Day 17 - Lehava - Adam
The day started as we went down into the bomb-shelter on the bottom level of our hotel, where Rabbi Benji gave the group an inspirational speech about connectivity and the need in finding meaning. Through his unique rat-analogies he showed us that there is an ocean of opportunity for us, and it is up to us to grow and develop as Jewish people. He suggested that the best way to make progress is to start small, whether that is success as a Jew, or whether it is success as a human being. He says “do the little things, little things lead to big changes”. Rabbi Benji shared another quote with us which was extremely inspiring, “the best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in something greater than yourself”. I believe Rabbi Benji really did a great job showing us how meaning and connectivity are extremely important in our lives. I am sure the whole group left the talk feeling extremely uplifted and inspired.
We were then lucky enough to be addressed by Arnold Roth, the founder of the Malki Foundation. Unfortunately, Arnold started the foundation on the back of a tragic event where he lost his daughter Malki to terrorism. His foundation attempts to help assist with the loss of a child even though nothing can prepare a person for something that traumatic. The organisation also assists families with a mentally disabled child and funds their learning. Currently the Malki Foundation has supported a staggering 50,000 families and have helped them through their struggle after losing a child and has families who have children with mental health illnesses. Along with the spectacular organisation, we learned many life lessons about justice and revenge and the best way to overcome feelings of negativity. He says the best way to work through the challenges of life is to do good. We all felt inspired by his talk and his family story and wished him the best for the future of his foundation.
Lehava was later privileged to hear from Eyal Hagbi, a retired general who served for 25 years in the Israeli army, Eyal spoke about the Gaza conflict and the effects that the conflict has on both the neighbouring towns and the impacts on the Israeli economy. He spoke about the support that Israel provides to the Gaza Strip and the wars that took place in and around the Gaza Strip. Eyal lost a leg as a young soldier fighting on the border and has completely recovered since. He was inspiring and helped us understand the conflict.
We then continued our journey to Sderot. Sderot was an interesting experience to say the least. Lehava walked in and were immediately swarmed by the quirky and outgoing Sderot scouts - Tzofim. We played a few games with them and had individual discussions in a speed dating fashion. We could tell they were all extremely fun people even though there was a slight language barrier between our group and their scouts. The scouts gave us tasks to complete which was a lot of fun. Once the activities had been completed our group had another brief chat with the scouts before departing. This experience was a lot of fun and we are all glad that we visited them and learned a little about the way they live.
Overall, the day was inspiring and uplifting for all of us. We hope our learning and understanding grows over the next few days of Israel advocacy.
Adam Kloner - 4.12.2019
