In Praise of Arkady

So, as of today, our three months in Yokne’am have come to an end – and quite quickly, we might add! As you have read, there have been many twists, turns, challenges, and pleasant surprises, and you’ve only heard about some of them! But the truth of the matter is that we would have never been able to survive Part II of OTZMA were it not for our fantastic coordinator, Arkady Hasidovich.

As anyone who has met him can attest, Arkady might very well be one of the most capable people in the entire State of Israel. A recent recipient of the prestigious Nahum Goldmann Fellowship, Arkady is fluent in at least three languages, is an experienced world traveler, and in dealing with us, he may have run into his most difficult challenge ever. (I kid, I kid. Sort of.) Arkady was able to answer any question we had (no matter how stupid), defuse any situation we ran into (no matter how ridiculous), and help us with anything we needed (no matter how trivial). Furthermore, his ability to remain calm and gracious no matter what the situation was continues to amaze us. Somehow, no matter how flustered we might have been, a conversation with Arkady always seemed to relax us and solve the situation.

Furthermore, Arkady was always willing to go above and beyond his job without us even having to ask. If he overheard one of us grousing about an issue we were having outside of our volunteering, he would, without fail, ask us what was happening and how he could help – and then he found a way to fix whatever we were worried about. Folks, this man could and would move mountains for us.

You’ve all heard a lot of stories from us this year, and we’ve got a few more months to go. But believe us, many of these stories would not be possible without Arkady’s help. He is, in very large part, the reason why our time in Yokne’am was such a positive experience. The St. Louis Jewish community should feel blessed that there is such a gifted, caring, responsible, and capable friend on this side of the world, and we truly hope the Jewish Agency realizes what a remarkable person they have working for them. We know we do.

-Andi and Max