Tslil Reichman wants to teach you about Israel – and learn about the U.S.

Have you met Tslil Reichman? You may have seen her around town. She’s the new Israeli shlicha (emissary), here for two years thanks to the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Tslil, 25, plans to help the Rhode Island Jewish community learn a little more about the Israel she loves.

She arrived in late July and has been getting to know Providence for the last two months.

“I’m still learning how things work here,” she said recently. Then, she added, “I’m waiting for winter!”

Apparently, she’s heard a lot about New England winters, which are quite different from the winters in Yehud, in central Israel, where she grew up. Most recently, she has lived in Be’er Sheva, the town in southern Israel that she considers home. Not a lot of winter there either.

Two weeks before coming to the United States, Tslil graduated from Ben Gurion University of the Negev with a degree in sociology, anthropology and education.

She has two older sisters, one of whom is getting married later this year, and she’ll be returning to Israel for that happy occasion.

The family lived in London for six years, which explains how well-spoken Tslil is in English. After the Army, she spent several months traveling in South America.

In the Army, where she served for 2 1/2 years as a commander, she helped young recruits in the driving school get adjusted to military life, teaching Army values and the Army system. These were soldiers, she says, who might never have been away from home before and who needed to learn how to deal with everything associated with that transition. She helped them deal with “system shock.”

Tslil described that experience as being meaningful to others. And that’s not the only time she has filled that kind of role. While in college, she  served as a coordinator of student mentors. “I was in charge of 50 students working with [children with] special needs,” she says. “It was the best two years of my life.”

Tslil is enthusiastic when she talks about bringing a slice of Israeli culture to Rhode Island. “I want to offer a side of Israel you might not see,” she says. “And people here can teach me things about Israel that I do not know.”

Jews have so many different stories, she says, citing Moroccan Jews as an example. This group came to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s and brought with them their own set of Passover customs. Tslil plans a Passover program based on this in the spring.

Also in the works are a movie series, a shakshuka club, and programs focusing on  Israeli holidays and events.

And Tslil plans to offer “space to talk about Israel.”

 “I’m here and I’m happy to talk,” she says from her office at the Dwares Jewish Community Center, in Providence.

You can also follow Tslil on Facebook. Look for Tslil Reichman Shlicha.

FRAN OSTENDORF is the editor of The Jewish Voice.