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Friday January 12, 2007

No time for sightseeing: 550 volunteers help rebuild northern Israel

by stacey palevsky
staff writer

It was the rare Israel trip — one in which Jerusalem wasn’t on the itinerary.

But these visitors hadn’t come to play. They had come to work.

More than 500 young adults, including about a dozen from the Bay Area, flew to Israel on Dec. 25 for the first Leading Up North trip, an initiative that enlisted 550 college students and young professionals for service projects in the country’s war-battered north.

“I think American Jews send a lot of money to Israel, and that’s absolutely wonderful, but it’s a different experience to go and interact with people who were affected [by the war],” said Erica Hymen, 25, who works for the Bureau of Jewish Education in San Francisco. “I wanted to have a more hands-on way to respond.”

Hymen and the other volunteers planted tree saplings and cleared brush on hillsides scorched by Hezbollah rockets, which destroyed about two-thirds of the forest’s trees. They painted flowerbeds and underwater worlds on the walls of bomb shelters. During the war, the shelters were drab and plain, and housed some people for 30 days.

“We can’t solve anything politically, but if we can relieve some of the trauma these kids faced by being locked up in a bomb shelter, that’s enormous,” said Yoni Gordis, who helped coordinate the trip.

The trip was created and funded by the Lynn and Charles Schusterman Family Foundation, which put up $1.5 million with the intent of introducing young Jewish leaders to communities previously only accessible via TV.

“This past summer, I felt very far from Israel during the war — I felt very disconnected,” said Rebecca Katz, a San Francisco attorney. “I wanted to come here both to show my support for Israel and to attempt to provide some relief to the residents of the North.”

The young people, drawn from university Hillels and leadership programs sponsored by the Schusterman foundation, spread out over 10 northern communities for 10 days of volunteering.

They not only worked with their hands, they also interacted with local residents — Jewish, Muslim and Christian — and heard about their lives during and since the war.

“We didn’t change the world through this trip,” said Ira Kaufman, 35, of San Francisco. “But for there to be a group of Americans, coming just for their sake, and not for anything else, that was really special.”

One night, the volunteers were matched up with families so they could hear from residents who would benefit from their hard work.

Sara Kaner, 25, works at Camp Tawonga and lives in Berkeley. Though she had been to Israel twice before — as a tourist and then as a student — she had never only volunteered. She found it most meaningful to meet the people who benefited from her hard work.

“I got my facts straight — of what happened, what kind of people live there,” she said. “There are so many different communities in the North, but they didn’t leave and didn’t scatter during the war. They came together to help each other. If anything, that’s a model we can take back in our own lives and communities.”

Leading Up North participants came primarily from the United States and Canada, but also from Russia, Argentina, India, Australia and several European countries. The volunteers also worked with native Israelis in northern communities, including Haifa, Kiryat Shmona, Maalot, Metulla, Peki’in, Rosh Pina and Shlomi.

The idea for the program followed the successes of Hillel-organized trips last year to areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and alternative spring breaks to places like Argentina and Ukraine.

“Northern Israel experienced much of the same difficulties that New Orleans did when the government failed to provide adequate relief,” Katz said. “I was reminded of Israeli resiliency. And I learned how important it is for people in disaster areas to know that the rest of the world hasn't forgotten them even after the immediate crisis ends.”

JTA contributed to this story.

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