Sometimes, it takes a foreigner to bring neighbors together. This is what has recently occurred between the Modiin branch of ESRA and the Rotary Club of Modiin.
Last June (2022), a delegation from the Rotary Club of Georgia, organized by Mr. Pavle Tvaliashvili, visited the State of Israel. A major focus of the weeklong trip was the city of Modiin and its services available to local teachers to facilitate and enhance the education of their pupils. Among the facilities visited was the Modiin municipal library which is organized to serve the needs of schoolchildren, with morning hours reserved for students and teachers and afternoon hours open to the general public.
Impressive to the Georgian visitors was the library's large selection of books written in the English language. While Israeli education is conducted in Hebrew, the language of the country, a major effort, they saw, was being invested in teaching English on a high academic level, and to do so, the Modiin municipal library expends significant financial resources to maintain an extensive English language section for children and adults of all ages. Unfortunately, remarked the Georgians, such resources for English language education are missing in their country, where books in English are expensive and hard to come by.
For Felix Gluck, Head of the Rotary Club of Modiin, who was accompanying the Georgian Rotarians, the remark about the difficulty of securing English language materials in Georgia struck a nerve, because in Modiin, with its large number of native English-speaking residents, English language literacy is a given. Here, elementary schools provide instruction in English to the youngest of pupils and with special "native English-speaking language classes" available in most Modiin schools. how to help the Georgians secure more English language resources?
ESRA Modiin and its well-known secondhand bookstore stepped in. Gluck contacted Robert Golub, the immediate past chairman of the ESRA Modiin bookshop, and asked if the store had children's books that might be made available to Georgia. Golub responded in the affirmative, noting that it was often the case that books are donated to the store which are, sadly, not suitable for resale.In the past, these "gently used" books with a torn cover or other "mishap" might find their final resting place in the city's recycling bins. Why not gather these books together and send them to a new home in Georgia?
And so the partnership between the two Modiin volunteer organizations – the Rotary Club of and ESRA– was born.
"We are thrilled to take part in this wonderful effort to share our educational resources with others and thereby advance the standing of, and respect for, the State of Israel," remarked Doreen Morris, Co-Chairperson of ESRA Modiin.