MONTREAL VOLUNTEERS: WE SHALL RETURN!

by Gil Troy

Partnership 2000 - Beer Sheva-Bnei Shimon - Montreal-Sweden, February 2003

Lia right and her Pen Pal Karine left

This December and January, when my wife Linda, our 4 children and I spent three weeks in Israel, the Gesher Chai program attracted us to Beer Sheba. Our seven-year-old daughter Lia, a second grader at Akiva School, wanted to visit the second graders at the elementary school Ma'anit, who have been twinned with her class. Lia was especially excited about meeting her Israeli pen pal Karine.

Our day in Beersheba, which just happened to be Christmas Day, which is a normal day in Israel, began with a lovely breakfast at the Greenberg Education Center across from Ben-Gurion University. There we met our gracious guide for the day, Sara Yechezkel, thanks to the magical assistance of the always helpful Elizabeth Homans, our community's living link to Beersheba. Our two older kids, Lia, and her five-year-old brother Yoni, got a kick out of the fact that this "cool" internet cafe and impressive building had been built with help from a family from Montreal. We took a picture of Lia in front of the sign emphasizing that linkage.

A short ride later, we arrived at Ma'anit, for what would become one of the highlights of our amazing Israel trip. Amid sobering economic conditions and a rich but complex web of diverse cultural groups including Russians and Bedouins, this elementary school serves as an educational, spiritual, and moral oasis for its nearly 400 pupils. The school principal, Sima Eshel, is an educator who understands that if children are hungry, they cannot learn; if children litter the frontyard without cleaning up, they have not learned, and if their minds are not stretched with art days and other special days, despite budget crunches and limited timetables, they will not learn enough. Walking around with her, seeing how in tune she was to the students and the rhythms of the school, one could sense that this was a first-rate educator, blessed with a broad vision, the right values, and the charisma, passion, will, and smarts to succeed.

From Left to Right: Yoni, Aviv, Lia and Dina Troy

The reception in the class was warm and enthusiastic. Our kids were excited, their kids were excited. Karine the pen pal's mother was there too, adding to the electricity. The Maanit children introduced themselves by saying their names and their favorite activities - watching television, reading, playing with their siblings, doing art. The second graders sang a song by Haim Nachman Bialik, Parpar, Parpar, Butterfly, Butterfly, which their teacher knew Lia had learned back at Akiva school, thanks to the regular communication back and forth between the two schools. We responded with our own Hebrew song, replete with hand motions. By the time all the singing had finished, whatever awkwardness there was had disappeared and there was a happy buzz as each student decorated a paper butterfly with blessings for their pen pal back in Montreal. A bit of snack, a recess period, where kids from all different grades played with all our children, including our 2-year-old Aviv and our baby Dina, and we were on our way.

Before we left, the teachers and Sima invited Lia to return any time for a full school day. A week later, as we contemplated what to do for our final few days in Israel, Lia asked to return to Ma'anit's Kitah Bet. So, three days before we left Israel, there we were, at 8 AM, dropping off Lia, with a packed lunch and her trusty pencil case, for her Israeli school day. Lia's return allowed us to wander around Beer Sheba a bit, buying some extraordinary Ethiopian Jewish handicrafts at the Taubel Community Center (a must visit and must buy kind of place) and taking the younger kids to the Israeli Air Force museum on the outskirts of town.

Needless to say, Lia had another great time and we all returned to Montreal committed to building this relationship with Maanit and Beersheba, so very impressed with Maanit and all the staff is doing there to nurture good values and so very proud of Montreal's role in helping to build Beersheba and enabling our new friends to maintain a quality of life amid difficult economic and political circumstances. We saw that the Gesher Chai is truly a two-way street. We appreciated having this little entree into Israeli society. We enjoyed the special sense of connectedness we had to the city, the school, and the people there. And we were particularly grateful, during these challenging times, to be dealing with Israel and Israelis on a people to people basis, transcending the politics, and learning from our new friends, people who are so much like us, in such a different environment, epitomizing that special mix of the exotic and the familiar, the distant and the intimate, at the heart of our relationship with Israel and Israelis. One thing is for sure, (with apologies to General Douglas MacArthur): "We Shall Return!"
Adar Aleph 5763 - February 2003