…one of my favorite parts was how your mom kept dreaming about how beautiful it would be when she finally got to Israel.

Dear Mom,

Thank you for coming to our classroom today and talking about your and grandma’s stories.

My three favorite parts were 1. The pitas and chocolate 2. You telling grandma’s story and 3. The great slideshow that you spent some of your work time making for us.

I also liked how you took some time to answer my questions and comments as well as other people’s.

Love,

Libi

P.S. Why didn’t you say how many chocolates you ate in the army?

---

Dear Yael,

Thank you for  visiting our class room and sharing your immigration story.

I never knew that Israel is a very small place!

I think it’s interesting that Bella was born in Poland because my great grandfather was born there too. I also found it interesting to hear about the ways they survived while they were traveling from place to place to escape from the Nazis – like how they only wore shoes in the winter when they really needed them and grew their own food, like wheat.

This story reminded me about how we’ve been studying immigrants who move from place to place for a better life or to be safe.

Even though I’ve heard this story before, I really liked hearing it again because I heard some details that I didn’t hear before so I feel like I understand her story even better.

From, Henry!

---

April 5, 2018

Dear Yael,

Thank you for coming to our  class to talk about you and your Mother’s immigration stories.

One of my favorite parts was when you told us that you came to America because of NYU. I thought this was interesting because you wanted a better education so you came here. Another of my favorite parts was when you told us how your mother had to walk over dead horses; it really made think about how that might have felt. I also liked when you told us that you still meet up with friends from then now.

A thing you said that connects to our immigration curriculum is that your mom left because of war and we learned that war is a push factor.

Over all your share was very interesting and I learned a lot

Sincerely,

Bo K. Gardner

April 5, 2018

---

Dear Yael,

Thank you so much for coming and sharing two immigration stories.

I thought that your share was really interesting. In fact, one of my favorite parts was how your mom kept dreaming about how beautiful it would be when she finally got to Israel. Even when she got there and saw reality about the landscape in Israel, she kept her hopes up for the future. Another favorite part it was how interesting it was how you were a teacher in the army. Another interesting part was that I thought it was cool how you decided to come to America to go to school. You were going to Tel Aviv University but you thought about what you would get out of it and decided better education is better. Even though you didn’t have enough money, you kept your hopes up and went for a scholarship.

One connection to our immigration curriculum is the fact that your mom was pushed and you were pulled. I have always thought it was interesting to compare push factors and pull factors. In this circumstance I have been given two stories which automatically makes it much easier to compare.

Thanks again for coming. It means a lot that you took the time for two stories.

Sincerely,

Sonia