Donations at work

Argentinean mission makes contributions meaningful for local couple

BETH OLSON
Staff Writer

Randi Sherman poses with a Jewish gaucho in Basovilbaso, Argentina.

Photo courtesy of Randi Sherman

Local Jews are asked each year to contribute to the annual campaign of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix. While the majority of these funds - 65 percent in 2001 - benefit local agencies, the local federation's contribution in 2001 to international agencies through United Jewish Communities was more than $1.5 million.

Unlike the local contributions, Valley residents can't often see the impact of these international funds. However, Scottsdale couple Randi and Dave Sherman have had the opportunity to travel the world on UJC missions to see the organization's funds at work and to lend a hand to those in need. From St. Petersburg to Budapest and Cuba to Israel, the couple has individually and together traveled on more than half a dozen missions. The most recent trip was a Ben Gurion Society Mission to Argentina last month.

"It gives you the opportunity to be able to see a country and interact with people and do things that you would never be able to do on any other kind of trip," says Dave Sherman. "It's tremendous from a spiritual standpoint (and) from an emotional standpoint."

The whirlwind six-day trip took the Shermans and 170 Americans, Canadians and Israelis to visit a country hit hard by economic collapse.

Particularly meaningful to Dave Sherman was a visit to a social assistance center where he helped hand out food vouchers to the elderly.

"What it does is replace the image of this faceless blackhole that people think all of this money goes into. Now we'll come (back) and tell them we've seen where the money goes. We've met the people," he says.

Randi Sherman agrees. "I like to go to see where our dollars go and meet with the people who receive our funding. It's very heartwarming to meet these people who are surviving because of us - because of what we do with the (federation's annual) campaign."

Many families the Shermans met on their trip were professionals who are unable to find work in the economically struggling country. At a Jewish Agency for Israel dinner they sat with an Argentinean couple - the wife a psychiatrist and the husband a doctor - and their teenage daughter who were planning to make aliyah to Israel in the next few weeks. The family, unable to make a living any longer in Argentina, is among 7,000 of 200,000 Argentinean Jews expected to make aliyah by year's end.

"Even with what's going on in Israel, they feel they have better hope for the future ... in Israel than in Argentina," says Randi Sherman.

The Shermans found many ways in which UJC dollars were helping the community, including a job placement center, funded in part by the Joint Distribution Committee. The center helps people start small businesses and find work, and gives the professionals who visit it a place to use computers, phones and the Internet to find jobs, according to Randi Sherman.

"It gives them a sense of dignity and pride and they have somewhere to go in the morning," she says.

The mission also visited Basavilbaso, a Jewish colony established in the late 1800s.

In Basavilbaso, the group met Jewish gauchos, visited a century-old synagogue and received a history lesson about the community.

"The thing that I learned was there were (about) 17 Jewish colonies founded in Argentina and it was just like our grandparents and great-grandparents, but instead of coming to the United States, they came to Argentina," says Randi Sherman. "A lot of them are the same as us - they came from the same shtetls."

The group also found a common bond with the Argentineans when they attended Shabbat services at a local synagogue. While the service was in Spanish, the prayers' words and tunes were universal.

"Here we were - Americans, Argentineans, a few Israelis and a few Canadians - and we all knew the prayers. Even though we were different cultures, we were really praying with one heart," recalls Randi Sherman.

The tour also visited a Jewish day school - one of 60 in the country, according to the Shermans.

"Some of the Jewish day schools have closed because of the economy, but on the other hand, there are some kids who are now starting to go to Jewish day school for the first time because the opportunity is there for them to go because of (UJC) funding," says Randi Sherman. "They're starting to learn what it means to be Jewish and get a sense of pride in that."

While the opportunity to interact with the Argentineans was an important part of the trip, Dave Sherman also values the relationships he was able to make with the other participants in the mission including members of the UJC's National Young Leadership Cabinet, of which the Shermans are members.

"When you share some of the things we experienced with these other people, you are connecting and bonding on a level that is unheard of in everyday life," Dave Sherman says.

The Shermans are quick to point out that a mission is not a vacation - they found themselves returning to their hotel room after midnight each night and were greeted by a 6 a.m. wake-up call each morning.

"I'm there a week but I feel like I've been gone three because there's so much stuff crammed into it," says Dave Sherman.

The couple will travel to Israel on another mission this month, this time with their two children Lyndsi, 12, and Mathew, 9. Lyndsi will celebrate her bat mitzvah in Israel.

Missions have comprised nearly all of the Shermans international travel - they could recall only one trip out of the country that was not a mission - and they wouldn't have it any other way.

"You see more, you meet more, you do more," says Dave Sherman. "You do things on missions that you could never ever dream of doing by yourself."

Contact the writer at beth_olson@jewishaz.com.

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