NACOEJ-Vidal Sassoon Adopt-A-Student Program 20-year Reunion in October 2004

NACOEJ recognizes the great potential of Ethiopian Jewish young people. Bright and eager to learn, many Ethiopian-Israelis have made their way – through hard work and often with the help of NACOEJ Limudiot and High School Sponsorship programs – to a point where they can pass the “bagrut” (Israeli matriculation exam) and go on to higher education and successful futures. However, for Ethiopian Jewish families who have come to Israel with literally only the clothes on their backs, financing their children’s college education, or helping them cover other expenses, is often impossible.

AAS nursing students

The Israeli government generously pays for college tuition for Ethiopian-Israelis, but the students’ everyday essential expenses – books, lab fees, transportation, clothing, and above all, food – are not covered. A student without financial help may not be able to go to college, or may have to drop out for lack of money for such basic necessities.

AAS student in her student-teaching role

The NACOEJ/ Vidal Sassoon Adopt-A-Student program (AAS) matches Ethiopian-Israeli students with American sponsors whose generosity helps the students complete their degrees. Sponsors provide modest monthly stipends for their students, enabling them to live simple but sustainable lives, paying for necessities so that they can afford to get a college education. It will make the difference between well-paid careers that help lift this generation out of poverty and bare-subsistence jobs that perpetuate poverty.

I want to be a sponsor!

A grant of $95 per month ($1,140 per year) will sponsor a single student. You can “adopt” a student as an individual, a family, or as a project of your school or synagogue.

For more information, please contact Judy Dick at 212-233-5200 x. 230 or contact us by email at college@nacoej.org.

It is with the greatest sorrow that we report the death of Evelyn Deitchman, for 20 years the volunteer Director of the NACOEJ/Vidal Sassoon Adopt-A-Student Program. Evelyn undertook this demanding and rewarding assignment after retirement from a long and meaningful career in the New York City school system, where she focused on teaching 4th grade.   A grade she specifically chose because she felt it was at that age that she could have the most impact and success at combating prejudice and teaching tolerance..

Evelyn played a major role in the successful development of the NACOEJ AAS Program, assisting over 2,000 young Ethiopian Jews in Israel to complete their college education. Beloved by students and sponsors alike, Evelyn became an honored NACOEJ Board member, traveled to Ethiopia and Israel, met with “her” students (she was herself a sponsor) and took an active role in every aspect of NACOEJ’s efforts.

Evelyn’s dedication to her work, insistence on accuracy and connection with each donor was extraordinary.  She spent many late nights at the NACOEJ office, especially when a student’s sponsor could not continue, and Evelyn would not leave until she had found a replacement. Well into the computer age, she still corresponded with sponsors in her signature green-ink, hand-written notes. In her last days, Evelyn consulted with NACOEJ staffer Judy Dick, who will continue her work for AAS.

Evelyn was also a world traveler, a professional-quality dancer, actor and painter, a lover of theatre and movies, babies and the animal kingdom. Above all, she was the loving and dearly loved mother of daughter Shana, sons Jody, Cory and Rick, and daughter-in-laws Shari and Gabrielle, as well as beloved aunt of Judy and David, and great-aunt to David’s son, Andrew; and the adoring and devoted grandmother of Katrina and Sally. She is deeply mourned by a host of former students, colleagues and personal friends, including the undersigned.

Barbara Ribakove Gordon

Personal messages can be sent to Evelyn’s family at shanadeane77@gmail.com