My wife has covered their activities for several years and now I have my own direct contact. Rachel Glaser:-
(Rachel's on the right side of the photo)
Rachel Glaser, a 25-year-old from West Virginia, left her family in order to make aliyah after completing her B.A. in International Relations and Economics. "I learned a lot about Israel and I've been there many times," she says. "I come from a Zionist home so I decided to make aliyah.
"There are many ways to contribute to Israel but aliyah is the biggest step that you can possibly take." Glazer has a deep understanding of Israeli politics, and has strong opinions about the State officials, she even understands the esoteric workings of the Winograd Commission. She claims that disengagament was a mistake, proclaims her love for Boogi Ya'alon, the former IDF chief of staff, and summarizes with a sentence that demonstrates that she's on her way to becoming one of us, "What is the real difference between Likud, Kadima and Labor?"
How direct?
Well, Rachel was an intern here at the Begin Center when we were still over at our Binyanei HaOomah offices and came back almost every summer, or inbetween, when I would lecture to her ZOA groups.
Welcome, Rachel!
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1 comment:
Speaking of interns at the Begin Center can I make a shout-out plea that the program be handles more responsibly than it was some few years ago?
No, no, I don't mean to imply anything untoward in the classical American DC model... but a friend of mine was doing some intern work at the Center a few years ago and in his/her* description to me of her work it came out that she was transcribing Begin's speeches (as well as of others, such as dignitaries with whom Begin met and spoke) and was given a frightening amount of liberty with regards to what sort of "editing" she could engage in to make the spoken words sound more like a printed-text speech.
I'm sure that what she was doing was no worse than what is generally to be found in collections of speeches by heads of state but as someone to whom both History and Menachem Begin are of inestimable value I was horrified.
When an honest historical document is produced and published I would like to be able to read it with the original verbal pauses, false starts and bad phraseology that was ACTUALLY spoken. Leaving editing discretion of Menachem Begin's historical speeches - that are subsequently published - in the hands of a kid seems to be a very serious problem.
I'm sure that this sort of sloppy practice was only indicative of the heady times when the Center was first established and that under your leadership this would never occur but I think that it's something that's worthy of being brought to your attention.
Kol Tuv and Shana Tovah ~
mnuez
www.mnuez.blogspot.com
*I purposely left out any clarity with regards to exactly when this individual interned at the center and also chose not to specify this individual's gender out of concern that s/he not be recognized.
P.S. I personally believe that public transparency is the absolutely best way to ensure quality control but as someone who adores the work of the Begin Center I feel slightly uncomfortable sharing this comment in a public forum. Should you choose to take the comment down I would understand (though still not agree).
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