Students in the Elaine and Norm Brodsky Darkaynu Programs, the only Orthodox, fully-immersed, year-in-Israel program for young adults with special needs, learn Torah and tour the country during their year in Israel while they acquire skills for future independent living. Part of the training they receive is vocational; students worked in retail stores, kindergartens, offices, restaurants, senior centers and, like Akiva Sasson (pictured) , in local grocery stores. 

Parting from employers and coworkers at the end of the year is always bittersweet – although the students are proud to take their newly-honed job skills back home with them, it is always hard to say goodbye. In this photo, the owners of the grocery store in which Akiva worked presented him with a gift of a t-shirt bearing his name in Hebrew above the words “gever gever,” loosely translating to “a man’s man”.