I am spending this year on a program called Shevet run by Young Judaea’s Year Course in Israel. The goal is to teach students from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada about Israel, and to integrate them into Israeli society. There are also Israeli students on the program. The year is broken down into three periods: Jerusalem Study, Israeli Experience and Community Volunteering. Shevet is ideal for me because it is run within an orthodox framework and stresses experiential learning about all different segments of Judaism and Israel through study, field trips and work.

For the first semester, I studied at the University of Judaism, based in California but with a beautiful campus in Jerusalem. It is full-time, university-level learning offering courses on Israeli culture, history, religion and Hebrew studies. The curriculum also included a weekly siyur (day trip) to places that brought the class material to life.

Another great aspect has been the Shabbat B’Yachad which includes optional and mandatory Shabbatonim. My favourites were Simchat Torah in Tzfat and a Shabbat at the Carlebach Moshav. Kabbalat Shabbat at the Moshav was among the most outstanding davening I have ever experienced. It actually reminded me of the Friday Night Minyan with Rav Rafi Lipner back in the Shaarei Shomayim Chapel!

I am just finishing up the Israeli Experience portion of this fabulous program. My posting is with Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service. The majority of our MDA calls consist of finding the patient, talking to them to find out what the problem is, checking their vitals and transporting them to the hospital. One day while we were riding along, the driver flipped on the siren and I heard him call out, “CPR!” Suddenly I felt something in my chest jump. I was possibly going to be faced with the fact that somebody’s life was in my hands – very scary!

I followed a staff member carrying all of our equipment and watched the paramedics begin CPR, just like we had practised. But there was no response from the elderly woman lying on her bed.

Then the paramedic turned to me and said in Hebrew: “Jordan, get out the ambo, cardio-pump, and oxygen, and let’s move her onto the floor.” This was the real thing! One volunteer gave breaths of oxygen while I did chest compressions. The boss called for more help and inserted an IV. But the machine that goes beep was making a flat-line sound.

Giving the heart compressions was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. I could actually hear how few of the compressions were working. I thought back to something that one of our instructors told us: “When you are doing CPR, you can’t let yourself worry about killing the person – they are already dead!”

Refreshed with the confidence that I was actually being given the chance to bring someone back to life, I began doing the compressions more vigorously and used the EKG beeps to guide me. Eventually I found the best place for compressions to get that beep. Finally, I heard the paramedic’s voice say, “We have a pulse!”  and I heard the EKG machine beeping on its own in the background.

We rushed the woman to the hospital, and it was then that I kept thinking about how, not too long ago, some special person performed CPR on one of my zaidies, Max Warshafsky, and how I, too, was so very fortunate to be put in this place to also perform the mitzvah of saving a life.

This month I will be moving to the next section of the program, Community Volunteering. We will help a small underprivileged area by doing all sorts of volunteering within the community. Imagine having 150 extra volunteers for nine months of the year! I think it will make a huge difference to the community.

Shevet has been a great experience so far and I’m sure it will continue to be quite a rewarding one. It has given me the chance to learn so much about Israel’s history, to travel the entire country, and to really experience what life is like in Israel.  On this program I feel that I am really making a difference.

Jordan Lass, 19, is an alumnus of Associated Hebrew Schools and TanenbaumCHAT, and participated on the 2005 March of the Living. He plans to attend the University of Western Ontario in September to pursue a degree in sciences.
Jordan's article originally appeared in the March 2007 bulletin of Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue.

Associated Hebrew Schools and Tanenbaum CHAT receive financial support from UJA Federation.of Greater Toronto.
Toronto's March of the Living delegation is sponsored by UJA Federation.of Greater Toronto.