Yaelf's+I+face

__RATIONALE-__ This project is meant to make us look around and find that person that we feel represents the face Israel, that number one citizen. I chose Laya lurie because the only way to explain who she is is by the word-good. She's such a good person and I could see how she dedicates most of her time for good causes. I find her a great citizen because this country needs and stands on those good people who are willing to give so much of themselves for others. Laya spends a lot of her time on different Zdaka projects. Her Hachnasat Orchim is huge, and I don’t big like what we're used to hear about I mean H-U-G-E. it's amazing to see how so many guests every shabat get each their own attention and care (and we're talking about big numbers here). I picked Laya because from the outside she looks like a normal citizen, but the moment you step inside her house you realize how unique and special she is and how much she gives from herself to others. I hope I could learn in this project what gives Laya the strength and power to do what she does, and give so much of herself. I hope I can also learn a little bit from her good because she is really worth admiring.

__**  Profile- Laya Lurie- **__

Laya Lurie- has 6 kids, a masters degree in family therapy and her own private practice where she sees singles, couples and families. She also does marriage education for couples before their wedding and in the first year of marriage. Laya is originally from South-Africa, but in 1986 moved to Sydney, Australia where she lived for 13 years. In Australia she worked hard to build the Jewish community, which was small and scattered by opening her house for shiurim and for meals as a neutral place where everyone could come together (Chabad, Chraidy, Mizrachy…). She helped with: fixing the mikve, taking care of the Eiruv, being involved with the school, and doing a lot of Kiruv. She also created a program called "woman for life" which brought women from different background together. In 1999 she moved with her family to Israel and they settled in Neve-Daniel (Gush-Ezion) for a year's sabbatical. The first six months were hard, especially for her kids. However at the end of six months each one of her kids wanted to stay in Israel, so they did! They stayed in Neve-Daniel for two years. In the middle of that time the Intifada broke out. During the Intifada while driving from their home to Jerusalem, their car got shot at and occasionally stoned. A lot of times they couldn’t travel the road, but all those difficulties just made her connection to Israel and the people of Israel stronger. The hard times made Laya more determined to stay in Israel. She wanted to live in the Jewish home land which she loves: she didn’t care about the difficulties. During the Intifada, the soldiers of the I.D.F came up to Neve-Daniel to observe Arab villages in the area. Laya created a cooking base out of her house where she made meals for the soldiers. When Succot arrived, she supplied them with Succot food and opened her Succa to welcome all of them. After two years in Neve-Daniel, Laya moved with her family to Jerusalem. During the hitnatkut (the expulsion from Gush-Katif) she started a project "worm-up"- to supply coats to every displaced resident. She had to find out the amount of coats and the sizes she needed. Laya raised enough money for the first 3,000 coats, but a day before she planed on giving out the coats they were all stolen! The coats getting stolen brought in a lot of money. People heard about the robbery and donated money. Over a 1,000,000 shekels were raised and Laya was able to buy new coats and give them out. Laya has an open home where she welcomes everyone who wishes to come. A lot of groups from out of the country, and students of yeshivas and seminars are sent to her house for a Shabbat experience. The Shabbat experience includes, baking chalot before Shabbat. Every guest learns how to make a chala and eats it in the Shabbat meal (the baking of the chala is two hours before Shabbat comes in, so that the last smell in the house before Shabbat would be of the chalot.). Family is the most important thing! That’s why once every 4-6 weeks there is a family Shabbat, to keep everyone together and to keep the balance between family and guests. Laya's house also supplies a swimming pool which is called-" the chesed pool". It is used 3 times a week for a group of elderly people, who do water aerobics, taught by people who desperately need a living. This group call them self-"the lchaim club"(= to life club) and is a very big social and physical help for the people who join it. Other then that the "chesed pool" is occupied 2 times a week with handicap kids who cant offered a public pool, and do their physiotherapy there. "It's amazing to see how those kids could move in the water" Laya says. The "chesed pool" does charge an amount of money that goes directly to Laya's tzdaka projects. Another big project Laya has is called-"the blanket drive"-giving out blankets to people who couldn’t afford heating after the economic crisis. Unfortunately people who didn’t really need the blankets came to her door. That moment Laya learned that you have to make sure that people aren't taking advantage of you, and that your chesed is going to the right people. That’s a few of many chesed projects and good deeds Laya has been involved in. Laya feels that her biggest success is: bringing her family to Israel, making them happy, and making a home based on Torah values for her kids. Her family is the most important thing to her and she works hard to keep them all together. She feels like her biggest achievement is having 3 grandchildren who were born in Israel. The message she would want to pass on to her kids is, to have a sense of loving and understanding for other. She wants them to live a life guided by the Torah, and have a home based on values. To be a united family, to help others and do chesed in every way they can. She wants her kids and others to use their time wisely, not to waste it! To be busy with mitzvot and chesed and good deeds. She hopes her kids and others will use their potential and be the best they can be. The main thing is to be a worthwhile citizen of Israel, and give the country whatever you can give- there is so much to do and give with such little time. I think that Laya Lurie is a great citizen of Israel because she cares for the land and the people. She does everything in her ability to make this country a better place with a more united nation that has love and caring between the people. I think Israel needs more people like Laya that gives everything she can for the people. People like her are the people who keep our nation together.

** __Literary connection__ ** **I chose this particular piece because I feel it is talking exactly about our project. This piece shows how much every Jew is needed for the hard work we as Jews need to do in Israel, and it shows the belief that every Jew will come to Israel to help his brothers do that work. **
 * פרשת גבריאל תירוש\ישראל שליו **
 * ע"מ 51- **
 * ""הביטו כל הארץ הזאת היא שלנו..."המילים היו כה פשוטות ובהירות עד כי רגע קל היה נדמה לנו שאמנם אין פלא בדבר. אבל כעבור רגע אחזה בנו ההתפכחות בשיני הטרף החדות שלה **
 * "אבל הארץ הזאת אינה ריקה," הטחתי לעומתו בהדגשה. "הסבור אתה שקומץ יהודים ירושלמיים ויהודים תל-אביביים וקצת יהודים חיפניים יוכלו לקחת אותה מידי בעליה, גם אם זכותם ההיסטורית לעשות זאת?" **
 * "המדובר הוא לא בקומץ של יהודים אלא בעם היהודי הגדול כולו!" **
 * ..."אין אתם יודעים עדיין מה בכוחם של היהודים לעשות," הוסיף ואמר לנו. "העם היהודי זיעזע מוסדות ומשטרים חזקים יותר מכנופיות האפנדים, השיכים, הפחות והמלכים המושלים בארץ למן היאור ועד הנהר. אם רק נביא לכאן את המהפכנים היהודיים שבאלף גלויות שירכזו את כוח- המהפכה האדירה שלהם כאן, בין הגבעות האלה- לא יעמוד שום כוח בפניהם. אפילו לא הכוח הבריטי. יש לנו עם כביר- אני אומר לכם- עם כביר באמת!" **
 * "אבל איפה הוא העם הזה?" פרצתי בשאלה " מדוע אינו בא?" **
 * " השאלה היא במקומה," הודה " אלא שעתיד הוא לבוא. ברצון או שלא ברצון. בזרמים גדולים ובטיפות קטנות. ועד אז יהיה עלינו לעשות חלק מן המלאכה לבדנו."" **

**""Look, all this country is ours…" the words were so simple and clear, that for a moment we actually thought that there is no wonder in what he said. But after a moment the realization caught us with its prey teeth. "But this country isn’t empty," I responded boldly "Do you really think that a little group of Jews from** **Jerusalem****, Tel- Aviv, and** **Haifa** **could take this country from its owners, even if it's their historical right to do so?" "Were not talking about the little group of Jews, We are talking about the whole big powerful nation of Jews"…"You don’t even know what's in the strength of the Jewish nation to do," he added. "The Jewish nation destabilized organizations and government's bigger than gangs of effendi's, sheikh's, pashas and the kings who rule in the country from the Nile to the river.**
 * "Parashat gavriel tirosh"- "The story of gavriel tirosh" **
 * By-Yitzchak shaleve **
 * If we just bring all the revolutionary Jews that are in thousands of exiled communities and they will gather all their revaluation power here, between these hills- no power will stand against them not even the British power. We have a tremendous nation- I'm telling you a really tremendous nation!" "But where is this nation?" I broke out with a question "Why isn’t he coming?" **
 * "The question is appropriate," he admitted "But he will come in the future. From their will or not from their will. In a big flow or in little drops. But until then we will have to do some of the work by ourselves."" **

**This piece is taken from a book called- "Parashat gavriel tirosh", that was written in Hebrew by Yitzchak shalev, and was published in 1964. The story takes place in the time of the British mandate in** **Israel****. This part in the book is a discussion between a teacher, who is teaching his teenagers how to fight for their country, and his students. This piece talks about the Israeli power and how nothing can stand against it. The teacher is trying to explain how if we take the whole Israeli nation and its powers we will be able to win Israel back, but until that time the small amount of Jews that are in Israel need to start doing the work.**
 * I think that the author's main point is to make us, the readers, understand the power that the Israelis have: to make us realize that in the past we had to fight with blood and sweat for this land, every piece of it. To tell the world that even though we weren't with all our strength and we were a little group we still stood up for what we believed in till our last breath. **
 * I chose this piece to show that the Israeli nation is not just another nation. Every person in** **Israel** **helps to fight the war of survival that we as Jews need to fight every day. The place we are standing in today is a result of hard work that we and our fathers accomplished. Every Israeli Jew is hoping every day for other people from his nation and his brothers from over seas to come and join him in this fight: The fight for our land, and the fight for our existence.**
 * In conclusion, I chose to include this piece in my project because it fits exactly. Our project is about people who came from their exiled communities and joined the war we fight for** **Israel****. These people help as much as they can. And that’s why they are the number one citizens of** **Israel****.**

** Creative connection- ** What amazes me about Israel over and over again is the fact that in this little country there are so many types of people. I think it is the most beautiful thing to see how so many people with such different backgrounds live together as one united nation. That’s why I chose to do a photo collage of all these different and unique people that make Israel what it is.

In the center of my collage I drew the Star of David and the saying- עם ישראל חי This means-the Jewish nation lives. I also put in a passage from our morning prayers "וקבצנו מארבע כנפות הארץ לארצנו" This means- he will assemble us from the 4 edges of earth to our land. I chose the Star of David because it is the symbol of all the Jews in the world, and it represents us wherever we go, because it doesn’t matter where you're from or where you're going if you’re a Jew the Star of David goes with you. I also wrote the saying "the Jewish nation lives" because I think that’s the beauty in our nation, that no matter how spread out we are throughout the world we are still one nation that survived every horror and still lives.

I wrote the passage from our prayers to show how it is our wish and hope to be united with all our brothers from overseas in our very own country. In the passage we say that he may assemble us from the entire world to our country, and that shows that no matter where a Jew is or where he lives, Israel will always be his home and his only true country.

In my project the pictures are all colorful, and the Star of David and the sayings are drawn in black. That’s because the pictures represent something new that is happening- the aliya and the Jews reuniting in Israel. But the Star of David and the sayings represent something ancient that is inherent in each and every one of us.

** __Reflection-__ **

When I look at my project I see, love- mine, Laya's and basically the love that every person that lives in Israel or is connected to Israel has. That pure, strong love that follows you every where you go, that deep connection to this land that will make you do anything for it. So many people have given every thing they have, including their life for this country. And when I think of those people I identify with their feeling and actions because I know I would do the same, and until my last breath I will be loyal to Israel. I think and feel that this powerful love is what connects between all the people in Israel and what makes then do every thing they could to help one another. Even though we all come from such different backgrounds our nation is still united and I think this special love for our country is what holds us together. So, if you're asking me if I have learned this from my project, my answer will have to be, no, no I didn’t learn or received this love from this project, I was born with it, I was raised with it, and I live it every second of every day. But what I did get from this project is an opportunity to take all this love out and show to the world, to look around and see that there are so many people around me sharing the same feeling, and most of all I got the chance to see for my self how a number one citizen of Israel lives- I met a person worth admiring.

**Bibliography-** ** Facebook- pictures- ** [] [] ** google pictures- "Yad Sarah"- ** [] [|http://www.google.co.il/imgres?imgurl=http://www.zmz.co.il/VIRUF/יד%2520שרה1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.zmz.co.il/news.aspx%3Fcid%3D70%26aid%3D2270&usg=__45ejTcvzXCeNaEbda9FtPQatrC0=&h=556&w=860&sz=88&hl=iw&start=2&sig2=RbB4aKGcXKt9VFLWCM_83g&itbs=1&tbnid=bZoasWb2mmiKtM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%25D7%2599%25D7%2593%2B%25D7%25A9%25D7%25A8%25D7%2594%26hl%3Diw%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=UfvmS-XKINOY_QaWmP2UCA] ** parashat gavriel tirosh- Yitzchak Shalev pg.51 ** ** Word- pictures- ** ** דגל ישראל ** ** Yad Sarah website- ** []
 * lori lurie- interview **