Diaspora groups engage in huge clean-up, repair project
Hundreds of young adults from across the Jewish world rolled up their sleeves to give back to the residents of Israel's war-battered North.
The group of 550 college students and young professionals from North America and Europe, from India and Australia, joined a mass community service project over the winter holidays called "Leading Up North," funded by the Lynn and Charles Schusterman Family Foundation.
"When you live abroad and you are a Jew, it is a unique feeling when there is a war going on here - you feel as if it is your own family that is suffering," said Gabriel Buznik, 29, a lawyer from Buenos Aires. "Here we can show them they are not alone, we are the same Jewish people."
The young people, drawn from organizations such as their university Hillels and leadership programs sponsored by the Schusterman foundation, spread out over 10 northern communities for 10 days.
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.
The program followed the successes of Hillel-organized trips last year to areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and similar alternative spring breaks to places like Argentina and Ukraine that the Schusterman foundation helped fund in conjunction with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Lynn Schusterman, who remembers volunteering as a young girl alongside her father, said public service is one of the best ways to do good in the world.
"It gives a feeling of self-worth to give back," she told JTA while visiting Kiryat Shemona, the border town hardest hit by Hezbollah rocket fire during last summer's Lebanon war.
"To whom much is given, much is expected," she said, quoting one of her favorite phrases. Schusterman's late husband, Charles, acquired his wealth in the oil business in Oklahoma.
Wearing a gray "Leading Up North" hooded sweatshirt and a backpack, the petite, silver-haired Schusterman quickly joined the circles of hora dancing in the Naftali Hills Forest, where the group had met to plant trees. The forest lost about two-thirds of its trees to fires sparked by falling Hezbollah rockets.
The $1.5 million project was sponsored by the Schusterman foundation's Center for Leadership Initiatives. Volunteers paid a fee of $180, but the rest of their costs - including airfare and hotels - were covered by the institute. About 2,000 students applied for the 550 spots.
"It's not just about fixing up and repairing the physical side, but the spirit as well," said Wayne Firestone, president of Hillel. "One of the really nice aspects of this project is that it is aimed at the people who are living here."
|