Home > FJN News & Features > South Florida > Twelve South Floridians depart on Hadassah Unity Mission

 

Twelve South Floridians depart on Hadassah Unity Mission

Click here to recommend
this article to a friend
By David Morris - FJN Editor

Twelve members of Hadassah’s Broward Region departed Tuesday to participate in the organization’s second Unity Mission this year. The Broward group represents the largest delegation for this mission, which comprises 58 participants from across the United States.


Sponsored links

Through "Hadassah Is Here—Unity Missions" the organization hopes to shows solidarity with the citizens of Israel as they recover from this summer’s bloody conflict with Hezbollah and the shockwave it sent through the country’s collective consciousness.

Hadassah’s first unity mission took 70 participants on August 8th to Israel while the war with Hezbollah was still raging.

"Although the war is over, the people and the land of Israel are still feeling its long-term effects," says Hadassah National President, June Walker.

Marlene Post, the organization’s immediate past national president, is largely credited with the idea of Hadassah taking the lead among major Jewish organizations in the creation of short, intensive, 5-7 day visits to boost the morale of the Israeli people.

"Our presence in Israel at this crucial time has been as incredible for us as it has been for the Israelis we’ve met. They see that our members truly care and that they can depend on our unconditional support. In the process of these personal encounters, participants on missions like these cannot help but understand more deeply what Israelis living in the major cities and settlements that were hit either from Lebanon to the north or from the Gaza Strip to the south have gone through and what, unfortunately, may yet await them," Post says.

Indeed, Hadassah has seen all of its Israel activities expand under Post’s leadership. A passionate Zionist, she has taken more than 180 trips to Israel and in 1999 was appointed chair of Birthright Israel North America that has brought thousands of young people to Israel every year.

The twelve South Floridians participating in the mission are: Sidney Bernstein of Coconut Creek, Cindy and Kenneth Diamond of Parkland, Janee Dodds of Cooper City, Joan Florsheim of Davie, Sophie and Simeon Gottlieb of Coral Springs, Roslyn Greenspan of Fort Lauderdale, Beverly Magnan of Coconut Creek, Rabbi Richard and Suzanne Polirer of Parkland and Carol Rakoff of Tamarac. Other states represented on the mission include New York (9 participants), California (7), Illinois (5), New Jersey (5), Connecticut (4), Michigan (3), Maryland (2), Minnesota (2), North Carolina (2), Pennsylvania (2), Washington (2), Texas (1), Oklahoma (1), and South Carolina (1).

Upon landing in Israel, the group will immediately head to the Hadassah-Neurim Youth Aliyah boarding school outside of Tel Aviv and then north to overnight at Haifa’s Dan Carmel Hotel. For two full days participants will visit the cities of Haifa, Nahariya, Kiryat Shemona and Ma’alot where they will interface with residents and enjoy home hospitality. In addition, they will tour bomb shelters, receive a military briefing along the Lebanese border and meet with representatives of the Jewish National Fund as they survey the Birya Forest neat Tsfat and see the thousands of burnt trees caused by missile fire. On Friday, Oct. 27 the mission will go from Haifa to the city of S’derot located near the Gaza Strip, meet its mayor, Eli Moyal and witness first-hand the destruction caused by Katyusha rockets to the town’s schools and neighborhoods. Shabbat will be enjoyed in Jerusalem and the last day of the mission (Sunday, Oct. 29) will be spent touring Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, the new Young Judaean Youth Hostel, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum and the Hadassah Technical College where a farewell dinner will be prepared by students of its Culinary Arts Department.

Although the majority of South Florida delegates have already visited Israel many times and have devoted years of volunteer service to the organization, there are those who will be seeing Israel for the first time. One of them is Carol Rakoff, a registered nurse and chapter member of Broward County’s Hadassah Nurses Council.

"I have never been to Israel and frankly, I never thought I’d go, but with all that has been happening there recently, emotion overcame me," says Rakoff. "When I was about 10 years old, I remember coming home from school and seeing my grandmother near the radio while she sewed nametags on my camp clothes. Suddenly, she began to cry. When I asked her why, she said, "Israel has just became our country." She explained it all to me and that has been a very strong memory ever since. Now I want to be able to tell my grandmother how I stepped on the soil she always longed for."

Founded in 1912 and now numbering approximately 300,000 members, Hadassah is the largest women’s organization in the United States, American Jewry’s largest membership organization and also its largest Zionist organization. Behind all of Hadassah’s impressive accomplishments and the millions of philanthropic dollars it has raised, its essence perhaps is reflected in just a single word--healing. This desire—to provide healing and protection to humanity--appears to be at the core of what has motivated thousands of Jewish women to join its ranks over the past 94 years.

Through its two world-class hospital facilities (En Karem and Mt. Scopus) in Jerusalem, the medical research projects it sponsors and the advocacy initiatives it undertakes both in Israel and the United States, the women of Hadassah have assumed a sacred responsibility towards one of Judaism’s highest values—namely, the preservation of life and the enhancement of people’s lives. Year after year, dollar after dollar, the efforts of its membership are directed towards healing of body and spirit on every level imaginable.


For information on upcoming Hadassah unity missions, call 1-800-237-1517 or visit: http://www.ayelet.com or visit: http://www.hadassah.org.


Posted by David Morris - FJN Editor on 10/27 at 02:00 AM • Hits: 262



Reader Comments

Next entry: Local Briefs
Previous entry: Local Briefs

<< Back to main