|
|
June 16, 2000/13 Sivan I 5760, Vol. 52, No.41
Block interns on Capitol Hill
LEISAH NAMM
Staff Writer
A former Phoenix Hebrew Academy student, Rachel Block, will spend seven weeks this summer working in Washington, D.C.
Block, 19, is one of 47 students accepted for the Orthodox Union Collegiate Summer Internship. She will work in the office of Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley of Las Vegas.
Block, who begins her junior year at Barnard College this fall, is majoring in psychology and says she is interested in becoming a surgical health practitioner or a physician's assistant.
Her parents, Thea and Robert Block of Phoenix, are members of Beth Joseph Congregation in Phoenix.
The political world is not new to Block, who says she has always been involved in student government. She was president of her eighth-grade class and of her senior class at Central High School, and was treasurer of her freshman and sophomore classes in college.
She was also president of the Phoenix chapter of National Conference for Synagogue Youth while in high school.
Block attended Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center preschool and worked at Segal's Restaurant when she was in high school.
"I probably will not end up in politics, but I did find this to be a very good opportunity," Block says of the Washington program.
"The goal is not to create politicians (but) to increase the Orthodox community's political awareness and political activism," says Josh Sussman, program director of the Institute for Public Affairs, the nonpartisan public policy arm of the Orthodox Union.
Interns in the program, now in its 12th year, stay in dorm rooms at George Washington University and work on the Hill, writing speeches, working on constituent service projects, composing memos, attending hearings and doing other tasks, Sussman says.
Each dorm room has its own kitchen, where interns can keep kosher. The university is about a 10-minute walk to the only synagogue downtown, Sussman says.
At least twice a week, the interns meet for seminars on secular and religious issues, he says.
|
