Israel Promotes Bridge for Young People

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My name is Adolfo Judchak, I born in the city of Resistencia Chaco, Argentina, and came to live in a kibbutz (agricultural cooperative) in southern Israel in 1978. About 4-5 years ago I took a course to learn how to teach Bridge. I always liked the education, so this gave me the great opportunity to combine my admiration for Bridge with the passion to teach.

In 2010 Israel developed a project to bring Bridge to elementary schools named «Next Generations»  leaded by Ophra Meir and I was appointed in charge of the project for the southern region.

Israel is doing very interesting things, they developed different folders with more than 50 bridge lessons that include example hands, presentations, synthesis…etc. Every year there are training courses for teachers across the country with the financial support of the Israeli Bridge Association.

Regarding my own experience the hardest is to break the stigma: «The Bridge is for old men.» I have two groups one at Amirim school, where I have a group of 12 kids, and this year I added  a course of 16 gifted children, that are learning bridge once a week in the evening, outside of school hours.

In recent years the Israel Bridge Association organizes in the Israeli Festival, a tournament for children, in February 2012 in Tel Aviv more than 700 boys participated, competing in: mini bridge no trump, Mini Bridge and Bridge. Of course 10 of my students were there and two students from Beer Sheva Maof (where I teach) won.

 In May in Netanya were organized the Olympics for Children, there were very many tournaments in different disciplines, and of course Bridge was one of them, over 5000 children participated in all competitions. Also there my students collected several prizes including a third place.

In August was held for the children a «seminar» in the center of the country, with the best bridge players in Israel, unfortunately this time we could not participate. In October we will begin a new year, and I hope to have three groups of children in different places, all in the area of Beer Sheva.

Since last year I follow the publications CSB (Southamerican Bridge Confederation: csbnews.org  and www.confsudbridge.org ) , and more than once I have used their materials in different courses. The computer and the Internet are undoubtedly an important means to bridge the gap, and improve education systems. For my knowledge at that level, I could sophisticate encounters, especially with the kids, I send them via email hands played by them to repractice at home and draw conclusions.

Of course I also taught older people in different places, and I have more than 100 students, you can see my Academy Bridge Darom in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBK8OuoyZgE.