Community Service Experience by Joan Hulkower, New York

Looking back on the Community Service portion of the CAARI Program, I'm overwhelmed at the appreciation that I received from the staff at Ichilov Hospital's Rehab Department.

Apparently, they are short of volunteers and could not have been more grateful for the service that we did in the mornings.

When we came in at 8 AM we set up the breakfast trays and handed them out to the patients as they came into the dining room. Usually about 35 came in between 8 and 9:30 AM. Following breakfast, I helped make beds, sometime refilled lotions and paper towels in the room or walked with patients that needed extra ambulation.

On the last day the staff gathered us (there were 4 other CAARI participants who worked with me) in their kitchen, gave us gifts, thanked us for our help and hoped we would return next year. Being appreciated made it so worthwhile!

Joan

Neve Zedek Tour

Shalom,

We are winding down our Tel Aviv stay - but not before we did a walking tour of the charming Tel Aviv neighborhood of Neve Zedek. A tour wouldn't be complete without a little ice cream.

Tomorrow, we pack up and head south - to the Negev. We will miss our wonderful staff at the City Hotel, the splendid Tel Aviv beach and off course all the children, teachers, administrators, nurses and patients at our community service assignments. What an enriching experience.

L'hitroiot to Tel Aviv,

CAARI 2010

CAARI in Tel AViv

CAARI in Tel AViv

Leket Project - Picking Fruit for the Needy

We have had another busy week - working in the morning at our community service places, returning to the hotel for lunch and back out in the afternoon. The weather has been delightful and we are relishing being outdoors - especially when we hear about the storms in the mid-west, east coast and cold temperatures in Canada.

For the past 5 years, one of CAARI's projects was to spend an afternoon picking fruit at a local orchard for an non - profit organization called, Leket Israel, formerly known as Table to Table. They distribute surplus food to the needy that would otherwise be discarded to. Over 60 tons of food per week is transferred to 180 soup kitchens, homeless shelters, senior centers and other social service organizations around Israel.

Our task was to pick oranges - and pick we did - over 2220 pounds of oranges! Boy, were the Leket Staff impressed!

Warm wishes,

CAARI 2010

Forest Day Adventure by Marcia Bercov

Hello,

Back to the work clothes again. Yesterday we put on our grubbies and headed off to Sataf Forest to prune olive trees and rebuild part of a stone wall. Finding rocks all over the ground, we filled bucket after bucket of assorted sizes to use as "backfill" for the wall, while Jamil, experienced wall builder, put the large stones in place. Hard work, but very satisfying, especially after seeing the result. After a morning like that everyone felt very happy to leave for Kibbutz Tsorah for lunch and more. In addition to delicious quiches and salad, the lunch included cheeses and bread both made on the kibbutz. But, wait, there's more. The Kibbutz also has a boutique winery, and lunch included wine tasting. The grapes come from three different nearby areas, and last year the winery produced ice wine! Yes, and without that inconvenient winter season. The grapes were picked and put into the freezer and the wine produced at a later time.
The weather has been warm and sunny in Tel Aviv. Hoping this finds you warm and well.
Best wishes and shalom,
Marcia and Ron

Feb. 8 - Ancient Lod Community Service Project & CAARI By Marcia Bercov

Greetings from sunny Tel Aviv,

On Monday our CAARI group dressed in work clothes to travel, for our first time, to Lod to do some clean-up at an archaeological site. There we met our host Yuval Gadot, Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University to learn about a new concept, Community Archaeology. This brings together children from many kinds of schools in the area - Arab, Bedouin, and Jewish - to clean up sites, dig, and collect artifacts as they learn about the past, while at the same time forming new friendships.
Lod is an ancient city and has been occupied continuously, with one civilization after another. At one time it became a Christian city, and tradition says St. George was born there, and he is buried at St. George's Greek Orthodox Church in the city. But back in the mid 8th century, Lod was a capital city, until Crusaders moved the capital to Jerusalem. Today Lod is home to many Ethiopian Jews. Well, getting back to the work clothes, our group started the not so glamorous, but necessary task of literally cleaning up an enclosed area called the Khan, an inn where people who travelled in caravans stopped for rest. Here, excavations have uncovered more levels of civilization. School children will visit the site and in time continue the work. Coincidentally, while our group was taking a lunch break inside the Khan, a class of children aged around 10 or 11 actually came inside with their teacher and a young lady who was doing a year of volunteer service. This is part of the effort to bring community pride and teach the residents about the history of their amazing city.

Shalom and Warm Wishes,

Marcia and Ron