Gila's+I_Face

toc = **Rationale** =

For this project, we were asked to choose a subject, which in our eyes represents the face of Israel. I have chosen to do my project on Yoana. To me, Yoana is one of many people who are behind the beauty of Israel, making Israel a very colourful and wonderful state. I see Israel as a place where many cultures, colours and nationalities Yoana converted into Judaism, made Aliya and now volunteers for the South African organization 'Telfed' that promotes Alyia to the South African community in South Africa. Because of Yoana's interesting background and her very special job and lifestyle, I see her as the best choice to do a project on.

=Profile= __ Yoana __ Knowing that Israel was the only real place for her and for the Jewish Nation, Yoana now volunteers for Telfed- the South African organization that promotes Israel for making Aliya.

Born in Durban, South Africa, Yoana grew up in an Afrikaans, and very conservative Christian home. She and her family belonged to the Dutch reformed Church in South Africa. She went to an Afrikaans Christian school and high school as well as the main Afrikaans university, Stellenbosch, to train to become a teacher. Yoana married and had her daughter after 7 years, but unfortunately she then went through a divorce with her husband. Yoana's divorce actually lead her to her first visit to Israel.

Yoana came to Israel for the first time in 1980 with a group of Bible college students from her church; this was the beginning of her long, 23 year, journey to the truth and to Judaism. Yoana first started asking questions when her Jewish tour guide took out his Tanach and started to quote verses saying that the people of Israel would one day come back and settle the land of Israel. That was when Yoana started to get confused, after all, she was told that God had left the Jews and had 'taken' the Christians as his new chosen nation. Yoana could not stay away from Israel! She would come to Israel with her little daughter as a volunteer, and would volunteer for a year or so and then go back to South Africa to teach there, in order to make enough money so that she would be able to come back to Israel again. In all that time Yoana was learning and asking questions about the truth and Judaism.

Finally, in 1997, Yoana decided to make Aliya by herself and to start her conversion process. When asked why she made Aliya, Yoana answers:"How is it possible for a Jew, as well as the whole Jewish nation, to live outside of Israel?" Yoana also knew that it was only possible for her to do the conversion process here in Israel, so that she could enforce her studies on a regular basis, something that would be hard to do out of Israel. Yoana's reason for coming to live here in Gush Ezion, especially Efrat was that her journey actually started here, on one of the hilltops around the Gush area. She says that it was love at first sight, mainly for Kfar Ezion. To overcome the struggle with the language, Yoana got a job at the stationary shop in Efrat, and not a job as an English teacher, in order to get acquainted with Hebrew quicker and easier. Yoana has also been volunteering with Telfed for the last 6 months. Telfed is the Zionist federation of South Africa. The organization has been in Israel since 1948, promoting Aliya for South Africans, as well as doing projects here in Israel, to help the olim from South Africa settle easily the country. The organization also helps students that come to learn here in Israel, in addition to helping the olim from South Africa to find jobs. The main job of the organization is to bring South Africans to Israel and to support them in their first years here. If the South African acclimates well to Israel, he will recommend Aliya to the rest of his social circle and by that, become a base for the rest of the Olim that might follow, and come to Israel.

Yoana decided to join Telfed because she says that she is a Jew by choice, a Jew with a mission. She felt that now that she has become a Jew, she has to give back to the community. Yoana started to realize that she has a heart for Aliya. After hearing her friends tell their stories of their Aliya, and that they all had great lives back in South Africa, Yoana could not understand the reason why Jewish people were not Zionists, and coming to live here in Israel. Yoana wanted to encourage people to make Aliya. As the head of the Gush Ezion area committee, Yoana has started to form a strong group and base of former South Africans in Gush Ezion, to inspire people to come and live here. In that way, there will be a strong South African community to help Olim along the way. Yoana also would like to make the gush known in South Africa, so that when if anyone wants to make Aliya, they would want to come to Gush Ezion. With the committee, Yoana is free to decide what actions have to been done for the Gush Ezion South African community. Those activities include a communal braai (barbeque), lectures, learning groups and so on… For the future, Yoana would like to see people more aware of Aliya and to see the Zionistic spirit revived again in Jewish hearts.

= = =Background Research= Durban

Durban is the third largest city in South Africa. The city is famous as the busiest port in Africa. It is also a major centre of tourism due to the city's warm subtropical climate and beaches. It is thought that the first known inhabitants of the Durban area arrived from the north around 100,000 BC. Durban was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, who came to the KwaZulu-Natal coast while searching for a route from Europe to India. He landed on the KwaZulu-Natal coast on Christmas in 1497, and thus named the area "Natal", or Christmas in Portuguese. The modern city of Durban dates from 1824, when a party of 25 men under British Lieutenant F. G. Farewell arrived from the Cape Colony and established a settlement on the northern shore of the Bay of Natal,. Accompanying Farewell was an adventurer named Henry Francis Fynn. Fynn was able to befriend the Zulu King Shaka by helping him to recover from a stab wound he suffered in battle. As a token of Shaka's gratitude, he granted Fynn a "25-mile strip of coast a hundred miles in depth."

Durban is famed for its mild, sunny winter climate and year-round "fun-in-the-water" weather. Durban has an abundance of vegetation and a subtropical climate with sunshine for at least 320 days a year. Temperatures range from 16°C and 25°C during the winter months of June, July and August. Summer temperatures can reach 32°C with relatively high humidity during the hot season. Durban owes its characteristics to the equatorial current of the Indian Ocean which is the source of a vast stream of warm, blue water flowing south-west through the Mozambique Channel.

Today, Durban is the busiest container port in Africa, and a popular tourist destination. The city is also a gateway to the national parks and historic sites of Zululand and the Drakensberg.

For more information about Durban and many of Durban's attractions you would like the following sites: attraction site: [] information site:[]

=Literary Connection=

__ Helping Others __ By Mary Reynolds

If you do the best you can You'll always be repaid Good things come to those that wait This is the law God made

So think about what you can do To help somebody else You'll be repaid in many ways And be proud of yourself!!

This poem is about doing the best you can and about being repaid in ways you don't expect. When you do want to help, you should do it in the best way and the best you can. By helping others you help others in an unselfish way and will make your self proud by not only helping but filling yourself with the good feeling you get after you help and care. By living in the world, we get automatic responsibilities to help out or just being a good person. I decided to include this poem to my project because I feel that it shows the face of Israel. I feel that Israel is a land and a society that the people care about each other, wants to help and just want to be good citizens. I feel that being an Israeli as well as a Jew is all about giving and wanting to help one another, even without getting anything in return, yet believing that you do get rewarded in many different ways –ways that you don't even expect... I would add to this poem more detail about helping and the feelings that come with doing your best and caring for others rather than yourself. I feel that the poem does not show the difficulties of helping and caring for people that are not the people that we are used to or ourselves.

=Creative Connection = For my creative connection I have cut out newspaper articles and have glued them together in different shapes and angles, making a background of letters, sentences and paragraphs. The only connection between the letters and sentences is that they are all in Hebrew, the Jewish language, and have to connect in a logical way for the reader to understand that article. I see this as the Jewish nation- there are many cultures, traditions, nationalities and customs in Israel and in the Jewish world and the only connection between them is their Judaism and their love for Israel. I feel that if every individual would help make the world a better place, we all would be united in spite of our differences. I feel this is connected to the theme of my project because it is all about helping and giving, which is my eyes, the biggest connection to the people of the Jewish Nation. =Reflection = After choosing Yoana as my subject, I have had the great pleasure of learning about her background, her lifestyle, her ideas and her views. When I first thought of doing my project on Yoana, I really didn't know what to expect. I have known Yoana since my mother first working with her in the Gush Etzion committee for 'Telfed'. As soon as I had starting actually working with Yoana, I was blow away! She is such an amazing person to be around with and has so much to give. This project has made me think "outside of the box". This is going to be my first project that is loaded onto the internet as well as interviewing, researching and being creative. I really had no idea how a project such as this can open so many opportunities and interests. From this project, I have learned the true meaning of being a good person and a good Israeli citizen. I have learned about other people opinions and therefore expanding my point of view and my understandings. I feel that giving young students to do a project such as this, opens up a lot of opportunities and new experiences. There is one point in this project that I did not enjoy, that is uploading the written project to the "Wiki" an internet site, which can be viewed world wide. I found the wiki very slow and a bit fustrating. In the future,I would not like to work with the wiki site. All in all, I really enjoyed doing this project, working with other people and getting an experience like never before.

= Bibliography = __Durban Central__, //Zulu Kingdom//. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 March 2010. []. __Durban, events and activities__, //Ethekwini Municipality//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 February 2010. [|htttp://www.durban.gov.za/durban/discover/events]. __Durban sightseeing__, //City Discovery tours//. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 February 2010. []. __Mary Reynolds__, //PoemHunter.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 January 2010. []. __W____ayfaring travel guide__, about Durban, 2008, 01.02.2010, [|__http://www.__][|__w__][|__ayfaring.info/2009/09/30/about-durban__] __Wikipedia__, Durban, 31.01.2010, 01.02.2010, [|__http://en.wiki__][|__p__][|__edia.org/w__][|__i__][|__ki/Durban__]