More Impact Participants travel to

The 18th Annual Student Chesed Mission to Israel set off to spread help, song and cheer to more than a dozen organizations last January. YOFHS Dean of Students Rabbi Naftali Besser, Mrs. Susan Franco and YOFHS Assistant Administrator Rabbi David Galpert led the trip, and gladly grappled with the idea of accommodating double the number of participants that have accompanied them on previous trips—74 students (mostly 11th graders) and six faculty members.

However, sometimes the tricky logistics led themselves to even more chesed —as was the case on one day of the trip where two hospitals were visited instead of just one. The group split into halves, with each half spending time at either Tel Hashomer’s Sheba Medical Center or Schneider Children’s Medical Center. Throughout the trip, it seemed to Rabbi Besser, “the presence was much more impactful” of the larger group as they interacted MORE IMPACT

More Participants, More Chesed

with special needs and at-risk children, the elderly, the sick, IDF soldiers, and other types of people in need. Some of the places visited included Aleh, Emunah’s Bet Elazraki, Afikim, Yad LaKashish, Har Herzl, Shalva, United Hatzalah and Ilanot.

Aside from the group’s substantial size, this particular Chesed Mission also had another nice surprise built into it. Twenty recent YOF alumni and ten soldiers from the Lone

Soldier Center joined the group for Shabbat meals at the

Inbal Hotel. “It was like a bar mitzvah!” said Rabbi Besser.

Joining chesed forces with alumni was memorable. “It’s so beautiful when our graduates spend a gap year living and learning in Israel. They gain so much —further developing their