys.
Zohar Kerman made the group laugh when he said he enjoyed spending a day in the life of an Okie. “I’ve been here half a day, and I’ve learned a great deal,” he said, explaining that one of the things he learned is that the word “tea” is a slang word for gossip.
The Bethany students said they were looking forward to traveling to Israel to visit many sites they have heard about for years.
For Ross, 17, those places included the Sea of Galilee and the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, which some Christians believe to be the site of Jesus Christ’s burial.
Maya Fitch and Reagon Conrad said they were looking forward to visiting the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, considered the most religious site in the world for Jewish people. Conrad said she was excited to learn that the group would be visiting the site in the Old City of Jerusalem on Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath. Fitch also said she was excited about visitingYad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
The Bethany teens said they were glad they learned some Hebrew in the months leading up to the exchange. Wentroth said the Oklahoma students had been meeting once a week since they were accepted into the program, and learning Hebrew was part of the plan to enhance their understanding and travels in Israel.
Emphasizing commonalities
Meanwhile, Wentroth said his school is grateful to OKIE for offering the cultural exchange program. “They were the first to sponsor schools. Not only do they support us morally, but they support us financially.” he said.
He said in a world where differences are increasingly being emphasized, the program helps young people learn how to see people and cultures differentfrom their own with open minds and hearts.
“The (Christian) Great Commandment is to love your neighbors which seems so simple to do. That’s what this whole thing is about,” Wentroth said. “The world, it can get better. We are so much more similar than we are different.”
Bethany student Clare Greene expressed similar sentiments. “I think it’s a really good reminder for me that we really aren’t that different from others,” she said. “You don’t get to appreciate that until you meet them. It’s so much more real in person.”