Category: israel ops

  • Tenufa and community work: giving new meaning to ‘Shop Till You Drop’

    In this summer of ‘mom camp’, where volunteering became a theme last week, I want to share another kid-friendly volunteer opportunity, this time in the Jerusalem area. Where else but on Facebook did I learn about a brand new initiative from Tenufa: Shop Till You Drop. I highly recommend and want to add that the…

  • A very veggie Israel Volunteer Opportunity: Leket Israel

    If you haven’t met already, I want to introduce you to Leket Israel. Founded in 2003, it’s an organization I’d heard a lot about but didn’t really experience until I went to volunteer with the kids earlier this week. Here’s the backstory: Israel witnesses 35% food loss each year – that’s 2.5 million tons of…

  • Fun, free day in Israel with kids: Visit the ‘Hebrew park’ in Rishon Letzion

    Around six months ago, Rishon Letzion opened two new ‘themed’ parks: ‘Gan B’Ivrit’ and ‘Gan Musica’ – big open spaces with a different sort of take on play equipment for kids. On Friday I got to settle my curiousity and we visited the Hebrew park. Aside from a few really gorgeous park equipment setups, grassy…

  • Kid-friendly volunteer opp in Jerusalem: Pantry Packers

    With a friend’s awesome initiative, a rag-tag group of Tzur Hadassah Anglos got together and made rice, not war. Yesterday a bunch of us young families got organized and volunteered as a group with Pantry Packers in Jerusalem (a food distribution project run by Colel Chabad). The highlight was to give our children a kid-friendly volunteer experience…

  • Help an orphan, help the world: Donate to orphanages in Israel

    You know, we don’t think about this much. I think for too many people, orphans and orphanages are plot material for Broadway shows, TV or 19th century literature. How often do we actually give deeper thought to what it means to be an orphaned child? Who cooks their hot meals? Who supplies them with clothes,…

  • Do it for the Anglo teens: Sponsor my 10k run for Team Crossroads

    Hello, it’s that time of year again where I get off my ass, get motivated by some grace of god, and run a 10k and then feel awesome about myself (then stop and procrastinate another 3-6 months). This time, I’ll run as part of the Jerusalem Marathon, and I’m going to do it as a…

  • FYI: Ways to help and donate to citizens of south Israel and IDF soldiers

    Groups are starting to collect goods and supplies for both people stuck in bomb shelters in the south, and reserve soldiers stuck at the border of Gaza, waiting for the next move. You can see the original Facebook event post here, and below. Personally, I’m trying to collect in Tzur Hadassah (if you’re local and…

  • Updated volunteer info for helping African refugees in Israel.

    I don’t live in Southern Tel Aviv. I  haven’t witnessed or heard personal stories about recent local violence associated with Sudanese and other African refugees/migrants who have made their way to Israel. So in that sense, it’s not a personal thing for me. What becomes quite personal though, are the facts and stories behind how…

  • Giving lone soldiers their post-army profession.

    Lone soldiers. I have no idea if that is just an Israeli concept, but what it means to us is the demographic of soldiers in the IDF who are immigrants and have no immediate family located in Israel to support them throughout their army service. They have no default place to go for weekends off…

  • Giving blood for Yom Hazicaron + woman who needs platelets.

    I figured I’d share this email I just sent to friends in the Jerusalem area, since the more people who can, the better: Hey guys – I meant to write this email to like two people and then I figured, why not let everyone know… I was thinking of donating blood in honor of Yom…

  • A Passover theme to helping Sudanese refugees in Israel.

    Pessach is a week and a half a way. Obviously I’ve been leaving everything until next week, but if you’re not, good for you. And if you’re trying to figure out what to do with all your leftover chametz – breads, pastas, crackers, snacks etc. – there’s a new idea beside selling it: The Jerusalem…

  • Tonight's online rally for Israel and Sederot.

    The buzz this week – around the Israel blogosphere, Facebook and my inbox – has been about a campaign called Together 4 Israel, which “is putting together the largest ever online rally in support of those living under fire in Israel. All you need to do is return to this site on Thursday, March 20,…