With Israel, In Israel
A Photo Essay
Day One -- August 7, 2006
AZM Executive Director Karen Rubinstein and mission participant Rachel Holinsky stand in front of the tour bus.
At this grim hour, with Israel's North under attack from Hezbollah, 36 Americans and Canadians banded together, joining in a group totaling more than 100 Jews from around the world, on an emergency solidarity mission to Israel. Instead of staying glued to the television, we wanted to see and experience for ourselves the situation on the ground. We wanted to take action to show we care about our friends in Israel and what is happening to them. Even if only for three days, we needed to be "with Israel, in Israel."
Mission participant Debra Kamin with children at the Ben Yakir camp.
Some of us visited the Ben Yakir camp, others the Lod Absorption Center, where Ethiopian parents and children are studying Hebrew, learning about Judaism, and gaining the other skills they need to make the difficult transition into becoming a part of modern Israeli society. As our hostess explained, "If you want to succeed in Israel, education is number one for the future." The majority of these immigrants never had the opportunity to study in school before. We communicated with the immigrants through a translator who conveyed our English into both simple Hebrew and Ethiopian. When asked how she felt about the situation in the North, one immigrant replied, "It's scary, but we live with it."
