Ruti-Anatoohun Turetsky and her husband
Ruti-Anatoohun Turetsky and her husbandspokesperson

Dr. Maor Farid, founder and director of the "Learning to Succeed" organization, and Ruti-Anatoohun Turetsky, who is a member of the Israeli Society for the Heritage of Ethiopian Jewry, received the "Spirit of Zion" award at the Moskowitz Prize ceremony for the 2019 academic year.

The Spirit of Zion Prize seeks to find and encourage new ideas designed to deal with the challenges of Zionism in Israel today. The prize is given annually to creative young Israelis who are committed to the Zionist idea and strive to provide a solution to the complexity of Israeli society.

Dr. Maor Farid
Dr. Maor Faridצילום: דוברות

Dr. Farid and Turetsky join the previous winners of the Spirit of Zion Prize, Yehudit Katzover and Nadia Matar, the head of the Women in Green Movement, Prof. Moshe Kopel, founder and chairman of the Kohelet Forum, and Dr. Aliza Bloch, mayor of Beit Shemesh.

The Charna and Irving Moskowitz Prize will be given for the 12th year to leading figures in Zionism and will be awarded during a festive evening, which will take place every year after Jerusalem Day, June 4 at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.

The event will include a full performance by Avraham Fried, who will play alongside Amir Dadon for the first time.

Dr. Maor Farid suffered from acute attention deficit disorder (ADD) in childhood and was the first in his family to attend high school. In the absence of anyone to believe in, apart from his parents, he was on the path to violence and crime. Despite his difficulties along the way, he enlisted as an officer for the excellence program "Barakim," where he absorbed the values ​​of the IDF and decided to take action to promote and rescue marginalized youth from the periphery so they realize their potential without the need for luck to play for their benefit.

During his army service with the rank of captain, he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees cum laude and completed his doctoral studies as the youngest graduate of the Technion at the age of 24. In the same year he served as an outside lecturer at Ben Gurion University in an original course he wrote. His research dealt with the protection of vital systems for Israel's security against earthquakes, which received many prestigious awards and publications.

Maor initiated and established the "Learn to Succeed" program, a non-profit organization whose goal is to encourage and promote youth and students from the geographic and socio-economic periphery to excellence and self-fulfillment, both through academic success and through meaningful service in the IDF. Which must be found and acted upon with the help of guidance, guidance and correct tools, and that every boy needs one adult to believe in.

The association includes dozens of volunteers and volunteers from all over the country, most of them with extensive experience working with youth. All the organization's activists operate out of mutual responsibility and a sense of mission, and strive to bring about a significant change in the lives of many youth in the State of Israel.

The organization operates according to a unique model of personal and group mentoring, setting up a personal program, conducting preparatory activities for the IDF, giving lectures throughout the country, running an Internet hotline, distributing the book "Learning to Succeed," which Maor wrote to thousands of youth at risk throughout the country.

Ruti-Anatoohun Turetsky was born in Ethiopia and immigrated to Israel during Operation Solomon when she was 5 years old. She grew up in Kiryat Malachi, was active in "Bnei Akiva" and served as a youth group coordinator for Ethiopian immigrants in Lod. After her service, she went on to a midrasha and studied teaching.

Today Ruti holds a degree and a teaching certificate in education and teaches girls at risk. Ruthie married Yossi Turetsky 11 years ago, when his parents immigrated from England. They have five children.

Ruti and her husband Yossi give talks to teenagers and adults, and produced a joint show "Nes Eloki" which deals with the integration of the exiles and their personal story, and another show, "Olim to Jerusalem", which tells about the world of Ethiopian Jewry.

Ruti published a comic book that connects the children in colorful and accessible language to the Jewish-experiential world of Ethiopian Jews.

Ruti is currently working on publishing additional comic books to promote her ideas, and on developing technological initiatives that will enable her to experience the miracle of the ingathering of the exiles in an experiential way.