- Israel

Jewish, Druze and Bedouin AMEN Volunteers help Revitalize the People and Places in Northern Israel

In the aftermath of the recent crisis in Israel, JDC deployed 350 volunteer squadrons of youth and adult volunteers to Haifa, Kiryat Shmona, Acco and other cities and villages. Both Jewish and Arab-Israelis volunteered to help communities in the North rebuild. These volunteers were part of JDC's AMEN program which aims to cultivate a culture of volunteerism among a diverse group, Jewish, Druze and Bedouin, of Israeli youth and young adults.

AMEN's operations were extremely well coordinated. Volunteers transformed a bomb shelter in Or Akiva into an equipment center which was run by eight Druze AMEN youth volunteers from Dalyat El Carmel. For the Druze volunteers this was an incredible experience – every day they met hundreds of youth volunteers from cities across the country and shared with them the desire to help fellow Israelis in the beleaguered North. They also felt kinship with their Jewish counterparts in the volunteer squadrons. One Druze volunteer said, "We come here every day. We don't miss a day. This is our responsibility but also the greatest fun".

The presence of the "Northern Lights' squadrons bolstered the morale of many Northern Israelis. The volunteers provided a myriad of services, including physical revitalization (painting and fixing up shelters), counseling children in summer camps, entertaining elderly and hospitalized children, and other interventions.

JDC's Shlomit Amichai, the Director of the ELKA Division overseeing AMEN programs spent a day visiting the Northern Lights projects and was touched by the interactions she witnessed. The director of an after-school program for children-at-risk hosted a group of AMEN volunteers from Kfar Saba who repainted a building that served as a temporary bomb shelter for 150 new people, mostly new immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia, who spent weeks living in the shelter. The space was in disrepair and the volunteers cleaned it up. The director told Shlomit: "Suddenly a group of young angels appeared" she said, who spent 2 days cleaning and painting the shelter and brought with them an activity kit filled with new games. "Now I can open the moadonit on time, exclaimed its director.

Ultimately, solidarity was established among the diverse group of volunteers and at the end of each day they all convened in a forest near Dalyat El Carmel sharing pita, hummous, tea, stories and camaraderie while reflecting on their experiences helping fellow Israelis, Arab and Jewish, revitalize the war-stricken North.

September 2006