Yachad Israel: A Promising Chapter for the Promised Land
Picture this: You’re an 18-year-old American studying in a seminary or yeshiva in Israel. It’s a new experience for you to spend an entire year away from your family and sometimes you’re a bit overwhelmed by unfamiliar surroundings. But then, walking down a street, you see a flyer for a Yachad Shabbaton. Yachad! You know Yachad; you loved Yachad Shabbatonim in high school. You loved having a Yachad program in your camp. But Yachad in Israel? You rush back to sign up for the Shabbaton, but you’re too late.
The Shabbaton is already sold out. That’s what happened at Yachad Israel’s last Shabbaton held in Ra’anana — sold out within ten hours, a testament to Yachad Israel’s success. “We had to close registration because we quickly had 94 people registered,” explains Yoel Sterman, Yachad Israel co-director.
While Yachad is well known throughout the United States — promoting its mission of inclusion for individuals with special needs in dozens of Jewish communities across the continent – Yachad Israel is relatively new. It was officially launched at the end of 2012.
The development of Yachad Israel was organic, says Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, international director of Yachad. “We had wanted to start a chapter in Israel years ago, but just as we were gearing up to begin, the Intifada started and our plans had to be shelved until a better time. Later, following our initial success with Team Yachad’s participation in the Miami Marathon, I had this idea that we could use the Jerusalem Marathon as a foundation to start a chapter in Israel.” When Team Yachad announced its participation in the Jerusalem Marathon, more than 110 runners rushed to sign up. Since then, 215 ran in 2013, and 252 in 2014. With the funds raised from the Jerusalem Marathon, Yachad Israel was founded under the direction of Joe Goldfarb, director of Yachad Summer Programs, with Lisa (Rich) Galinsky and Yoel Sterman as Yachad Israel’s co-directors.
Team Yachad runners celebrate their completion of a Color Run
Part of the need for Yachad Israel came from the structure of services available for the special needs population in Israel, according to Joe, who now directs Yachad Israel along with Yachad Summer Programs. “Israel has some special needs services, but little that directly promotes inclusion,” he says. “There is a vacuum in those services for English-speaking people who made Aliyah.”
The first inclusive program was a Chanukah party, followed by weekly events and four Shabbatonim that year. Yachad Israel quickly realized the tremendous value and popularity of Shabbatonim: monthly Shabbatonim were quickly introduced alongside the weekly events such as “Pizza and Parshah” and bowling.
To design programs, Yachad Israel recruited two boards, made up entirely of young men and women spending the year in Israel; the leadership board composed of four members; and a larger board that has representatives from major seminaries and yeshivot.
Akiva Marder, 19, a student at Yeshivat Har Etzion, was active in Yachad during high school and in Camp Moshava. He serves as co-president of Yachad Israel along with Racheli Weil, a student at Nishmat.
“I think our message of inclusion is one of utmost importance. It’s both exciting and meaningful to see that message come to fruition and watch it spread here in Israel,” Akiva says.
Among their other activities this year, Yachad Israel participated in the Jerusalem Color Run with more than 800 runners. Enthusiasm for Team Yachad during the Jerusalem Marathon increases each year, with our largest group to date running this year.
“Today Yachad Israel is a fast-growing chapter, providing unique programs and services of inclusion, and responding to unmet needs,” says Dr. Lichtman.
Having Yachad established in Israel was a dream fulfilled for families with special needs members. “Parents of Yachad members are thrilled,” explains Lisa. “Yachad gives individuals an opportunity to feel like anyone else. Yachad Israel is a warm, supportive home where members are able to gain lasting friendships, which is the most important thing.”
For more information about Yachad Israel contact Lisa Galinsky or Yoel Sterman at yachadisrael@ou.org.
Michael Orbach is a staff writer at the Orthodox Union.
This is an article from Belong Magazine 2014. For more information, or to receive your own copy contact belong@ou.org
Meet a Yachad Family
The Ungar siblings: Adina, Tzvi, Shoshana, Yachad member Sara, and Dani
Meet the Ungar family of Oak Park, Michigan. Leah Ungar, mother of Yachad member Sara, credits Sara’s siblings with encouraging Sara to live a full life.
It wasn’t always easy. Sisters Shoshana and Adina were nine and ten, respectively, when Sara was born. Too young to fully comprehend the impact of her developmental delays, they noticed how much more time Sara required from their parents. “Though we always loved Sara, there were frustrating times that we simply didn’t understand her, that she couldn’t express herself,” reflects Shoshana.
She adds, “At the beginning, understanding Sara was an adjustment, but now it’s routine. We know her needs and what she’s capable of. And as we’ve grown up, it’s less challenging to read my sister. She’s wonderful, adorable – and has a great sense of humor! My brothers adore her, but brothers and sisters deal differently. Over the years, as we have developed as a family and as individuals, there’s still a sense of protection around our sister. We want others to see Sara as we see Sara.”
“We learned a lot about love with Sara,” shares Adina. “And she definitely taught our family to have patience, lots of patience.”
From a young age, Sara’s parents enrolled her at both the local Bais Yaakov and the public school system. That way she could receive the services most beneficial for her various cognitive and social issues, while enjoying an inclusive experience within the Jewish school as much as possible.
About five years ago, Mrs. Ungar read about Yachad summer programs in an article in The Jewish Press and reached out to Nechama Braun, Yachad Summer Programs administrator, about registering Sara for the summer. Though Sara had attended previous camps, her social networks did not hold on.
“I was worried how Sara’s experience would be at a new camp 600 miles away from home, but once we brought her to the camp, we saw how well run the program is, and we knew it would be great,” recalls Mrs. Ungar. “Yachad Morasha is wonderful and my daughter looks forward to camp every year.”
At Morasha, Sara made friends with whom she communicates all year long, including one individual she talks to every day. In fact, one of the highlights of attending a recent Shabbaton in Chicago was being able to reunite with camp friends.
“Sara loves being social and thrives when she is at camp,” smiles her sister Shoshana. “It’s helpful for our parents to know she is happy and excited about her summer plans. And while we make our own plans for activities while she is away, we don’t send her away because we need a respite. We want what’s best for her.”
Since Yachad opened a local chapter last year in Detroit, Sara has become a vibrant participant. The highlight of her week? Hands down, everyone in the family knows that every Thursday Sara looks forward to “Pizza and Parshah.”
Sara’s parents appreciate that the Detroit Yachad chapter programming has presented their daughter with outlets she hasn’t had before. “My daughter has simchas hachayim – a joy for life – and she is always happy to try something new,” says her father, Dr. David Ungar. “At Yachad, she gets together with friends who are so easy to be with, who accept her for who she is. And she picks up on the positivity.”
The family is gratified that now Sara often turns to the phone to speak with her friends. “Yachad has been incredible for my sister, giving her a whole social scene she didn’t have previously,” offers Adina. “Though she has a lot of life to her, sometimes she can get into herself and become withdrawn. Yet around her friends, or when she finds out about a Yachad event, or when she’s counting down to leave for camp, she’s more alive, more in tune.”
“Her happy anticipation toward the next event keeps her engaged with us,” remarks Shoshana. “We can say ‘let’s go shopping,’ ‘let’s talk about it,’ ‘let’s start packing’ because we want to be involved with her. When it comes to preparing for a Yachad event, she will let us do that.”
This winter, Sara travelled to Israel with Yachad and Israel Free Spirit (the Taglit-Birthright Israel program coordinated by the Orthodox Union). “Sara is not always gushy when she talks, but I get tears in my eyes remembering when she first told me ‘Mommy, I love Israel,’” Mrs. Ungar recalls. “She had such a great time! Yachad took her from north to south and all around Jerusalem.” When she returned home from the ten-day trip, Sara was able to relive the experience and share with family members exact memories from a video Yachad staff put together as a memento.
“Birthright and Yachad provided the experience of a lifetime for my daughter,” Leah adds. “I can send Sara without a family member to a Shabbaton, to camp, to Israel – that’s something I could never have done without Yachad. I know that it’s properly run, with guidance by those who are well trained and equipped to handle people with special needs. It’s a priceless gift, not only for Sara, but for our entire family.”
For information on the Detroit chapter of Yachad contact DetroitYachad@ou.org.
Batya Rosner is a staff writer at the Orthodox Union.
This is an article from Belong Magazine 2014. For more information, or to receive your own copy contact belong@ou.org
Yachad Member Blasts Off Into Computer Game Career
Deep in the heart of Texas a star is shining bright, and his name is Aaron Winston. A dedicated Yachad member born and bred in the Lone Star State, Aaron is pursuing a career at the nonPareil Institute, where he works as a staff programmer on various projects released on the iTunes store, or the Google Play store. He is the creator of SpaceApe, a quick, single player game that involves maneuvering a Russian Cosmonaut Ape named Dmitri around outer space; players aim to scoop up bananas while dodging asteroids, comets and aliens.
“Socially, I believe Yachad prepared me for my job at nonPareil, as it gave me confidence in myself,” Aaron, 22, shares. “I have autism and Asperger’s. I didn’t always want friends; but Yachad helped me to understand the importance and benefits of having friends, of having a social network, and that I don’t have to do anything alone.”
Aaron was diagnosed six years ago and participated in Yachad’s Getaway summer program the following summer, at age 17. Yachad Getaway is a two-week retreat where Yachad members and staff create all of their activities and meals. “Yachad Getaway was the first time Aaron spent away from home, yet I felt confident in the program from the questions they asked my son to assess if the program would be a good fit,” recalls his mother Cindy. “It was an eye-opening experience for all of us to see how much he benefitted from independence. He introduced us to his friends. It was amazing to see what he was capable of in the right environment.
“Yachad was such a plus for him! But when we picked him up from that first positive experience of Getaway, we were thinking, ‘now what?’ He’d had a glimpse of what friends were, so it was hard to go back to the solitude that had been ‘normal.’ Until then, he hadn’t realized how small his world was.”
Aaron joined the small Yachad chapter in Dallas, participating in various Shabbatonim and in numerous Yachad summer programs including Yad B’Yad, an inclusive summer trip touring the Jewish homeland. He always looked forward to the next Yachad event. It was at Yachad Summer Program’s Simchaton, a reunion taking place over Simchat Torah, that Aaron learned about Team Yachad. He had already been working with a trainer, so he decided to sign up and added more treadmill time to his exercise regime. 
Mostly fast-walking, he completed the 2011 ING Half-Marathon in Miami as a proud member of Team Yachad. He went on to complete it again the following year.
And the Simchaton was the source of another important discovery. Aaron’s parents learned of the nonPareil Institute in nearby Plano, Texas, which provides technical training and employment to individuals on the autism spectrum.
“ I ha d a l w a y s b e e n interested in video games and was good at school, pretty detail oriented – but I had tried college and found it too overwhelming; I had a lot of anxiety,” Aaron states frankly. “The only pre-requisite for nonPareil is to be on the autism spectrum. I didn’t have real experience in the technology field, but I was willing to apply myself.”
Aaron went through a series of training courses in software development and programming before the company hired him fulltime. “I find working here fun as well as gratifying in many different areas,” Aaron says. “And while I do enjoy programming software, I realize that working here is not entirely about being a programmer – it’s about helping others build skills. One of the strengths of this company is that we employees are not competing against each other.”
Cindy Winston notes, “From the beginning, Aaron was ready and excited to put in a full day at nonPareil. I think a lot of that enthusiasm was from positive experiences he had at Yachad. With Yachad, he felt that he didn’t have to pretend, and once he found that same acceptance at nonPareil, he hit the ground running.”
Aaron agrees that there is something special about working with others on the spectrum. “Not that everyone here is the same, but you can understand what it’s like to be in their shoes,” he says. “I’m not perfect interacting with everyone, but my main goal coming to work every day isn’t just getting my job done. We’re a community, caring about each other. When that’s the main thing, it helps people get along and feel they’re in a safe environment.”
“Aaron has been the very type of person our company needs to be successful,” states Dan Selec, founder and chief executive officer of the nonPareil Institute. “As a student, he invested his time well, and was always reaching for more knowledge and ability than he had the day before. Aaron came into our program with little computer knowledge, but showed himself to be a hardworking and dedicated member of our nonPareil crew. Step by step, Aaron has built himself into a productive part of our organization.”
Aaron can be found at the office 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, though he’s often sighted there early and after-hours. He has numerous responsibilities: as a games and software programmer for the company, he works with a team to create tools for program scripting. SpaceApe took him a month and half to create, working with a team of artists on design concepts and implementation. Smaller games could take less time, according to Aaron.
He also serves as a mentor, spending time daily helping others learn how to learn, building their confidence, and trying to help them achieve personal success. “Aaron has great leadership skills: he is patient and concerned for his teammate’s growth and participation. This may be in helping them with coursework, or by simply being there for them when they need someone to talk to. He also leads group sessions, ranging from coding to design,” Selec confirms.
Aaron credits his involvement with Yachad for building up his self-confidence to be a success socially and to apply himself on the job. That boost of confidence from Yachad carries over into Judaism as well. As a proud Jew, Aaron wears his yarmulke to work every day. He learns Torah every morning with a rabbi before work, a practice he has enjoyed for the past five years. As tzedakah is one of his favorite mitzvot, he’s careful to give ma’aser (tithe) from his salary. In fact, in recent months, as Aaron would sit down to figure out his finances, he has applied his ma’aser money to support the members of Team Yachad.
One mark of his success is that last October Aaron was invited to participate in a panel discussion at Yachad’s High School Leadership Conference, where high school leaders from across the country come together for a weekend of leadership training aimed at helping them enhance the Yachad program in their community. Aaron shared his own story, explaining to the teenagers how his disability actually helped him succeed in securing and keeping his job.
“For me to have a job means that I have a mission in life to do positive things for myself and for others,” Aaron reflects. “Being busy is very good for me, and making money is good, of course. Having a job that pushes me to expand my capabilities is positive, and I find that very fulfilling.” 
For information on the Dallas chapter of Yachad contact DallasYachad@ou.org.
Batya Rosner is a staff writer at the Orthodox Union.
This is an article from Belong Magazine 2014. For more information, or to receive your own copy contact belong@ou.org
