Bernice Malka, Living Bridge Coordinator

Who would have thought that the week before Pessach would  be so busy with fabulous guests from St. Louis?

The Goldberg family joined the children in Bait Cham in arts and crafts activity drawing on T-shirts. After five minutes Jennifer(12) and Lauren(11) were communicating with the other kids in English and a little bit of Hebrew, you could never guess that they just met . While Lori visited the elderly day center in Megiddo we all went  grocery shopping for our picnic in the forest. It was a joy spending time with Nancy, the grandmother and hear her impressions about how Israel has changed and developed through out the years. Their next stop was a wonderful mitzvah project – gleaning crops from Leket fields which later on are distributed to needy families.

Picnic time with the Goldberg family

Next came the  Alper family. Their children Max (16) and Zoe (12) were met by Ayala and Nir, teenagers their age from Yokneam who were happy to share stories about growing up in Yokneam and their plans for the future. The Alper’s Tikun Olam project  was with Kol Halev – preparing food packages at the food pantry. We then climbed up to Tel Yokneam to learn some history hands on and view the valleys and scenery around. Uri Ophir, a music producer from Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek joined us for lunch. He shared his experiences with Nancy and Keith about studying music in the US and life on the kibbutz. Before leaving he gave the family a cd with music that he produced for the Israeli nature movie” Bereshit”.

Alper family at the food pantry in Yokneam

A group of Wash U business students, headed by Steve Malter concluded the trio visit.  Given their academic interest,  they spent time in Given Imaging learning about the extraordinary development of the swallowing camera pill. Two young Yokneam men joined the group to meet up with Pini Nachmani for a short but meaningful meeting. Pini shared his life changing  experience as a pilot who’s  plane was hit over Damascus in 1970. Pini spent more than three years in captivity. His passion for life helped him survive captivity and his daily blessing that each day is the best day of his life came as a surprise  to some of the students. Before leaving,  the students visited Pini’s art gallery. Pini  grows bees for honey and carves in wood. He runs his business in a special way which he shared with the students.

WU Students meet with Pini Nachmani

We try to show each group/family different things in the region and set up meetings with some of the special people that live here and make it so special. Looking forward for many more visits.