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Message from Tova Ben Dov on Mission 2010
Dear Judit (Mercedes, Jana, Anita and Beverley),
Your wonderful report of the WIZO mission has left me gasping for breath. Through your enviable talent for words I felt that I was with you throughout your journey, touching all the places you touched, and feeling the feelings that you felt.
Israel is really a miracle, but not everyone gets to feel the passion and the pride that you described in your report. I felt uplifted by your words, and motivated by the love that you, and the whole mission, hold for Israel and WIZO.
We, who live in Israel, tend to take the miracles that surround us each day, for granted. And it sometimes takes a document, like the one that you wrote, to remind us that we are an 'exceptional people living in exceptional times'.
We are privileged to be part of WIZO and to have the opportunity to contribute to this miracle that is Israel. Through our work with children and women we are ensuring the next generation. Our work in education is contributing towards making Israel into the hi-tech and modern wonder that it is.
However, whatever we have achieved in this country has been made possible through our wonderful Jewish people throughout the world. Not only their generosity towards building up this vibrant society, but also their belief and pride in everything that we achieve here. It is through working together and everyone giving 100% of what they are able to give, whether it is through funding, propaganda, aliyah and volunteer work, that we are continuing the miracle of Israel.
You, our vibrant and committed WIZO members in Florida, who came on this WIZO mission, are a major source of support, both financially and, even more important, spiritually and with adoration.
May God be with us all in whatever we set out to accomplish for the benefit of the land and people of Israel.
Affectionately yours,
Tova Ben Dov,
Chairperson,
World WIZO Executive
WIZO MISSION 2010
Please read out compilation of daily emails relating tthe unforgettable WIZO USA Mission 2010.
Please check our Photo Gallery for Mission photos, updated regularly.
Hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did living every one of these amazing days:
A Shavuot Message from Tova Ben Dov, World WIZO Executive
My dear friends,
Shavuot: The Green Festival
Synagogues are decked with greenery; children in the WIZO Day are Centers wear white, with colored flowers in their hair, carrying baskets of fruits, through the streets. It is Shavuot in Israel, and around the Jewish world, a festival in which we celebrate nature.
Shavuot completes the period known as the 'Counting of the Omer' which marks the transition from the very first grain crop, barley, at Pesach, to the beginning of the summer grain harvest, wheat, at Shavuot. Shavuot is also known as Hag Habikurrim, when the first fruits were brought to the Temple in Jerusalem - one of the three pilgrimages during the Jewish year, together with Pesach and Succot. On Shavuot we received the 10 commandments, at Mount Sinai. It was there that we became a people, with social and moral commandments and commitments, which conduct us, and the rest of humanity, up until today.
The Book of Ruth, which is read on Shavout emphasizes the link between agriculture and charity referring to the practice of allowing the poor to glean from the fields – surely this is one of the oldest documented social welfare systems!
Ruth was a Moabite, who wanted to follow her mother in law, Naomi, following the death of her husband.
"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God'. Book of Ruth
Ruth identified with the Jewish people, and the great King David was her descendent. From the story of Ruth we learn that we have to welcome those who choose to identify with our people and lovingly adopt them into our midst.
We also read in that tiny book, which is full of life's lessons, that in order to try and alleviate the poverty and distress of Naomi and herself, Ruth took action.
'Let me go out into the field, and glean amongst the ears of grain'
The Book of Ruth 2:2
We too, in WIZO, believe in moving things forward ourselves. We do not sit by and wait for miracles or for others to do our work. As government offices cut back their subsidies, we found other means and partnerships in order to make up what was missing. When the global economy all but collapsed, having a domino effect upon WIZO, we went into high gear, both in Israel and in the federations, to ensure that those who rely upon our input are not left high and dry. And may the values that radiated from Ruth, radiate through our WIZO work.
Chag Shavuot Sameach.
Affectionately yours,
Tova Ben Dov,
Chairperson World WIZO Executive
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