by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

September 18, 2008

Yoni Kaplan isn’t expecting to win a prize for the science research he did in Israel this summer, but the time he spent there was rewarding in itself.

The 17-year-old Springfield resident, a senior at Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, was one of 29 students from around the United States — including just two from New Jersey — chosen to participate in Legacy Heritage Internships for Young Scientists.

During his six-week internship at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Yoni worked on a cancer research project during an experience he described as his dream summer.

The experiment was not, he said, “something dramatic; doesn’t have any immediate application.” It was, rather, a project that in the long run might contribute to the fight against cancer — and that was enough to inspire him. Though he has suffered no personal losses to the disease, he has close friends who have and he has seen enough to care deeply about that fight.

The science-focused leadership development program is sponsored by Legacy Heritage Programming LLC of New York, a nonprofit foundation that supports Jewish causes around the world. The internship program selects Jewish high school students with demonstrated scientific aptitude and achievement in the community, and sends them to Israel for six weeks over the summer to learn about the country and experience an actual position in some aspect of scientific endeavor, with all expenses covered.

Yoni and another participant worked with a doctoral student investigating the role of certain proteins in inhibiting the development of cancer cells. They also learned to document their findings meticulously.

That precision came in handy last week as Yoni pulled together the findings to use in his entry for the national Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition. Entering such a contest is a requirement of the Legacy Heritage program.

Another requirement is that the participants do at least 40 hours of Israel advocacy work. As part of his commitment, Yoni is weaving his new knowledge of the country into his work with special needs youngsters at the Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC, Ross Family Campus, in West Orange, where he volunteers twice a month as a teacher’s aide.

That kind of volunteering was part of what won him the internship, together with community service he did in the summer of 2007 when he went to Chile with a group from his school in West Orange. He played a key role in that group because he speaks Spanish fluently, learned from his father, who comes from Argentina.

‘Lo and behold’

Yoni wanted the internship badly and was afraid he wouldn’t make the cut. “My grades were good, but I hadn’t done anything like invent a cure for cancer in my basement,” he said. What he did have to offer was a lifelong fascination with all things scientific, fostered by his mother, psychologist Dr. Navah Kaplan, and his father, psychiatrist Dr. Gabriel Kaplan. And there was the internship he did last summer, after returning from Chile, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., which was organized by his uncle.

He loved that experience at NIH. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had,” he said. “I thought the only way it could be better was if it was in Israel. I’ve got a really great love for Israel. My grandmother is Israeli. She fought with the Palmach in the War of Independence. I’d been there twice. And then lo and behold, one of our teachers at school told us about this program.”

Apart from doing well academically and loving sports, Yoni is a committed bridge-builder. He played that role — as ever — with the group in Israel, breaking down the barriers that developed between some of the participants.

Yoni said he learned about the world-class excellence of Israel’s scientific and high-tech work. “It wowed me — but then Israel has always been a ‘wow’ for me,” he said. He also learned a lot about Israel’s complexity and its problems, and came away with a much fuller appreciation of the country. “There are at least six existential crises each day,” he said. “The miracle is that it all holds together.”

As for his future, he can’t wait to get back to Israel. He will go again in February, on a three-month trip organized by SSDS. And a year from now he starts college, on his way toward becoming a doctor, and — who knows? — maybe even seeing his own patients benefit from the research he was part of this summer.

For more information on the Legacy Heritage internship program, visit www.LegacyHeritage.org or contact Marci Karoll at 212-578-8190, ext. 26.

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