Ellen and Elad with Yuval Elazari from Tsofar (right)

by Eve Ozer
 
What were you doing when you were sixteen? I for one can tell you that although I had just joined a Zionist youth group (which, I freely admit, was really for the Israeli folk dancing), I was mainly concentrating my high school studies, friends and dating. Much time was spent with girlfriends asking each other whether various articles of clothing made us "look fat". And while I did make aliyah with my family from the States a few years after that, nothing could have been further from my mind at sixteen than trying to find a way to come and spend a few months in Israel on my own.

Such was not the case with Ellen Maybloom and Elad Gafin. Both from Melbourne, they weren't previously acquainted, and each made their own way to the Arava. Ellen, a student at King David School, came to Israel with the Yesh program, and arrived in the Arava with the Bialik-KDS mega delegation in December. Elad, a Yavneh student, was thinking of making aliyah, and what better place to spend his summer holiday than Australia's partnership community, the Central Arava.

Both young people ended up on Moshav Tsofar, and despite some initial doubts about coming to such a small community, they now have only the most wonderful things to say about the families that hosted them, the friends they made at school and on the moshav, and the Arava in general. Every morning they set out for school with their hosts and attended classes of their own choice, while afternoons and evenings were spent getting to know youngsters of their age from all over the region

Ellen and Elad have both returned home, but are staying in touch and promoting the region and the partnership in various ways, both formally and informally. They're looking forward to meeting some of their new friends again in just a few months when this year's student delegation from the Arava arrives in Melbourne.