Visual highlights from participants in the February 2009 solidarity mission to southern Israel for UJC National Young Leadership Cabinet members and alumni and members of NYL's Ben-Gurion Society.
Solidarity mission participants pose in front of a playground in Nitzanim, a town near Gaza. The playground was moved from Neve Dekalilm in the Gush Katif settlement bloc during Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza. Credit: Steven Scheck |
Yona Benstock, Steven Scheck, Marissa Schlaifer and Jackie Glassman learn about JDC's "It's a Deal" youth entrepreneur program in Sderot. Credit: Lesley Stevens |
The date on this kassam missile shows that it hit Sderot two days before the mission. Credit: Lesley Stevens |
Steven Scheck stands next to Israeli soldiers, recently back from Israel's Gaza incursion. The soldiers were emotional as they received drawings that Steven's children had made for them. Credit: Steven Scheck |
Lesley Stevens hugs IDF soldiers, all of whom had served in Gaza. Among the troops is a Lone Soldier from New Zealand (at Lesley's right). Credit: Lesley Stevens |
Mission chairs Mickey Haas and Marissa Schlaifer with, at left, Mark Regev, an Israeli spokesman for the Prime Minister. Credit: Steven Scheck |
Yossi gives a tour of his home, damaged three weeks earlier by a grad missile fired from Gaza. Money from JAFI's SOS Fund for victims of terror is helping him rebuild. Credit: Steven Scheck |
New Israeli olim from Latin America (the two guys without tags around their necks) greet Lesley Stevens, Marissa Schlaifer, Steven Scheck and Marty Paz at the Kalanit Absorption Center in Ashkelon. Credit: Michele Levin |
Mission participants plant trees in preparation for Tu B'Shvat at the Yachini Ayalim Youth Village. Credit: Pamela Ingram |
Jackie Glassman paints a section of a mural at an Ashkelon youth center. Credit: Pamela Ingram |
Mission participants laugh so hard they nearly cry as they join Ethiopian Israelis for a bit of Ethiopian hiphop dancing at an Ashkelon youth center. Credit: Pamela Ingram |
Credit: Steven Scheck |