Service & Success

Distinguished and Remarkable AMIT Graduate

BY GLORIA AVERBUCH

Leah Gene Avuno has an abiding motto: “I don’t have everything, but I have all I need.” The 22-year-old graduate of AMIT Kiryat Malachi found all that she needed in her AMIT education.

That education began in the 7th grade, when she and her parents chose AMIT Kiryat Malachi, where she studied for six years in the all-girls program, majoring in communications and fi lm.

“I loved my school. I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. Beyond the actual education, the school teaches a lot about life. Everything I learned about values I learned from that school.”

AMIT Kiryat Malachi provides special programs, such as partnerships with outside groups to widen students’ scope of understanding of both Judaism and the world at large. Leah gives the example of New York’s Yeshiva University students who came to her school every summer. “Together, we learned about each other’s lives,” she says. In addition, this is when she practiced her now fl uent English.

Her AMIT principal at the time, Assaf Cohen, was also instrumental in her development. “He encouraged me to volunteer in the community a lot. Everything about his attitude just changed my life. He was the fi rst one to make me feel that I could have a diff erent reality, which I wasn’t able to imagine before.” She also praises her teachers. “For everything I wanted to do, they had a solution.” They enabled her to pay for a trip to Poland, and when it was diffi cult for her to study at home with so many siblings and the resulting noise, they took her to their own homes.

AMIT was transformative for Leah, a resident of Kiryat Malachi, who lives with her mother, stepfather and six siblings. Born in Gondar, Ethiopia, she immigrated to Israel with her family when she was two. Her actual birth fi rst name is Yuval, given by her mother with a purpose in mind. As her mother was the only Jewish person in her native Ethiopian neighborhood, she gave her daughter

Leah Gene Avuno with AMIT students across Israel

a name, which in Aramaic means “go your own path.” Concludes Leah, “So no matter what people say about you, go on your own path.”

She has certainly carved her own path. It is rooted in her AMIT education, which led to the following resumé of her extensive accomplishments listed below:

*Community Activist. In high school, Leah started to volunteer in student council, getting further involved in the youth movement. The principal even let her out of classes to expand her work. “One thing led to another, and I became chairman of the youth council in my city,” she explains. Her role entailed meeting with the mayor, doing various projects with adults, and meeting with those involved in Birthright.

*Israeli Representative in the U.S. After speaking to the Birthright participants visiting Kiryat Malachi, one of their staff approached Leah and asked her age. She was 16. “Call me when you are 18,” he said. She deliberately kept track and reached out to him two years later. “Back then, no one in my city did anything like go to the U.S. for a role like this,” she says. It took her six months to get accepted, but she persevered. Subsequently, she headed to Tucson, Arizona, for a one-year stint as an Israeli representative.

The move didn’t come without its challenges. “I didn’t have anyone there. I left everything I know in my country and moved. It wasn’t always easy,

“You should take advantage of every tool you are given there, and not take it for granted, because when I went out into the big world I understood how lucky I am, how unbelievably privileged we are at AMIT.”

coming from a diff erent culture and also fi guring out my own Ethiopian, Black, Jewish identity.” But facing challenges is second nature to Leah. Consequently, she reports, “It was the best year of my life; a life-changing experience.” Even today, “the Jewish community in Tucson is a family to me. I still have a strong connection with my host family.” Creating connections within Tucson’s Jewish community with people from toddlers to the elderly, including those with special needs, was of particular interest to her. “I touched everyone there,” she says proudly. Notably, she adds, “because I am Black woman, I thought to build a bridge between the Jewish and African-American communities.” Consequently, for the fi rst time ever, she arranged for Hillel students and Black students, both from the University of Arizona, to come together “to talk about life.” That also evolved to joint meetings at both a Baptist church and a synagogue.

*Army Service. Leah’s two years in the Israeli Army were spent as part of Garin Nahal, which combines military service in a combat unit with civilian service. During her service, she was stationed in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, located fi ve minutes from the Gaza Strip, where she participated in an archeological dig. She was then drafted to serve as a commander for basic training troops near Hadera, in the northern part of the country. There, she trained new soldiers, teaching them everything from using a gun, to wearing a uniform,

“ I loved my school. I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. Beyond the actual education, the school teaches a lot about life.”

to speaking the “army language.” She explains, “I shifted their whole existence from a regular person to a solider.” They were from all backgrounds, including Muslims, Druze, Ethiopians, and Russians. “The connections I made with my soldiers were unbelievable. I am still in contact with them, and I still see them.” She was eventually promoted to a role in which she scouted high schools to locate teens with potential to be accepted into offi cer training school.

*Leadership Counselor. Following Army service, Leah spent four months traveling in the U.S., cutting her trip short and returning to Israel due to Covid. She became a counselor in the Nativ Leadership Program, a program that includes a challenging academic year, in which she worked with Canadian students at Hebrew University.

*Social Programming Director. Leah currently works full-time with AMIT as the head of Social Programming at Beit Moreshet KKL (JNS), a state-of-the-art new facility that opened in 2021. It houses after-school activities, including everything from tutoring to tech support, for Kiryat Malachi residents, mostly AMIT students.

*Future Lawyer. All her leadership and community service experience has led Leah to be accepted to Ono Academic College law school, located in Kiryat Ono, one of the fastest growing colleges in Israel. She will begin her studies there in October. In her free time, the ambitious AMIT grad also enjoys practicing a cultural craft. She is adept at braiding, knitting, and sewing, such as making yarmulkes—a craft that she points out is a large part of Ethiopian culture. “It sticks with me even though I left Ethiopia at age two,” she says. In fact, crafts, in addition to working with special needs children, is something she learned directly from her mother.

What would Leah, such a successful graduate, tell AMIT students? “You should take advantage of every tool you are given there, and not take it for granted, because when I went out into the big world I understood how lucky I am, how unbelievably privileged we are at AMIT.” She emphasizes one of the most important AMIT lessons. “It doesn’t matter where you start, even if you’re not from wealth or privilege, you can still get far if you believe in yourself.”