Dr. Shakked Lubotzky Gete
“I feel close to the community here. We have good friends and feel connected to the people. It says alot about the community. I’m amazed every time my kids and I (as a current limmudei Kodesh teacher at Netivot) are not treated differently for our mistakes or accent. People here appreciate Israel and the Hebrew language. We have felt a huge hug in the last 2 difficult months, when my husband and others went back to fight in Israel, and us and all the Israeli families got so much support; I’m not sure there’s another place in the world, out of Israel, like this. Toronto puts so much money and time for Limmud Torah, Eretz Yisrael. You see Eretz Israel is in the heart of the people here.”
Dr. Shakked Lubotzky Gete moved to Toronto with her husband Dr. Maru Gete (an surgical oncologist head/neck fellow at Mt. Sinai) for post doc work at Women’s College Hospital; she studied perinatal epidemiology – everything surrounding births and statistics. Her PhD involved collecting data from 3 hospitals on mothers from the USSR, Ethiopia and Israel and their incidence of depression, anxiety, and other risk factors in pregnancy, to track their impact on birth outcomes and babies, until age 2. Her second degree is in public health; she focused on the Bedouin and Jewish population in Negev.
Prior to moving to Toronto, Shakked and Maru lived in a caravan in the village Gvaot, Gush Etzion for 6 years with their 6 children. The community integrates people with special needs into the community and is composed of 40 families along with 20 young men above the age of 21 who have special needs (https://sadnat-shiluv.co.il/%d7%91%d7%99%d7%aa_en/). The Gete family accompanied a young man from the community every week and for shabbat lunch.The children attended Gan with Bnot Sherut who had Down’s Syndrome and went to school where in each classroom there were 4 students with special needs. “It teaches kids to be respectful, and to realize that in different ways we all have some special needs…This gave my children tools for life, for respecting other people.” Shakked became interested in living there since she was volunteering there as a teenager.
Shakked shares a resolve that is woven into all parts of her life: “Since I was a young girl I was interested in closing gaps. It is very hard for me to see the lack of equality, in any aspect. In Sherut-leumi, I worked with students who were “olim” or from a weak background to encourage them and help them to get opportunities for good education.” She was a Bnei Akiva youth leader for immigrants from Ethiopia and learned Amharic and Ethiopian traditions. Shakked has a great appreciation for people with a strong work ethic; it is one of the attributes she values in her husband Maru (who was introduced to her by her brother Dr. Asael Lubotzky).
Dr Shakked gives credit for her rich Jewish life to her family and to Midreshet Migdal Oz – she feels very connected to the Bet Midrash for women (division of Torat Gush Etizion), where she learned for 2 years and is still in close touch “ I got my love of Torah learning from there, and as I tell my students I wish for them to find their place of Torah”.
Shakked and Maru are parents of 6 children, 4 of whom are Netivot students.
