Our LGBT and Ally Taglit-Birthright Israel trip has been nothing less than inspiring. Thursday May 30th was a very big LGBT day for us. We visited Bet Dror in Neve Tzedek. This amazing place serves as a shelter for LGBT youth. At-risk or homeless youth can come for six months with the goal of finding a safe place to live after six months in this safe space. This center services a very high rate of transgender youth. Each and everyone of our participants were deeply touched and impressed by the work of Bet Dror.
Ein Ovdat Hiking
After leaving Bet Dror we walked toward the heart of Tel Aviv and just off Rothschild Boulevard we entered a place called Bar Noar. Bar Noar is a youth center serving LGBT with a space for social and educational programming. We met some of their staff and then toured the facility. They even gave us all t-shirts as a souvenir for the visit.
If that wasn’t enough we toured Tel Aviv’s Gay and Lesbian Center where we met representatives of Hoshen Israel‘s LGBT education and awareness organization. This organization has only two staff but hundreds of volunteers. Somehow they are able to visit almost two-thirds of Israel’s public high schools and other public agencies to raise awareness for LGBT community needs. We also met with the leadership of IGY, Israel’s Gay Youth Association and the Agudah, Israel’s version of HRC. Both providing amazing support and infrastructure to Israel’s LGBT community.
I can’t express enough how great the work of all these organizations are doing in advancing LGBT rights in Israel as well as providing life-saving services. Our participants were blown away by the organizations serving Israel’s LGBT community. It was an intense morning and afternoon but we made sure to explore the night life of Tel Aviv that evening. The joy and ear-to-ear smiles of the faces returning from the night out made me feel that years of community building work back in LA were more than successful, but also deep in meaning.
Yoga on Shabbat
Our community has truly bonded and they honor one another through sharing, listening and learning together. They openly engage in opportunities to strengthen identity both personal and group wide. Yesterday we welcomed Shabbat into our group in Kibbutz Mashabe Sde in the northern Negev desert and today we collectively celebrated the Bar and Bat Mitzvah of six of our community members. Together they learned and shared the parasha Shelach L’cha during Saturday services. I cannot imagine a more perfect parasha. In the parasha of Shelach L’cha, Jews or Jewish spies rather are sent to Israel on a mission to study the land and learn about what is going on there. Who lives there? What are they like? What is the landscape like? Their mission is relating to leaving the oppression of Egypt behind and moving toward liberation. After their mission is fulfilled these spies return to Egypt with knowledge of the land, its people and they even bring food back with them. Like the Jews of Shelach L’cha our group is made up of Jews from afar. Most of our participants are here on a mission to learn about Israel, it’s people and places. After the last couple days watching them meet the people of Israel, its community organizations and shop in the markets they too will be coming home with souvenirs, spices, t-shirts and most importantly the knowledge, connection and love of the land of their ancestors.