This winter vacation, 50 high school students from the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School traveled to Israel on a hesed mission like no other. Dean of Students Rabbi Naftali Besser and YOF parent and community activist Susan Franco began the YOF Hesed Mission seven years ago and it has grown each year in scope and impact. With the war in Gaza still in progress, very few high school groups were in Israel this vacation. Yet the students had been preparing for this mission for months, and their parents agreed that it was important to go.
The students had raised $39,000 in donations for charitable organizations and Susan Franco raised even more! So, with 62 large duffel bags filled with clothes, toiletries, toys and gifts that local businesses had donated for soldiers, the needy and sick, the students were ready to visit and interact with the people of Israel.
For some, like Jill Greenberg, it was not their first Hesed Mission. Now a senior, Jill had previously gone as a sophomore. “My favorite part of the trip was our visit to Beit Elezraki, a home for orphans and abused children,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it when a girl I had met there two years ago remembered me and ran up to greet me. I was so happy to see her.”
Ariana Wiener, a senior from Manhattan Beach, has toured Israel several times. “This time was the best,” she said. “I didn’t know so many organizations like this existed in Israel. At Beit Elezraki, none of the kids had real family. We had an amazing time in a joint Bar Mitzvah celebration for 11 boys who had become Bar Mitzvah during the year together with Morris Franco, the son of Susan and Jack Franco and their family.” The Hesed Mission presented each of the Israeli boys with a set of tefillin. “My only regret,” said Ariana, “was not going on the Mission before my senior year.”
YOF High School Principal Rabbi Ronald Levy and Hesed Mission participants encountered Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu at Tel HaShomer Hospital in Tel Aviv, while they were visiting the sick and wounded, giving berachot, and distributing gifts. Netanyahu remarked, “What you’re doing is great. You are bringing money and you are bringing gifts and toys, but most important, you are bringing your hearts.”
Junior Naomi Tawil remembers the big smile on the face of an autistic child at Tishma as they danced together.
Sylvia Grazi said she began to appreciate what we take for granted. “At Beit Olot, an orphanage for girls, we met girls our own age—we felt a connection and instantly became friends.”
Sophomore Alan Shalam was part of the mission for the second time, this time with his entire family, and said, “I’m on for the next two years and more after that.”
Friday night dinner was special as Isaac Shmulewitz, who graduated from Flatbush just last year, shared his thoughts with the group about his training this year in the IDF and his experience in Israel. The room was filled with pride for him as they listened to him speak.
Many YOF families visiting relatives or their children studying in Israel joined up with the mission for a day or two of fun and inspiration. Amira Mandelbaum, A YOF senior from Highland Park, NJ, joined the trip for several days, as she visited Israel with her mother. After packing food packages at Yad Eliezer, helping at a soup kitchen, interacting with families in a home for abused women and at Nefesh Achat (Just One Life), she marveled, “We really saw a different side of Israel than tourists do. It felt good to actually make a contribution.”
Rabbi Besser is the much loved and trusted leader of this hesed experience. He reflected on what made this year’s trip so unique. “The size of our group was bigger than ever, especially the number of students who came. But the matsav (situation) was the key to the special nature of this mission. It raised the emotional level for both sides. The kids who went felt focused, compelled—they had a keener sense of accomplishment. Their mission had a tangible goal. There was also enormous bonding among the members of the group.”
It’s hard to imagine how many people the group touched. They sponsored and danced at the wedding of a destitute young bride. They visited soup kitchens and suppliers of food basics such as Hazon Yeshaya, Lottie’s Kitchen/Ezer Mitzion, Meir Panim, Carmei Ha’ir Soup Kitchens, Yad Eliezer and Table to Table, centers for children with learning, physical and developmental disabilities, hospitals, organizations that help IDF soldiers and the children of Sderot, Emunah and other residential and day care centers, and more. And although the Hesed Mission travelers faced many serious realities for the very first time, the word they most often use to describe their trip is, “amazing.”
______________
Diane Chabbott is a freelance editor and writer, and YOF’s publicist.
Photos by David Blumenthal and Bianca Kaller.
