Ellin Yassky

Ellin Yassky is the newly appointed East Coast Liaison for the Emunah Sarah Herzog Children’s Center, a residential and after-school therapeutic campus for at-risk children in Afula in northern Israel.
“We are very lucky,” says Sarah Herzog director, Shlomo Kessel. “Ellin is passionate about the work we do with children and I’m confident she will be a tremendous advocate for their causes.”
Established in 1949 to provide a haven for young Holocaust survivors, the center works with children aged five to 18 and their families, offering a wide range of therapies, educational support, parental guidance, and physical and medical treatment. The children suffer from learning disabilities, emotional problems, and challenging behavior, and many have difficulty forming meaningful relationships with adults and other children. Since Kessel became director in 2003, the facility’s population has grown from 65 to 190, requiring more of his personal involvement in the day-to-day operations, as well as critical fund-raising.
For nearly a decade, the center has developed significant relationships with several Jewish Federations in Connecticut, and is a core beneficiary organization of UJA/Federation Westport Weston Wilton Norwalk.
“We have been embraced by the communities of SNEC [the Southern New England Consortium of 12 Jewish Federations in Connecticut and Massachusetts], and particularly in Fairfield County,” Kessel, says. “Ellin will coordinate for me when I come to the U.S., help me to generate new contacts, and help me to be available to provide information and follow up promptly. We have numerous wonderful friends and supporters and I strive to maintain the ‘family like’ connections that we have been privileged to make with so many generous and large-hearted people, with perhaps extending the mishpoche a little.”
The SNEC communities are paired with the Afula-Gilboa region through Partnership2Gether (formerly Partnership 2000), a joint program with the Jewish Agency For Israel (JAFI). The Sarah Herzog Children’s Center is one among several organizations in the area that enjoy relationships and exchanges with SNEC member Federations. The Israeli Young Emissary program is another program that creates a living bridge between the two regions, placing recent Israel high-school graduates from Afula-Gilboa in SNEC communities to serve as cultural and educational “ambassadors.”
“With the Young Emissary program, we get Israel’s best, from Afula-Gilboa, but many of us don’t realize that in the same community, there are kids beset with issues they’re not responsible for,” says Yassky, who lives in Fairfield. “They have the same potential as all other kids, but their serendipity was to be born in a house that wouldn’t nurture them. Isn’t it our responsibility, if we’re going to take advantage of something so positive as the Young Emissaries, that we complete the circle and give something back?”
An ardent supporter of children’s causes, Yassky first learned about Sarah Herzog when Kessel spoke at Congregation Beth El in Fairfield two years ago. Soon after, she and her brother sponsored a child at the center as a bar-mitzvah gift.
Owner of Medici Editorial Services, LLC, a publishing and writing consultancy, Yassky edits books on art history and Judaic art. She is a founding board member of the Jewish High School of Connecticut and a member of the Town of Fairfield Holocaust Commemoration Committee and the Eastern Fairfield County Thriving Jewish Community Initiative. Yassky served as consultant and lecturer for the Fairfield Museum and History Center’s 2008 exhibition, “Celebrating Our Jewish Community.”
Yassky is board secretary, both of the Seymour Hollander House in Bridgeport for low-income Jewish seniors, and of Congregation Beth El in Fairfield. She teaches at Merkaz, the Jewish Community High School for Judaic Studies in Bridgeport, and is director of the Kladno Torah Research and Restoration Project, a Czech-U.S. collaboration.
Recently, when Kessel was visiting friends in Fairfield, he mentioned how he could use a local liaison. Yassky’s name came up. This summer, when Yassky traveled to Israel, she visited the center to meet with Kessel.
“A little girl who had just arrived came up to me and asked, ‘Do you want to see my room?’ That’s so important to a child,” says Yassky. “She had a stuffed Berenstain Bear and an outfit for a dance performance, and all she wanted was to be a normal little girl putting on the outfit. It was very hard for me not to get emotional.”
Yassky hopes to increase awareness of the center and its work through parlor meetings and other Fairfield County events. “We’re obligated to the kids near us and in our community, but you can’t stop there,” she says. “It doesn’t mean that you can’t just give a little, because those small gestures add up and do make a difference. While we have to fill our financial pockets, we also have to fill our tzedakah pockets. I see this not only as an obligation, but as an opportunity.”
Emunah Sarah Herzog director Shlomo Kessel will be in Fairfield County later this month. For information about Kessel’s visit or the center itself contact Ellin Yassky at ellin.emunah@yahoo.com, or visit www.emunahafula.org/