Twenty-five members of our congregational family and six others spent two weeks in Israel this summer. They met with and learned from Israeli political and social justice leadership, experienced Israeli Shabbatot, and offered their support in a number of ways – among them, visiting an Absorption Center for new immigrants.

Jacob and Andrew Finkelman write:

           When we walked in to the Absorption Center I was more interested in the cookies, and drinks. But as soon as I started listening it was one of the most interesting things ever. Operation Solomon, it was about Ethiopian families living there who had never heard of a life with airplanes, or you could say living a life like ours! Suddenly the Israeli government put 1,000′s of Ethiopian Jews on planes to Israel. Now there are kids at the Absorption Center learning how to read and write the ancient language of Hebrew. Even learning how to live their new life in Israel! T.V., cellphones, video games, 3 meals a day. Doing things they never would of thought of. When we went shopping for school supplies we got Pencils, Glue sticks, Paper, Pencil holders. They would be happy about getting pencils while we would be excited about getting $100.00 calculators.

            The adventure of going to the huge Jerusalem mall was so amazing. There fast food restaurants looked like casual sit down places. It was cool to see how they had brands of their own, but also global brands that I knew, like Nike, Adidas, Vans, and more.  We looked around the mall for a place to eat. We saw a place which was busy, so we thought it must be good. I got a extraordinary waffle, for lunch! It looked amazing with fruits and ice-cream and whipped-cream. But it didn’t taste as good as it looks. After we ate, Mira, Naomi, Andrew and I looked around for a good store for school supplies. After our hunt, we concluded on Office Depot. After we got everything we wanted and payed for it. Joe Thaler lugged our plastic and ripping bags across the mall to the entrance and waited for a cab that would be o.k with stretching the law, 6 people in the car, not 5. 

Click on this link to see a story the Jewish Agency is now running about their visit:

Jewish Agency article about Shir Tikvah visit to Barnea Ethiopian Absorption Center. (link)