A Letter to My Friends....

I have rewritten this letter multiple times, I can’t seem to find the right mix of what I want to say, without it sounding so overly sappy, but I can’t delay any longer sending it, every day we wait is another day we aren’t helping, so please bear with me through the mush.

A little over a month ago I stood in Sderot and Ashkelon, shoulder to shoulder, with 14 other young Jewish American leaders. We witnessed the best and the worst the world has to offer coexisting in ways that are hard to believe until you see them for yourself. And even after you see them it still is hard to comprehend. For me this was a life altering trip that I have had a very hard time leaving behind. Since returning to the states there is hardly a day that goes by where I don’t think of the people we met and what they endure daily. I have struggled to make sense of it all. I have searched for ways to renew my commitment to them, to not have let my visit be just a moment in time without true meaning.

Needless to say when I heard on March 2nd that a Quassam had hit the Amit School in Ashkelon my heart sank. I needed to help. I needed for my trip to have been more than a great trip without a true purpose. I immediately wrote to Liat from the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), who I met on our trip, asking for details and information on how I could help. Her response brought more tears, but also a sense of relief that I COULD help. It was the first time since we returned that I didn’t feel helpless. There was finally a call to action…a way to convert feeling to service.

Here is her message….

“Sent: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 5:03 amSubject: RE: Ashkelon

Hi Pamela,
The most up to date information that I have gathered is the following:

The damage we are discussing happened in the Amit High School (grades 9th-12th). This school serves a special population of kids that are not able to learn in the "regular" high school in their area. There are 197 students in this school. Since the Hannukah break the school hasn't functioned regularly. At first because of the Operation Cast Lead and then again, due to the recent rocket which fell on the school. The school feels pressured as many of these students need to prepare for the matriculation exams which usually take place in the summer months. This particular group of students usually receives extra preparation hours; however, at this point in time, this seems almost impossible.

One of their main components in the Matriculation exams is the exam in Technology. Success in this exam requires the intensive use and preparation with computers. As other areas in the building have been damaged, the computer lab was destroyed with the landing of the recent kassam missile. The lab consisted of 26 computer stations, including all the additional equipment such as keyboards, printers, software, projectors, screens etc. Of course we also had damage to furniture such as tables and chairs.

This subject is a huge concern of the school administration and is eager to rehabilitate and return the students to their usual framework. The approximate costing for everything that is mentioned above stands at $35,000.

If you need additional information, please write and I will gather it for you as well.

Any assistance you and your friends can provide, will be appreciated so much by so many!

Hag Purim Sameach, Liat”

As I read it, I knew, I needed to help!!! This is where a difference can be made. This is where I turn to all of you, my friends, some who have been to Israel, some who haven’t. Some who understand why this tugs at my heart and some who are trying to. But regardless of whether you have been to Israel or not, you are the people with the biggest hearts I know.

I am sharing this story KNOWING this is a challenging year financially for everyone. We have lost investments, our homes have dropped in value, we have to do more with less. But on our worst days we have so much more than those of Southern Israel. And that is why we need to help. Will any of you join me in helping rebuild the school? Will you help me in turning the words we spoke on our trip in February into actions?

Every small amount given matters, please consider giving no matter how little you feel your donation is. While our goal is the money, our giving is as much about showing support as it is the financial. And every dollar is a reminder that these students have not been forgotten.

All donations to this cause will go through United Jewish Communities (not through me personally) and directed to JAFI and will be tax deductible. 100% of what is raised will go directly to this project and will help rebuild the school.

Donations should be sent directly to UJC using the information below, but I would love to know where we are on this projects, so if you would like to also send me a note at pamingram@aol.com I would appreciate it.

Please send donations via:

Itzik Shavit, Senior VP
United Jewish Communities
P.O. Box 30
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113

on the memo line please mark your check “UJC/Amit school Ashkelon” so that it is directed correctly.

I will most likely be back in Israel in mid-June and am hoping to visit the school in person. Please help me stand there and tell them we were there for them, that we heard their cries and responded.

Hopeful to make a difference,

Pamela M. Ingram, UJC National Young Leadership Cabinet Alumni

PS…Please feel free to share this letter with anyone else you feel would be interested.

For more information on the school and the rocket damage: http://www.amitchildren.org/bnews1.asp

If not now....when?

When I got back from Israel I couldn’t wait to talk about my trip. Most of my friends wanted to hear about the places and the people we met. Some were even brave enough to look at all the pictures I took, all 241 of them! But the questions were pretty routine – who, what, where, why, when and how.

They were standard vacation questions, until I talked to Rhea. Rhea is a valued friend and a Jewish professional who I genuinely love and respect. Rhea is cards up on the table, cut to the chase, and we have amazing conversations about life and the Jewish world. In true Rhea style her first question wasn’t about what I saw or what I felt, Rhea went right for the jugular, and asked me the one question I couldn’t answer. Why now? Why this mission? Why this moment in my life? She took me to the place I needed to go, before I knew I needed to go there.

Rhea and I have talked about many mission trips over the years, often I have looked at the itineraries, pondered going on another one, but for some reason they never quite fit. It might have been work, it might have been the cost, it might have been other commitments. So why when this email came why did I drop everything and go? I stumbled to give her an answer…it worked out schedule wise, my colleagues were will to cover my clients, it was a short mission, I had the funds. They were lame answers and I think Rhea knew that. She knew before she asked the question there was more to this, that was why as a friend she was asking.

I have spent almost a month now searching for that answer and think I am finally beginning to understand what was different. And in finding that answer am realizing not only why I went, but why I can't let go of my time there like I have on past trips. Why a month later I am still talking about it, looking for ways to continue sharing the experience, looking for ways to make a difference both locally and in Israel. I am starting to understand why a plane overhead still makes me shake, why I wonder more about Yossi than I do people I have known for years, why every time I hear that another rocket has hit Sderot my heart breaks again, why when I read last Sunday of a school in Ashkelon damaged by a grad missile I was ready to check flight schedules and head to help.

I now have your answer Rhea…the difference was that this mission, both in its design and in my goals, was not about being IN Israel, but being WITH Israel! It wasn’t about going and seeing Sderot…it was about embracing the citizens of Sderot. It wasn’t about admiring the refurbished playground at Nitzan…it was about understanding the meaning of the playground in the lives of the children there. It wasn’t about the trees we planted at Moshav Yachini…it was about us now being part of the same land that the founders of Israel cultivated 60 years ago.

In the end this trip wasn’t about me seeing Southern Israel and the situation there…it was about Southern Israel becoming part of me, part of my heart, part of consciousness. It was about me learning what true sacrifice means, what truly standing up for something you believe in is all about and about standing your ground against all odds when you know what you are doing matters.

It ends up being a much simpler answer than any I was struggling for….I can’t let go of what I was part of in for 2 days in Israel, because it is now part of me.