January 3, 2011 / 27 Tevet 5771

Participants from the Winter Family Mission of THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore spent a day beautifying the Jewish Agency's Beit Canada Barnea Absorption Center in Ashkelon.

As a meaningful end to their week-long visit to Israel, THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore Winter Family Mission devoted much of their final day to beautifying the Jewish Agency's Beit Canada Barnea Absorption Center in Ashkelon, in anticipation of the arrival of a wave of new immigrants from Ethiopia.

The visitors painted murals and fences, pieced together mosaics, and planted trees and flowers.  And they all had a good time doing it.  Volunteers from Ashkelon and residents of the Absorption Center also joined in the fun.

Special thanks goes to Eli Goldsmid, Orianna Haddad, and the whole staff of the Barnea Absorption Center for organizing the whole day and making it such a success.

As a token of appreciation, the chairs of the mission, Debra "Debs" Weinberg and Laurie Luskin, received the photographic book by Ricki Rosen called Transformations: From Ethiopia to Israel, as a gift by the Jewish Agency.  Marc Terrill, President of THE ASSOCIATED, also received a copy for the Jewish Federation.

This was a fitting end to their mission as they had begun their visit to Israel with an interactive program at the Hava & Adam Eco-Israel, a Masa Israel environmental educational center and ecological farm located near the city of Modi’in.  During their time in Israel they also met lone soldiers, Masa Israel participants, and visited a young community in Afula.    

Photo credit: Nicole Rosenberg