WIZO NYC Mission to Israel

A group of 19 WIZO women traveled to Israel on a humanitarian mission.

WIZO New York organized a humanitarian mission to Israel in December for anyone who wanted to visit. The purpose of the trip was to see WIZO institutions on the ground, in action during the ongoing war, as well as to visit sites and meet people who were directly affected by October 7th.

The group volunteered at a farm, picking fruit to assist the farmers who have lost their employees due to the war and are facing serious challenges. They visited the Nova festival exhibit in Tel Aviv that recreates the festival scene with authentic remnants of the event and a tribute to those murdered and kidnapped.

They traveled to Kibbutz Beeri and Kfar Aza, two towns that were hardest hit in the terrorist onslaught on October 7th. They saw, firsthand, the burned houses, and charred remains of neighborhoods and personal items.

They also visited survivors who have been relocated to Kibbutz Shfayim and have lost loved ones. On a visit to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, the group met wounded soldiers and handed them small tokens of appreciation and love.

In one of the most moving moments of the visit, the women of New York met with women from Kfar Aza and after they shared their harrowing stories of terror and loss, the visitors wanted to leave them a token of love. One of the trip participants, Rachel Shnay, is a jewelry designer, and she gifted the two women a gorgeous necklace of the map of Israel.

It was a poignant reminder that Jews around the world have a special connection to Israel and the people who live here, and even though they are not Israeli, their support from abroad has an influence on what happens here. It was a moment of unity between Jewish women from different parts of the world.