A Marathon and a Memorial

The Marathon

Tami Gross, originally from Elkins Park,  Pennsylvania, and now living in Weaverville, NC, arrived in Jerusalem last Thursday, just in time for Purim. But Tami is here for a more serious purpose than enjoying the recent lighthearted holiday. She is preparing, together with her 22-year-old oleh chadash son, Judah, currently an ulpan student, to run the Jerusalem Marathon this week. Tami’s parents, who made aliyah a month ago, will join them – at least in spirit – by walking the 4K section of the race. This will be Tami’s second year in the Jerusalem Marathon. After running a number of marathons in the US, she received an informational package from El Al when the JM was opened up to international entrants. As a lifelong strong Zionist, she knew that she had to participate in this particular race. Tami is especially motivated because she is running in memory of an outstanding oleh.  Michael Levin, z”l, made aliyah from Pennsylvania – alone – at the youthful age of 19 and enlisted in the IDF paratroopers. He lived in Jerusalem for a time with two other young soldiers. In early 2006, the army granted him a special discharge to go and visit his family back in America. When Michael heard that war had broken out on the Lebanon border, he cut short his vacation in order to return to Israel and fight for his country. Three days later, on August 1, 2006, the 22-year-old hero fell in battle.

As a close friend of Michael’s parents, Tami supports their tremendous efforts to memorialize their son by improving conditions for chayalim bodedim (lone soldiers), who serve Israel without the family support system so taken for granted by their comrades. A number of donors are contributing to the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center in recognition of her run. The pledges she has collected so far this year already match 2011’s total contributions … before she has even run the marathon (!), and are earmarked for  the purchase of a van for the Center. Our AACI interviewer had three burning questions for Tami. One was how she feels while running the Jerusalem Marathon. She responded that, in an American marathon, she gets into “the zone” and is completely focused on putting one foot in front of the other. In Jerusalem, however, it is very different: She often becomes teary-eyed while running, as she experiences the outpouring of love and support for the runners and beholds Yerushalayim’s ancient vistas. The second question was what we, as individual Americans and Canadians, and other English-speakers, in Israel, can do for our chayalim bodedim. Tami encourages families to “adopt” these soldiers, providing help with finding an apartment and moving in, a warm place to go for a home-cooked meal, or a relaxing Shabbat. (Editor’s note:  offer to do a load of laundry for your chayal and let them sleep!)

Finally, how does a Jewish mother feel at the prospect Tami is facing, of having a child in the IDF? I think she speaks for all of us when she describes her mixed emotions: “worried and proud.”

The Memorial

Michael Levin, z”l, is honored on the AACI Memorial Wall, which bears the names of over 300 Americans or Canadians and their immediate family who died either serving in the Israel Defense Forces or its predecessors, or as victims of terror. Every year a Memorial Service is held at the site in the AACI Memorial Forest on a hilltop above the Sha’ar Hagai Junction to unveil the new names and remember the the fallen. Each year we pray that next year there will be a ceremony, but no new names added to the Wall. The moving ceremony is attended by the bereaved families, scores of young people from the various groups which bring students from abroad, and representatives of the American and the Canadian embassies in Israel.

The AACI believes that the moving stories of those who died in the line of duty will resonate with young people to inspire the next generation of leadership, who will, in turn, keep alive the narratives of the Canadians and Americans who made the supreme sacrifice for our country.

AACI would like to expand this sort of experience and share it with more young people in more places with the implementation of a new program. The proposed program – developed by leading educators and implemented by a coordinator training youth facilitators to work with each organization – will be aimed at English-speaking young adults in Israel on educational or volunteer programs, as well as local youth movements. It will concentrate on the personal stories of the individual fallen who are listed on our Memorial Wall and give the background of the specific period or war in which they fell. In addition, we will develop a website as an educational tool to memorialize and accompany the program. We are seeking donors to pursue this project. Click here to learn more about the program or to make a contribution.

AACI-Dr. Max & Gianna Glassman Family Center

37 Pierre Koenig, corner of Poalei Tzedek Talpiot, Jerusalem Phone: +972-2-566-1181 Fax:    +972-2-566-1186 Email: info@aaci.org.il

Website:  http://www.aaci.org.il/

AACI has been “Welcoming Us Home” for many years… Remembering Lynn Davison z”l

As we celebrate AACI’s 60 year anniversary, we give tribute to the memory of a special woman who epitomized the activist, volunteer spirit of AACI’s founders  – Lynn Davison z”l.  Many of our members, including Executive Director David London, remember Lynn greeting them at the airport upon aliyah, with a warm “welcome home,” and assisting them in their first steps.

AACI was saddened by the death of Lynn Davison, who passed away on Oct 12, 2010, shortly before her 90^th birthday.

Lynn grew up in New York at a time when ideologies were discussed, debated and argued with great intensity.  Lynn was a feminist long before it became fashionable, and was not afraid to speak up and fight for what she believed in.  In the US Lynn worked for the ILGWU, the dressmaker’s union, and she stood up to bosses who wanted to pay their workers as little as possible.  She picketed the White House when the Rosenbergs were sentenced to die in 1953.

Lynn made aliyah in 1970, even though the Shaliach told her to send her children, because Israel didn’t need people her age (she was a very sprightly 50 at the time).  She came anyway.  She worked for the Machon L’piriya V’Yitsur for a number of years and traveled around the country to help improve efficiency and working conditions in many garment industry factories.  When she sat down at the sewing machine and showed young workers how to do something, they immediately recognized that this woman was not a high and mighty manager, but one of them, who understood what it meant to sit bent over a machine without enough light to see what they were doing.

From 1980, Lynn was an active volunteer at AACI.  She was a board member of the Central Region (now Branch), Chairperson of the AACI Seniors and National Vice President for Klitah.  Her pet project however, was meeting new olim at the airport, helping them through all the paperwork and sending them and their luggage off to their destinations in their new home.  She loved to greet them with a big smile and a “Welcome home.”  For 13 years Lynn trained and organized the team of AACI volunteers, taking up the slack when no one else could meet a late flight, even in the middle of the night.  It was not unusual for Lynn to go to the airport up to three times the same day.  She was fierce in her conviction that this was THE most important service AACI offers, and it must be done properly!

On January 28, 2001 Lynn Davison was honored with a Volunteer Award by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.  Then-Minister of Klitah, Yuli Tamir, awarded the recognition, and Lynn was invited to the President’s house with other American immigrants who had made extraordinary contributions to Israel.

When she moved to Ra’anana and retired from those activities, she volunteered to tutor students in English, both for the bagrut (matriculation exams) at Ostrovsky High School and Bar Tov elementary school.

Lynn is survived by her daughter Judy Himmelfarb and son Michael Davison and 2 granddaughters.

As we witness the nation taking to the streets to fight for social justice, all of us at AACI who knew Lynn can imagine how she would approve.  This feisty, strong, determined, articulate, intelligent woman strongly believed in “social justice” and that government is obligated to take care of all its citizens equally.

Lynn’s daughter Judy said at the end of shiva: “I admired your courage, your integrity, your intelligence…I am thankful that you were the kind of person who deserves to be described with these adjectives.”

AACI thanks Judy Himmelfarb for sharing Lynn’s history and her memories with us.

OFANAYIM! MISHKAFAYIM! A story by Esther Malka Fein

This story is by Esther Malka Fein who made aliya three years ago from California. She is an English tutor, living in Yerushalayim. This story happened about two years ago.

You say glasses...

On one of my crowded bus trips, a passenger unknowingly dropped his glasses. Without noticing the incident, the crowd was rushing to get off at the bus stop.  Being a new Olah [immigrant to Israel], struggling with my new language,  I couldn’t think of the word “eyeglasses” in Hebrew.  So before the crowd had a chance to step on the glasses, I wanted to alert someone to pick them up.   I stood up from my seat (in the back), pointed to the floor of the bus and screamed out repetitiously, “OFANAYIM, OFANAYIM.”

...I say bicycle.

Everyone turned around to look at me.  Ofanayim means bicycle, while mishkafayim (eyeglasses) is what I meant to say.  Nonetheless, to my relief, my urgent sounding message prompted someone to bend down, retrieve the glasses and hand them to the person who had already exited from the autobus.

Glasses photo by LWY on flickr.

Bike photo by xddorox on flickr.

The cabbie from the airport by Ruth Cohn

Ruth and Moshe jeeping it up, down in Eilat

Ruth Cohn, a life member of the AACI, shared this touching story about the day her and her husband Moshe landed in Israel after making aliyah. The story, told by Ruth, and their aliyah, takes place in March of 1997.

As is usual when making aliyah, we were offered a free taxi ride to our destination (in our case, Jerusalem). We had loads of luggage and the long haired young taxi driver didn’t mind all the pekelech [packages] we had brought. We were worried about how we would get all our belongings up into the flat at our destination (there was no elevator). We agreed a price with him for him to help us with our luggage.

When we arrived at our destination, true to his word, our taxi driver helped us carry up our belongings to the apartment.  We relaxed as he brought up the cases and pekelech. Moshe handed him an envelope – the price we had agreed on.  He firmly returned it.

“Did you think I would take money for doing this Mitzvah, helping a couple who have just made aliyah?  Wishing you an easy klitah [absorption],” and with that he firmly closed the door and left, our young secular taxi driver.

What an amazing start to life in Israel.

(Although this is not strictly an AACI aliyah story – going on AACI Study Tours certainly helped us get to know our wonderful country. These tours were very well planned giving us the opportunity to meet such wonderful people.)