Dear Families,
Shalom from Israel! After two years of being restrained by Covid our delegations are back! Our delegations are literally life changing for our soldiers and connect our host families and communities to Israel and Am Yisrael in a way that is almost impossible outside of Israel. Our most recent delegation was two weeks ago in Miami and in the next two months New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Toronto are all on deck.
Here are a few highlights from Miami:
Learning from Holocaust Survivors David Schaecter and Allan Hall at the Miami Holocaust Memorial
Meeting with Veterans from Boulder Crest Warrior Program and The Miami Beach Police Department to discuss ways to overcome trauma and PTSD.
At the Miami Botanical Garden, we had a Mindfulness workshop with Claude AnShin Thomas, an injured Vietnam veteran who is now a monk and has spent almost 40 years showing how meditation heals the wounds of war.
The highlight for our soldiers of course was the bonding time with our incredible host families.
Unless you have experienced it first hand, it’s hard to comprehend how transformative the connection between the soldiers and families becomes over the course of just one week. Often, as bonds form between the family and the soldier, there is a bond created that is so pure. Host families let their soldiers know that their home is a safe place to just be themselves and to talk openly, even about pain and difficulties. This is what loving families do.
Our next delegations are simultaneously in New York and Boston (May 15-23). Two of our BFL core leaders in Boston are Sean and Sonya Wilder. Sean recently told us, “Working with BFL on the Boston delegation for the past six years has been incredibly rewarding. Seeing firsthand the positive therapeutic effect that the program has on the soldiers makes it all worthwhile. Each year we are humbled by being able to play our small part in helping these amazing heroes re-build their lives. Each of them has made an unimaginable sacrifice of both mind and body to ensure the continuity of the State of Israel and secure the homeland of the Jewish people. My family is very proud to be able to contribute to this incredible program.”
Family love for the soldiers extends all the way down to the children, and the love goes both ways. Here’s how Marc Sarosi, who together with Lily lead BFL in San Francisco, described it: “BFL has been a tremendous learning and joy-filled opportunity for our family, especially for our three boys. It’s really hard to impart children with a sense of a strong bond with Israel living in the Bay area and having had six delegations in our home in the formative lives of our children has been a wonderful, fulfilling experience for them and us. We now have strong bonds with our soldiers and in fact, one of our sons stayed with one in Israel when he was visiting. We look forward to the next delegation and missed them these past years.“ The love that host families offer has tremendous healing power.
We wanted to share with you our current confirmed 2022 Soldier Delegation schedule:
- Boston – May 15-23, 2022
- New York (Long Island)– May 15-23, 2022
- Los Angeles – June 7-14, 2022
- Toronto – July 10-18
- Seattle – September 8-15
Thank you so much for your support through these difficult years, and we all look forward to seeing you again in person soon! If you would like to learn more about our soldier healing delegations, please let us know.
Shabbat Shalom from Israel,
Yaniv