Also in the Headlines – So Much Love…

By: Sivan Rahav-Meir

Look at this photo: In the center of the picture is Silvia, an elderly woman from Bat Yam, whose home was damaged by an Iranian missile. Around her – dozens of Jewish women from the United States, who came to Israel for the first time, with the “Taglit” project, on a volunteer mission.

They came to the city of Bat Yam this week with cleaning equipment and lots of motivation, to help the municipality with the rehabilitation mission. For an entire day, dozens of Americans found themselves bringing her apartment back to life. This was conducted in a mix of Hebrew and English, with lots of hand gestures, laughter and hugs. For long hours they scrubbed, trying to understand instructions on Israeli cleaning products, and then came the moment when Silvia shouted: “The floor, the floor, I can see my floor again, it’s clean!”

Their reaction was: “What is ‘ritzpah’ (floor)?” And so they learned a new word in Hebrew.

Together with Silvia they watered the dried plants again, and at the end they took photos and promised to stay in touch. It’s really not clear whio benefited more. When I met them at night, Silvia’s daughter from Bat Yam had just sent them a message: “You brought back the smile that disappeared to mom, she was never this happy, a million thanks wouldn’t be enough, I’m in tears!”

Every day of the week they volunteered in a different place. “This isn’t a retreat, we came to sweat,” one of them explained to me. They came to Rimon Farm in the south, where they treat post-trauma with the help of agriculture and sheep herding, and also worked in the new vineyard named after Eliahu Kay who was murdered in a terror attack. “Those who sow in tears,” it says in the Book of Psalms, and perhaps this also refers to tears of the kind that were there, during the work of the land.

Netivot, Sderot, Tiberias – in every such place they strengthened local businesses and sometimes moved people just by their very presence. These missions continue to arrive in Israel, and this is not taken for granted. After October 7th there were traffic jams here from so many donors. But now it’s even more meaningful.

What else did they do? Packing food with the “Latet” organization, visiting patients at Shaare Zedek, visited and strengthened wounded at Sheba’s rehabilitation department, visiting a nursing home and more.

Throughout the entire week the organizers tried to reach the media, and didn’t succeed, so I’m writing about them.

More such missions are expected to arrive during the rest of the summer. Sometimes, within our daily routine, the encounter of Israelis with them reminds us ourselves of our great and shared story.