Visiting OneFamily in Israel – by Noah Letofsky
During the summer of 2016, I was a counselor for the OneFamily-CampTimberlane group of young victims of terror from Israel who OneFamily brought to Canada to attend camp. During my month with the group, I made incredible connections with people; I felt like I had become part of a new family. When the summer came to a close, and the OneFamily group had to go home, I cried for the entire day. Through tears, I made a promise to my new family that I would come to their country to visit them one day.
Finally, over the first two and a half weeks of July 2017, my family and I were lucky enough to travel to Israel for the Maccabe Games. I missed my 2016 OneFamily campers and friends immensely, so I organized trips with my family around the country to visit as many them as I possibly could.
Our first stop was to the Kiryat Shmona area to see a massive OneFamily camp that happened to coincide with my time in Israel. At this camp, religious boys, religious girls and non-religious children all came together. I was able to be reunited with many of those whom I missed so dearly from the 2016 Timberlane group, and meet some of the new campers and counselors that would be coming over with the 2017 Timberlane group later in the summer.
My family and I were also welcomed into the Ben David family’s home, where Yifat (the mother), Tomer, Ido and Mai (her children) welcomed us with incredible kindness and hospitality. We caught up, talking for 90 minutes non-stop and drank some homemade limoncello (which was delicious). I was able to see some pictures of Danny (Ido, Tomer and Mai’s late father), who was killed in the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Mai looks almost identical to her father.
I felt honoured to be present at the Macabbi Games opening ceremonies, where Bar Rahav, the late brother of Ron and Rotem Rahav, was honoured as a water polo champion. Bar was killed in Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Ron and Rotem were both campers with the 2016 OneFamily-Timberlane group.
We visited the final resting place of Amit Yeori, the brother of Iddo (2016 OneFamily- Timberlane camper). Amit was also killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Iddo showed me around his beautiful hometown of Jerusalem, and took me to visit Hanan (who was one of the counselors for the 2016 camp session), at his beautiful cheese shop (Basher Agrippas) near the Machne Yehuda market, where Hanan and I were able to catch up. Hanan’s father, Yehuda, was killed in a suicide bombing on Hanan’s 16th birthday.
While I was in Jerusalem, there was a stark reminder of the unfortunate reality that Israelis face to this day, as two Druze police officers were murdered in a terrorist attack in the old city at the Temple Mount. In what exemplifies the incredible nature of the charity, within days, OneFamily was organizing busses of people to go visit the Arab-Israeli families of the officers.
My family also visited Ori Greenberg and his family, who were setting up for the three-year memorial of their father/husband Amotz.
For our final meal in Israel, we had dinner with Motti and Neta, both counselors for the 2016 group (and soon to be husband and wife). Neta’s sister, Tali, was murdered in a shooting attack when she was on her way home from her army base.
As I fly home now, I can honestly say that this trip has been life-changing. The kids that come to Camp Timberlane every year and tell their story have had a massive impact on me in opening my eyes to this world, but this trip really made me realize how massive an impact this charity has and how amazing the work they do is.
I would strongly encourage anybody who has an opportunity to go and see for yourself the work OneFamily does in Israel and get involved in any way possible. Believing in and feeling empathy for others isn’t political. Rather, it’s something we all ought to do more of. I’d like to thank OneFamily for all they’ve done and continue to do for the special people it helps, and for fundamentally changing me and my family.