[Fredslist] Ellin Yassky and At-Risk Children in Afula, Israel

[Ellin Yassky]

Israeli center for at-risk children appoints CT liaison
Posted by CindyMindell on September 14, 2011 in CT News | 0 Comment 
 
 
 
 
  
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Ellin Yassky
Ellin Yassky is the newly appointed East Coast Liaison for the Emunah Sarah Herzog Children’s Center, a residential and after-school 
therapeutic campus for at-risk children in Afula in northern Israel.
“We are very lucky,” says Sarah Herzog director, Shlomo Kessel. “Ellin 
is passionate about the work we do with children and I’m confident she 
will be a tremendous advocate for their causes.”
Established in 1949 to provide a haven for young Holocaust survivors, 
the center works with children aged five to 18 and their families, 
offering a wide range of therapies, educational support, parental 
guidance, and physical and medical treatment. The children suffer from 
learning disabilities, emotional problems, and challenging behavior, and
 many have difficulty forming meaningful relationships with adults and 
other children. Since Kessel became director in 2003, the facility’s 
population has grown from 65 to 190, requiring more of his personal 
involvement in the day-to-day operations, as well as critical 
fund-raising.
For nearly a decade, the center has developed significant relationships 
with several Jewish Federations in Connecticut, and is a core 
beneficiary organization of UJA/Federation Westport Weston Wilton 
Norwalk.
“We have been embraced by the communities of SNEC [the Southern New 
England Consortium of 12 Jewish Federations in Connecticut and 
Massachusetts], and particularly in Fairfield County,” Kessel, says. 
“Ellin will coordinate for me when I come to the U.S., help me to 
generate new contacts, and help me to be available to provide 
information and follow up promptly. We have numerous wonderful friends 
and supporters and I strive to maintain the ‘family like’ connections 
that we have been privileged to make with so many generous and 
large-hearted people, with perhaps extending the mishpoche a little.”
The SNEC communities are paired with the Afula-Gilboa region through 
Partnership2Gether (formerly Partnership 2000), a joint program with the
 Jewish Agency For Israel (JAFI). The Sarah Herzog Children’s Center is 
one among several organizations in the area that enjoy relationships and
 exchanges with SNEC member Federations. The Israeli Young Emissary 
program is another program that creates a living bridge between the two 
regions, placing recent Israel high-school graduates from Afula-Gilboa 
in SNEC communities to serve as cultural and educational “ambassadors.”
“With the Young Emissary program, we get Israel’s best, from 
Afula-Gilboa, but many of us don’t realize that in the same community, 
there are kids beset with issues they’re not responsible for,” says 
Yassky, who lives in Fairfield. “They have the same potential as all 
other kids, but their serendipity was to be born in a house that 
wouldn’t nurture them. Isn’t it our responsibility, if we’re going to 
take advantage of something so positive as the Young Emissaries, that we
 complete the circle and give something back?”
An ardent supporter of children’s causes, Yassky first learned about 
Sarah Herzog when Kessel spoke at Congregation Beth El in Fairfield two 
years ago. Soon after, she and her brother sponsored a child at the 
center as a bar-mitzvah gift.
Owner of Medici Editorial Services, LLC, a publishing and writing 
consultancy, Yassky edits books on art history and Judaic art. She is a 
founding board member of the Jewish High School of Connecticut and a 
member of the Town of Fairfield Holocaust Commemoration Committee and 
the Eastern Fairfield County Thriving Jewish Community Initiative. 
Yassky served as consultant and lecturer for the Fairfield Museum and 
History Center’s 2008 exhibition, “Celebrating Our Jewish Community.”
Yassky is board secretary, both of the Seymour Hollander House in 
Bridgeport for low-income Jewish seniors, and of Congregation Beth El in
 Fairfield. She teaches at Merkaz, the Jewish Community High School for 
Judaic Studies in Bridgeport, and is director of the Kladno Torah 
Research and Restoration Project, a Czech-U.S. collaboration.
Recently, when Kessel was visiting friends in Fairfield, he mentioned 
how he could use a local liaison. Yassky’s name came up. This summer, 
when Yassky traveled to Israel, she visited the center to meet with 
Kessel.
“A little girl who had just arrived came up to me and asked, ‘Do you 
want to see my room?’ That’s so important to a child,” says Yassky. “She
 had a stuffed Berenstain Bear and an outfit for a dance performance, 
and all she wanted was to be a normal little girl putting on the outfit.
 It was very hard for me not to get emotional.”
Yassky hopes to increase awareness of the center and its work through 
parlor meetings and other Fairfield County events. “We’re obligated to 
the kids near us and in our community, but you can’t stop there,” she 
says. “It doesn’t mean that you can’t just give a little, because those 
small gestures add up and do make a difference. While we have to fill 
our financial pockets, we also have to fill our tzedakah pockets. I see 
this not only as an obligation, but as an opportunity.”
Emunah Sarah Herzog director Shlomo Kessel will be in Fairfield County 
later this month. For information about Kessel’s visit or the center 
itself contact Ellin Yassky at ellin.emunah at yahoo.com, or visit www.emunahafula.org/
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