From our Shinshinit: Dvar Israel February 26, 2022

Dear Community, I hope you all had a great week.

We were all saddened to hear about the incidents in Ukraine in the last few days, and no words could describe how sad it is to see pictures of people running away from their homes and lives to escape to other countries.

It’s extremely sad to know that even in 2022, we get to witness such incidents and hate.

I spent the last week with my host family at Tremblant, and while sitting there and reading those articles and news, I suddenly got a text from Noa, our komunah’s mentor, who guides us throughout our gap year in Toronto.

The text was saying that a group of young Jewish Ukrainians, got stuck in Israel due to the closing of the airports in Ukraine, that group is a “Taglit” group, which you all probably know as “Birthright.”

The text was also saying that they are looking for host families for those young adults until they will be able to come back to their homeland. Since we, the shinshinim, are all here and left our rooms empty, back in Israel, it is a great opportunity to ask our families if they can maybe open their door and their hearts to them.

Immediately I sent that text to my mom, who replied with a: yes, of course!

My heart was filled with joy because I knew that not only I managed to help miles away, but also my empty and dark room back in Israel is finally going to light up again, and also because it’s been so long since my parents have been cleaning after a teenager so I figured they would be happy to do that 😉

I’m always amazed by how jews are always willing to help each other, not only at regular times but also and more, in times of crisis.

Whether it’s hosting a shinshin in order to engage your community with Israel, or hosting a young Jewish adult who needs a home right now, but more than that needs support and love, to get through this awful and hard experience.

I sincerely hope that we will no longer be reading those articles in the news and that the Taglit group and all the other Ukrainians will be back in their homes very soon.

Thank you for listening, Aviv