Having just returned from the Campaign Chairs & Directors Mission to Greece & Israel, I want to share some personal impressions of my experience.

I traveled with Susan Goldman, our Campaign Chair along with nearly 130 other Jewish community professionals and volunteers, including Ann Pava, from 53 different communities across the country. 

This trip was life changing for me, not just because of our time in Israel during this challenging time, but also because of the experience of learning, understanding and meeting individuals who are impacted by the work of Federation and our partner agencies each and every day who make a difference in the lives of Jews all over this world. 

Before going on this trip, I did not realize that there was and still is a Jewish community in Greece and that it is one of the 70 countries around the world where we as a Federation system are making an impact.  As an example, we had an opportunity to visit a Jewish Day School in Athens with 93 children (ages 6 to 11), with an additional 40 children in pre-school (ages 2.5 to 5). 

This school was no different than our wonderful Jewish day schools and pre-schools right here in Western Massachusetts.  These children and Jewish families are our children and families and we are making a difference in their lives with our support through our overseas partner, JDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee). 

We also visited the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, where we learned that the population of Jews before World War II was more than 50% of the city with 56,000 Jews.  This community was almost entirely wiped out with 96% of the population having perished in the Holocaust.  I sat with Nina Benroubi,

a beautiful 93 year old woman who was shipped off in a box car and managed to escape from Bergin Belsen camp through Spain, and then Casablanca, to a British camp in Gaza and eventually back to Thessaloniki.  We met Jewish teens from Greece, Israel, and Columbia who are counselors in a Jewish overnight summer camp, supported by JDC, which provides a meaningful Jewish experience for kids, not unlike our wonderful summer camps across North America.  These kids are our kids.

After 3 full days in Greece, we finally landed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel after midnight on Thursday, July 10th to be reunited with and to support our brothers and sisters where the security of the country is at risk.  We were handed specific instructions on how to behave when an alert siren is heard, depending upon where we were (in a building, outside, in a vehicle, etc.)  We awoke the next morning before 8:00 a.m. to the sound of the siren from our hotel rooms and quickly moved to the shelter on the floor of our hotel.  Hotel guests from around the world came in bathrobes, towels and pajamas and huddled together for 10 minutes until the all clear notification was given.  We went on with our day of attending training sessions and site visits. 

Later that morning, I was part of a small group to visit Independence Hall where David Ben Gurion declared independence for the State of Israel in 1948. 

Just after 11:00 a.m., while watching a brief introductory film on the founding of the City of Tel Aviv and the events leading up to the declaration of independence, we heard the sirens throughout the city again.  We were quickly led around the corner, down a few stairs, into a larger hall, which to my amazement, was Independence Hall, currently serving as the bomb shelter for the building.  After the sirens ended, our Israeli museum guide continued on with the program, assuring us of our safety in this building, doubling as a shelter.  As she continued to tell the story of the events leading up to May 14, 1948, we could not help but feel the unbelievable irony of sitting in this iconic hall at this moment.  We could hear faint explosions of the iron dome in action outside the building while we learned about events of the War of Independence more than 66 years ago which was fought to establish the State of Israel, and for which we are still fighting today.  The guide ended her brief talk and the music of Hatikvah played as we all stood and proudly sang the words together.  After visiting Independence Hall, we met with three young adults who have made Aliyah from Greece, Hungary and Ukraine

and learned about the work of the Jewish Agency and how they are helping Jews around the world move and resettle in Israel, the Jewish homeland.

Our trip continued for the next four days in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with site visits, meetings with high-tech entrepreneurs, and a special visit by the parents of Gilad Shaar, one of the 3 Israeli boys captured and murdered just a few weeks ago.  After Gilad’s father addressed our group, each of our communities stood and told his parents how each community held vigils and prayers for Our Boys and how we mourned together.  We visited a JDC sponsored program called Mafteach which runs 8 employments centers to train Arab, Ethiopian and Ultra-Orthodox communities how to gain skills and become employable citizens for the country.  After a restful and beautiful Shabbat in Jerusalem, on Sunday before leaving, we met with resident of Amigour, a Jewish Agency program to provide safe and affordable housing to care for a group of 7,500 Senior Citizens of Israel who are Holocaust survivors and new immigrants from the Former Soviet Union.  I danced with Tova Adler,

 a vibrant and active 87 year old woman who at the age of 14 arrived in Auschwitz, survived and eventually made her way to Israel in 1946, taken to a detainee camp and eventually became a citizen of Israel.

An amazing experience to connect with colleagues from around the country, learn about the incredible and powerful work of our Federation system and how as one of the trip participants stated, "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world."

Thank you for this opportunity to reconnect with our people and to share our story.

Sincerely,

Scott Kaplan

Susan Goldman (campaign chair) and I have safely arrived in Athens, Greece for the beginning of the Campaign Chairs and Directors Mission to Greece and Israel run through JFNA (Jewish Federations of North America).  We had time to visit the Acropolis and the Parthenon which are spectacular sites and enjoy a wonderful evening in Athens. Stay tuned for updates about our travels and leanings with 120 fellow federation professionals and volunteers from North America.