Janna Helshtein

I stayed six weeks as an extern with Hachaklait – it was a great experience and I learned more than I ever imagined. I guess there is hardly any other country reaching the same level of perfection in Herd Health Management as Israel and I am really happy and thankful that I had the opportunity to acquire parts of their knowledge. Even if only my right arm gained a lot of muscles and looked afterward like the arm of a javelin thrower, I was able to improve my practical skills especially in rectal palpation – probably the most important part. Besides that, it was interesting and helpful to learn something about their management of antibiotics and possibly upcoming infections, which haven´t reached us in Europe so far.
All of the vets are very kind, patient, helpful and always willing to share their knowledge and the same applies to most of their farmers. We traveled a lot while visiting the farms and I was able to see a lot of the beautiful landscape of Israel – from the Egyptians in the south to the Lebanese and Syrian border in the north, the nature is so varied and variable like the citizens and their temper.
I really hope I will be able to transfer at least parts of Hachaklait´s system to ours in Germany.

It was absolutely amazing and I would do it any time again – or recommend it to everybody! Thanks a lot

Dr. Amit Tomer was a great mentor; he explained everything very well and made sure to keep me on my toes with relevant questions to the field. I highly enjoyed this week and learned a lot in a short amount of time!

Working with the Hachakalit made my trip from New Zealand fully worth the effort. They were incredibly helpful, totally transparent about the functions of the company and really geared towards having students around. There is really no plateau in the learning that can be done while working with the veterinarians of Hachaklait. I only wish I had more time to spend with the organization and accompany more of the positions within the company. If anyone is looking for more experience in pregnancy diagnosis, herd health management, and dairy research – this veterinary cooperative is really the place to visit. Thank you “Hachaclait” for an amazing time and a very caring and friendly atmosphere.

When I started my internship at “the Hachaklait” at the end of April, I didn’t really know what to expect. So far my knowledge concerning the system of the Hachaklait was very poor and I felt excited to learn more about it. Moreover, I didn’t know who I would be working with as I met “my vets” only one day before the internship started.
During the first two weeks, I worked with Michael Schwartz who turned out to be both: on the one hand, he was a friendly teacher explaining me everything about the interesting structures of the Hachaklait and a good, reliable friend trying to help me in any difficult situation on the other hand.
The following two weeks I spent with Joost Dukas and Avner Shoham and during my last week, I had the chance to work with Fadi Soboh.

When my internship came to an end five weeks later I couldn’t believe that my time at the Hachaklait was already over! I had such a great time with the five different vets I worked with and the fact that they all spoke fluent German made our conversation much easier.

My time in Israel was wonderful and I enjoyed every single day of my stay! Thinking back, I realize that I have learned so much more in those five weeks than I have ever before in any other internship or even during my entire time as a student at university. It was an important experience for me to get the opportunity to examine and treat animals on my own instead of just observing other vets doing the job.

To sum it all up, the internship in Israel was one of the best things I have ever done and I really wish that future interns will feel the same way! Hopefully, I’ll be back one day to meet my new friends again.