YOZMA 2021 SIYYUM

YOZMA Miken Community School Social Action Leadership Initiative Siyyum 2021 Virtual Exhibition. Real Action.

YOZMA Children Chairman: ● Kaitlyn Nickfardjam Members: ● Kayla Refoua ● ● Talia Breckner ● ● Nathan Shirazi ● ● Ethan Dula ●

Tali Freishtat Hayley Gordon Lily Kohanzad Julia Noorani

We hope to encourage Milken students and family members to take action and help underprivileged children.

Our goal as a group is to help underprivileged children in LA, as we worked with multiple organizations such as Salvation Army, Midnight Mission, and Jewish Federation.

In the years to come we plan on continuing to work with these organizations and hopefully branching out to more organizations to help children all over LA.

YOZMA Children We hosted a successful 2-day toy and book drive and collected over 1,000 toys and books for The Midnight Mission and Jewish Federation

"Bring up a child in the way he should go, and, when he is old, he will not depart from it. "

‫"תביא ילד בדרך‬ ,‫שהוא צריך ללכת‬ ‫ הוא‬,‫שהוא יהיה זקן‬ ".‫לא יעזוב את זה‬

This year we created a group flyer that was sent out to the school educating students about Red Hand Day and how they can take action virtually

YOZMA ISRAEL

“‫”…אם אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני‬

“If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill”

CHAIR: Shannon Rad

Leila Soleimani

CHAIR: Liana Pakravan

Julia Hartman

Karin Heitner

FACULTY ADVISOR: Mrs. Ben-Haim

ISRAEL LIAISON: Candice Shohed

Kayla Rastegar

Shani Noudel

Mia Zamir

Chloe Javidzad

YOZMA ISRAEL X StandWithUs Oneg Session Our goal is to spread awareness about current events in Israel, educate individuals about Israel, and support Israeli organizations and nonprofits.

We held an Oneg session on Friday, February 12th with Kate Chavez, a representative from StandWithUs. We discussed antisemitism: recent cases, and how to address it both in general and on college campuses.

It was a very important and informative presentation!

This year, we made an Instagram account!!

@YOZMA_ISRAEL We organize our information into different highlights on our page and have fun interactive stories!

YOZMA Heart Action

“Gray hair is a crown of glory; It is attained by the way of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31) ● ●

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We are focused on filling the hearts of elderly people We hope to encourage younger individuals to appreciate their grandparents and other elderly people in their lives for all the wisdom and love they can offer Our group had two flower drop offs for elderly people in our Milken community We sought to remind grandparents that, even though they may be physically isolated, we are with them HINENI: Here I am, ready to step up and take (heart) action

Our group video!

YOZMA Hunger Members: Kayla Nickfardjam (Co-Chair) Kayla Dadbin (Co-Chair) Jordan Kekst (Project Chair) Alexa Dardashty Chloe Rastegar Sasha Sarraf Maya Shokrian Zoe Duckorsky Natalie Sudar Arielle Nassir Evan Simon Nicole Delijani

YOZMA Hunger aims to alleviate hunger in our community and beyond through fundraising, food drives, advocacy, and raising awareness.

“Hunger is isolation; it may not and cannot be experienced vicariously. He who never felt hunger can never know its real effects, both tangible and intangible. Hunger defies imagination; it even defies memory. Hunger is only felt in the present.”

- Elie Wiesel

Watch our video here

Follow us @yozmahunger on Instagram!

Yozma Hunger Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for SOVA

Purim Food Drive for SOVA

Milken community members donated 1,152 pounds of food and raised 3500 dollars for SOVA.

Our Purim food drive collected 4 barrels of food donations and a box of toiletries!

Yozma Hunger Monthly Hope of the Valley Sack Lunch Drive with deToledo Since October, students have remotely met to pack lunches and hear from speakers about the realities of Hunger in Los Angeles. Our group has utilized email and social media communications to increase engagement and ultimately help hundreds of meals get donated to the deserving and resilient residents of our city.

Yozma Hunger

Healing Spirits "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?" Rabbi Hillel (Pirke Avot 1:14)

Co-Chairs -

Sabrina Abselet Talia lloulian

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Brooke Abselet Sarah Breckner Kevin Cohen Sofia Goldstein Juliet Goltsche Kayla Manzour Isabella Nassir Ethan Pakravan Jasmine Rad Liya Rotem-Simon Tiffany Tavakoli Shannon Broukhim

Our mission: The Mitzvah of Bikur Cholim, or healing the sick summarizes our mission. Our goal is to assist those who are in need of healing. We don’t just focus on physical healing, we help people who are suffering in any capacity, whether its physically, emotionally, or mentally.

Group Members

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How did we help? National Day of Unplugging:

Presenting to the The Educators Consortium of Service Learning on the topic of Digital Wellness-Disconnecting Digitally & Connecting to Technology for the Good.

This year we ran an event for the national day of unplugging. We collaborated with the Lil Space app to raise money for the Knock Knock Give a Sock organization. One pair of socks was given to someone in need for every ten minutes you "unplugged." This was especially true this year, given the shift to a digital environment. We were able to disconnect from our phones and concentrate on more hands-on tasks.

YOZMA Environment Our Mission: This year we were forced to reconsider our motives and goals as being online led to a significant decrease in on-campus consumption, thus allowing us to focus less on the sustainability aspect of environmentalism. We chose to focus our time and energy on sharing resources about composting and gardening to help people curb their carbon footprint while at home and grow their own food!

Chairs: Diba Amid and Aaron Kermani Members: Alexa Simantob Farrah Eshaghian Alex Binafard Ava Bostani Sophia Morovati Maddie Noriani

Follow our Instagram! @environmental yozma

Click here to watch our video!!

The Outcome: We-in partnership with YOZMA Global-organized an informative virtual meeting that was open to all members of the Milken community. This session included topics such as how to compost, the different ways one can compost, and the importance of mitigating food waste/trash from landfills. We were lucky to be joined by an organizer from LA based organization Tree People who guided the conversation on environmentalism and answered our questions about harboring a green thumb in one’s home.

Environmental YOZMA raised and donated over $150 which was donated to Tree People and distributed compost bins and seed packets to Milken community members so that they could take initiative at home!

Yozma Global

“It is our collective and individual responsibility… to preserve and tend to the world in which we all live” - Dalai Lama

Our Mission: Due to the restrictions of remote learning, we chose to focus on educating students on environmentalism and prompting them to contribute to helping the environment.

Chair: Sammy Fitterman Group Members: Nataly Azizi Alita Eshbali Emily Ghadooshahy Jacob Kermani Talen Mehrian Elinor Saeidi - Ormany Brianna Saevitzon Ethan Shaham Tianna Yazdi

Follow our instagram! @yozmaglobal

The Outcome: We-in partnership with YOZMA Environmental organized an informative virtual meeting that was open to all members of the Milken community. This session included topics such as how to compost, the different ways one can compost, and the importance of mitigating food waste/trash from landfills. We were lucky to be joined by an organizer from LA based organization Tree People who guided the conversation on environmentalism and answered our questions about harboring a green thumb in one’s home. We raised and donated over $150 which was donated to Tree People and distributed compost bins and seed packets to Milken community members so that they could take initiative at home!

YOZMA Jewish World Watch Mission of Jewish World Watch Our ancestors’ experience in the Holocaust motivates us to stand against the genocides of today.

We provide humanitarian aid, advocacy, and educational tools to respond to humanitarian and refugee crises, armed conflicts, and genocide.

“Uphold the cause of the fatherless and widow, love the stranger, provide him with food and clothing, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

An adapted verse from Deuteronomy 10:18-19

A Timeline of our Year October 8, 2020

February 4, 2021 Introduction to Gender-Based violence.

What makes a good advocate?

“Dispatch from DRC: Pascaline’s Story” “Congo: We did whatever we wanted, says soldier who raped 53 women”

“All advocacy is, at its core, is an exercise in empathy.” -Samantha Power

December 2, 2020 September 24, 2020 Introduction to Jewish World Watch.

How do we fulfill our responsibility to Never Forget the Holocaust?

Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Peers learned about the human rights violations against an ethnic minority in China, the Uyghurs.

Letters to over 15 senators were signed.

April 16, 2021 Gender-Based Violence Educational Oneg Spreading awareness about the pervasive issue of sexual violence in MENA.

UNDP: Health Chairs: Samantha Steinsapir Michelle Lalezarian Chloe Messian Members: Riley Golshan Lauren Lieberman

Focus: This year, our group focused on the United Nations Development Programme’s third goal, which is Good Health and Well-Being.

Mission: At the beginning of the year, we decided that it was very important for us to educate our community about the pandemic. We utilized our instagram platform (@UNDPHealth) to spread factual information regarding the virus, including how to prevent the spread, relevant and current news, and daily cases in the Los Angeles area.

Thank -You Letter Project Following her attendance at the Esther and Mordechai Yadegar Medical Elective, one of our chairs, Samantha, wanted to incorporate the hospital she visited into a project that was relevant and important to our group and community. We decided to write thank-you letters expressing our gratitude to the staff at the Palmdale Regional Medical Center in Palmdale, California for their hard work and dedication to bettering the lives of others, especially during such a challenging time. We, along with 33 others, wrote letters to the essential workers. We have, so far, written over 600 letters, and will be writing 200 more before the end of the school year. On Treedom, this event has created a total value of $17,489.60.

“Behind the Mask” Interview Series In order to educate our community, we also decided that it would be great to interview people within our community to discuss how the pandemic has impacted their lives. All interviews are posted to our Instagram account so our primary audience can easily access the videos.

UNDP: Health Thank-You Letter Project

36 Volunteers. Over 600 letters written. $17,489.60 on Treedom.