Leaving for another adventurous Summer

It's that time again. Time for the annual Mitzvah and wine pilgrimage to Israel, and I leave this afternoon. There have been some transitions with some Mitzvah Heroes, since last summer, and it will be important to catch up, meet some people who will be continuing with existing projects and see what else is going on.

This year Clara Hammer z"l, the Chicken Lady of Jerusalem died, at the age of 99, after a lifetime of mitzvot and feeding people. She was a delightful, inspiring person, and thankfully Ziv captured her on video about 8 years ago and her sparkle and legacy have been preserved.

Caryn Green has retired from Crossroads after 10 years, and I am looking forward to meeting her successor, Robbie Sasson. I just learned than Odelia Ben Porat is no longer with Afikim BaNegev in Sderot, and I'm eager to hear what is going on there - I have a trip to Sderot planned for week 2, on July 28.

We have some limited funds to distribute and allocate - it's been a rough spring, fundraising-wise, but we will do what we can where we can.

I am looking forward to a Friday arrival, getting to see Yossi and Dina for shabbat, hopefully visit Avi Yehuda and seeing Shlomi Tzdadok on the way to Har Adar, and getting to Jerusalem after shabbat. My next post will likely be on Sunday July 18.