Shari+Mandel

=**Sheri Mendel by**=

** __Yarden__: **
====** I chose to make my project about Sheri Mendel, because what she had been through really touched me, and I want to search and see her way to deal with everything that she went through and to learn from it. **==== ====** It also made me curios, because that incident happened really close to me (inside Gush Etzion) and I remember that it had a lot of influence, and I thought that its important for everybody who lives here will know about it-so I want to learn about it **====

** She where was this that felt she since away right Tekoa in live to went she move, the after belonged. It had a homey, warm family like feeling to it. **
====** One day her eldest son ditched school with his friend Joseph Ishran to a pond next to Tekoa, where a terrorist waited for them and murdered the two boys. From that moment her life was Mendel Kobi opposite. complete it's to reality one from family her of lives the and changed was there first born child. Sheri tells us that Kobi was a kid who loved life, his family, his brothers and sisters, Tekoa and all of Israel. **====

====** Sheri Mendel had every reason in the world to drown herself in wallow and pity. She could have used her son's death as an excuse to quit life but instead she decided to face the pain she felt and used it to write a book. In this book Sheri Mendel, Kobi's mother, documented the year after her son's death, and how a family handles such a horrible death of one of their members. She writes about her personal confrontation with her motherly side that has lost part of her, and how she tries to keep going on with her daily routine before the murder. **====

====** The Mendel family decided not to let their lives be ruled by hate, sadness and pain. In order to remember their son and to keep his spirit alive, Sheri and Seth (her husband) funded the Keren Kobi Mendel foundation that offers workshops, support groups, health care for mothers who have lost their children, widows and full family's that have lost loved ones. The foundation also has throughout the summer and school vacations camps for approximately 500 kids whose families where affected by terrorism acts. To pay for the foundations activities Seth goes every month to a found raising trip in the U.S. the foundation changed the lives of the kids whose families where affected by these horrid war actions. **====


 * __Questions: __**


 * 1)When did you move to Israel? **


 * 2) Who is Kobi Mendel to you? **


 * 3) How did the murder affect your life? **


 * 4) When did you talk about the loss in the media? **


 * 5) How did you deal with the pain of losing your son? **


 * 6) What do you wrote in your book? **


 * 7) What is the establishment of the memory of your son? **
 * 8) Tell us a little bit about the fund? **


 * 9) How did the family respond to the desire to establish the fund? **

**10) What is your last memory of Kobi?**

====** 6) I recorded in the book, the first year following the death of Kobi in honestly, in courage, and without mercy, I share the reader the non-possible process of mourning step-by-step, and I tries to find logic in the unknown of the sadness and pain, in the context of the Jewish - Israeli and my personal and private plain. **====

** 7)the foundation is a way to help other people deal with the same pain I had and let them know they're not alone and that there are other people out here to help them. **
====** 8) in this fund we have many programs one of which is a summer program for the kids of the families who have been affected by terrorism. This camp is a way for these kids to let off steam and to know they are not the only ones who have to deal with these kind of things everyday. It is also an opportunity for them to just have fun without worrying about anything. **====

==== **Speec** **h** **__: __**====

====** Good evening ladies and gentlemen. To start off I would like to thank all of you for awarding me this special prize of shaping the future. I believe that our children are our future, so when I lost mine I went out to help others who have dealt with the same kind of pain. **====

====** Before I tell you more of what I do I want to introduce myself: my name is Sheri Mendel, I live in Tkoa, I moved to Israel from the United States and I am the founder of the Kobi Mendel foundation. The Kobi Mendel foundation is an organization for families who have lost loved ones to wars and terrorism acts. The foundation helps mainly kids deal with the loss of someone who was so close to you and know is gone. **====

====** The thing that caused me to begin with the organization was the loss of my own son Kobi. Kobi went one day to a trip with his friend and they were both murdered in a cave by a group of terrorists. After recognizing such horrible pain I knew I had to help others deal with this sort of situation too. **====

**Yarden: **
====** I've learned a lot from making the project. I've learned about people's way to deal lose, about their way to pass day by day with lose and the great things that they do that grows from their pain. I've learned about the Kobi Mandel foundation a lot- before doing the project, I only heard of at, now I know who established it and why. I've learned to appreciate what I have in my life today. From making the project I also enlarged my vocabulary and improved a bit my English, I've learned how to choose the right information, and to use only the parts of it I need. The making of the project also gave me tools for making more projects in the future. **====