When Phyllis and I offered to volunteer, I had two goals that I wanted to accomplish with an extended visit to Israel. First, I wanted to be able to "live like an Israeli" in order to better understand the people and the country. Second, I wanted to be able to do something that would make a useful contribution to the people or the country. (An additional goal might have been to see more of the State than I had seen in the past, but that wasn't a critical goal.)
The People to People part of the Jewish Federation Program called Partnership 2000 was the vehicle that enabled me to achieve all of my goals. In the Partnership 2000 program, a Jewish community is paired up with a region in Israel, and many programs are developed that allow for the exchanges of ideas, the flow of dollars for start up programs in Israel, the support of programs that help people in need, and the fostering of contacts between individuals. Because of the size of the two jurisdictions, South Africa and Greater Washington, D.C. have been teamed with a rural area in Israel called Adulam and a city called Beit Shemesh.
I volunteered to go to Beit Shemesh and help people learn to speak in English. The program gave me a place to stay, places to "work", and a starter amount of food. After that, I was on my own to live as Israelis do for the entire month of November.
The townhouse that the Jewish Federation rents for volunteers in Beit Shemesh is on a cul-de-sac populated with mostly religious Anglos. These are people who live together, share in each other's lives, and are extremely gracious to visitors. They made me feel a part of their community right away.
I was picked up from Ben Gurion airport and arrived in Bet Shemesh on a Thursday evening. Reeva, Tamar, and Tammie, the Program staff members, came to the house and we all had Pizza for an impromptu dinner. Neighbors dropped in and Debbie Buckman claimed me for Shabat dinner.
Her husband stopped by for me on the way to Shull, took me under his charge, and introduced me to everyone. After that, everyone wanted to know if I was available to eat Friday evening or Saturday afternoon meals with them. I cannot say enough about the way the neighbors "took me in" and made me feel a part of the community family. Frankly, I believe part of the Program's people to people success is because of the friendly and gracious people who live in the community where the townhouse is located.
Other people in Beit Shemesh were wonderful to us as well. I had met two people through the Beit Shemesh Internet bulletin board before I ever left for Israel. Benyamin and Jeremy and their families were as kind, generous, and friendly as the neighbors. Whether it was a trip into Jerusalem, an invitation to a Thanksgiving meal, or help in getting tefilin repaired, nothing was too much. They really "iced the cake" in terms of making Phyllis and me feel welcome as part of a larger Israeli family.
I decided, with Tamar's concurrence, that I would spend most of my volunteer time at one elementary school. I spent three days a week at the Begin Elementary School, talking with 5th and 6th grade kids. What I did was more like giving them an opportunity to practice speaking English than actually teaching English, English grammar, etc. And, in our conversations I was able to tell them a lot about America and how Americans live. What fun!
I worked, mostly, with groups of six to ten kids at a time. However, there were two days when the English teacher was home sick and I tried to work with an entire classes of about thirty kids. That was an experience all its own. (I think the substitute teacher who stayed in the room with me may still be laughing.) Even though I worked with only a few kids at a time, it seems that all of the kids in the entire school knew who I was. On the way to school in the morning crossing guards would call out, "Hi, Ted, how are you? Can I be in your class today?" By the time I got to the school building, fifty kids would have come up to me or called out that same greeting. What a wonderful way to start the day - kids yelling out greetings of welcome and wanting to be included in what I would be doing that day. It made each day happy and gratifying.
Phyllis, my wife, came for the last ten days of my stay, and she worked with the kids at Begin School, too. If anything, they loved her more than me. The last day there was an emotional experience for both of us. We will remember those kids for along time. Hopefully, they will remember us, too.
In the evening, whenever I wasn't committed to something else, (Phyllis joined us when she arrived), I spent time in the library helping kids any way I could. But, the kids spoke very little or no English at all, and that made communicating really tough. Never the less, I was able to help kids a little with what they were trying to do on the computers, and Phyllis was able to help one kid with math homework. How she did that attests to the patience and skill she brought to the task, and her efforts were rewarded in the look of understanding and thankfulness that was on the kid's face.
On the whole, things felt safe. Beit Shemesh was no problem at all. Men, women, kids, all walked the streets, alone, day or night. However, if you asked ten people about where in Israel it was safe to go, you would get ten different and conflicting answers. To me, that meant there is an underlying concern for safety about going anywhere. On the other hand, every place bigger than a corner stand has a guard at the door with a metal detector who would examine all parcels and scan each person for hidden metal. That gave a feeling that things would be OK inside of the mall, or bus station, or grocery store. Moreover, I believed and still believe that since all but a few of the horrible attacks have taken place in or near the West Bank or Gaza, by avoiding those kind of places, one can be quite safe everywhere else.
Even Jerusalem fits into that description, because it lies right along the green line that divides Israel from Palestinian areas. Stay away from areas close to places under Palestinian control and either don't linger in or just keep clear of crowded areas that might be good targets for terrorists who want to inflict the most harm to the most people, and you should have no problem at all. I am sure most Israelis would agree with that statement.
That leaves a lot of places that are safe to be in, and I believe people can and ought to visit Israel with confidence in their ability to go places and be safe. From a media point of view, when attacks are reported, it sounds like the whole country has been bombed. The reality is that, small as Israel is, the attacks are widely spaced, and with any kind of reasonable care, the probability of being in a particular place when an attack happens is extremely small. I also know that after a terrorist attack Israelis get up the next day, take buses or drive to work, and go about their daily lives.
Tammuz 5762 - June 2002