Connecticut Jewish Ledger

When Heather Fiedler, a Judaic Studies fifth grade teacher at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford found out that she had been selected as one of 30 North American educators on the ZIV Foundation Mitzvah Heroes Tour for Educators - a program founded by Danny Siegel — she was overjoyed, but admittedly “not exactly prepared for what would occur.”

Fiedler spent the days and weeks before the February trip “collecting money — approximately $1,300 — and things — socks, baby items, dental supplies, underwear and more” to bring to Israel. But getting all of the donated items into the suitcases was quite a task.

“We were allowed two bags of 50 pounds each,” she recalled. “When they weighed my baggage at the airport, I had 98 pounds - including personal items.” The group members, who didn’t know each other prior to the trip, bonded as they shifted items from suitcase to suitcase in an effort to creatively comply with the weight limits.

Fiedler said that this visit to Israel was unlike any previous visit to Israel.

“We visited a number of non-profit organizations in Israel (known as “Amutot” in Hebrew) - all with extraordinarily low overhead,” reports Fiedler. “Each was the epitome of grass roots, and each touched me in a different way.”

Fiedler recounted her visit to SHALVA, a respite care center for families of children with disabilities-started by Kalman and Malky Samuels after their 11-month-old healthy son, Yossi, reportedly became deaf and blind as a result of an inoculation. A number of volunteers serve the children at the center and provide 55,000 hours of respite each year for families.

“The place that touched me most was HAMA - Humans and Animals in Mutual Assistance, started by an American oleh (immigrant) named Avshalom Beni,” Fiedler said. She described the animal assisted therapies she observed “with all types of populations - from people with drug addiction issues, to introverted Holocaust survivors, to children with ADHD.”

Fiedler was similarly impressed by the work of INTRA, the Israel National Therapeutic Riding Association.

“We witnessed a woman with cerebral palsy, hunched over in a wheelchair, sit up straight on the horse, with such pride on her face,” Fiedler said.

’The needs of others'
Dr. Lauren Kempton, the educational director at New Haven’s Beth El-Keser Israel Religious School, also went on the Mitzvah Heroes tour and shared her experiences in Israel in a Shabbat morning d’var Torah she delivered at BEKI upon her return.

“This is my 13th trip to Israel - and I usually travel with 30 teens on Mifgash (Southern New England Consortium’s trip bringing local teens together with Israel teens) or 60 teens for the March of the Living,” she told the congregation. “But this time, I was the learner, and was on the ZIV Tzedakah Program to come back to you as an emissary.”

After thanking the congregation for their part in stuffing her luggage with school supplies, dental supplies, treats for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, pill boxes, stuffed animals, underwear and socks, Kempton shared highlights from the trip with the BEKI audience.

One morning the group heard from a group of women from “Girlfriends and Fiancees of Fallen Soldiers.”

“Phyllis Heimovitz, the founder, felt all of Israel had an obligation to these young women who had lost significant others during their army service,” Kempton explained.

Kempton said she was impressed by the work of Orthodox father and son mitzvah heroes, Shmuel and Aryeh Monk of B’nai Brak, who have found jobs for 300 people with mental illness. They also publish pamphlets to “try to remove the stigma of mental illness.”

Kempton and the other educators on the Mitzvah Hero Tour also met such individuals as Clara Hammer, “the chicken lady,” who feeds 134 families each week, and a man who last spring picked seven tons of tomatoes for the poor (and inspired the group to do a similar mitzvah by picking clementines for two hours. They encountered Zehava Taub of the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem, who feeds nine families a week in her neighborhood, and they heard from founders of “Packages from Home” and the Israeli Free Loan Society.

Kempton was so touched by the work of 80-year-plus Rabbinite Kalpach and her work feeding the poor and providing wedding gowns and wedding bands to brides and grooms, that she gave her own ring to Kalpach.

Concluding her d’var Torah, Kempton thanked her husband Brooks “for understanding both me and my gift to the Rabbinite. Love is not a ring - it is mutual understanding and respect for the needs of others.”