For the first time, deaf Israeli High School students will participate in the “Voyage to Poland” in the Spring of 2006.

Yael Czapski is currently a teacher of deaf Israeli students at the Yahud Comprehensive High School located in a suburb near Tel Aviv. She completed her Masters Degree in Special Education at Tel Aviv University; while she was already teaching at the Yahud Comprehensive High School.

For the first time this upcoming spring, Yael will lead a group of about 20 of her senior students on an 8-day visit to Poland. This pilgrimage to Poland has become an important part of the curriculum and a very meaningful tradition in Israeli High Schools – called the “Masa l’Polin” or “The Voyage to Poland”. The itinerary includes Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Treblinka, extermination camps where millions of Jews were murdered as part of Hitler’s final solution during World War II. The students will also visit Warsaw and Lodz, towns where Jewish life thrived in pre-war Europe only to become ghettos during the Nazi Regime. Gur and Lizansk, famous for its Chassidic rebbes, are also on the route. Like their hearing counterparts, the youth will experience and learn about the core reasons for Israel’s existence. Yael’s students will be marching with blue and white Israeli flags and signing HaTikva.

Yael is seeking help in supporting four of her students who cannot afford the cost of participating in the “Voyage to Poland”. The cost of the trip to Poland for each student is $1000.

Donations should be made out to Tifereth Israel and sent to Tifereth Israel Congregation, 7701 16th St. NW, Washington DC 20012. Make sure to write on the check memo “Voyage to Poland”. This donation is tax-deductible.