Meet our 2018-19 ShinShinim!

For the past 12 years, we have been extremely fortunate at HBT to welcome Shinshinim, Israeli emissaries, to our Holy Blossom/Leo Baeck community! The Shinshinim are sponsored by the UJA Federation, as well as the sponsoring synagogue and Day School.

We are so excited to welcome our new Shinshinim, Lia Suleimany and Ido Levy,  to our Holy Blossom community in August 2018. These young Israelis always bring a new experience for the families that host them each year. Get to know them by watching their video above!

We have had great success in matching our HBT families and our Shinshinim, and once again we are looking for families who are interested in bringing a wonderful young Israeli to their home. This year, Federation has requested that we change the hosting schedule so that our Israelis are not on the move as much – we are only looking for 2 families for each Shinshin. That means each Shinshin will be a part of your home and family for about 6 months.

If you are interested in being a host family and truly having an amazing experience with a lovely 18 year old Israeli, please contact Debbie Spiegel, dspiegel@holyblossom.org

For the past few years, Gillian Helfield has been our lay leader for Shinshinim, and now Jeff Baker will take over the reins. If anyone has questions for either Gillian or Jeff, they will be happy to share their experiences as former host “Moms & Dads.” We will be happy to connect you with either of them.