ATID is the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis advanced leadership program. Part of every ATID class is a trip to Israel. These are accounts from the partcipants of ATID IV, who are traveling through Israel in February 2016.

Post written by Eli Isaacs

Day six of our journey through Israel included an opportunity to visit with Israeli soldiers and volunteers in the Negev.

Our first stop was a military base in southern Israel. The soldiers on the base spoke about their experiences in the armed services and provided a tour of their facilities, where the staff trains officers in multiple branches of the IDF. The conversation included descriptions of day-to-day life in the military, social assistance programs provided to soldiers during and after their service (both by the Israeli government and foreign friends and donors), and the realities of modern combat operations. The most striking feature of the otherwise minimalist facilities was the memorial dedicated to the fallen soldiers who had served at the base. The separate structure included images of the boys, along with books containing the biography of each. We were told that their families still return to the base for holidays.

From the base, we moved on to Be'er Sheva, where we spoke with representatives from the Ethiopian National Project and the students their program serves.  Ethiopians migrated to Israel, with assistance from the Israeli government, in two waves in the 1980s and early 1990s. Having come to the country with little to no financial means and fighting through cultural and language barriers, the Ethiopian Israeli community has remained marginalized in many ways. The ENP provides targeted educational interventions for middle school and high school students to bridge the achievement gap that has developed for this community. The project aims to provide educational support so these students can develop into a new generation of professionals, unlimited by cultural and educational differences. The afternoon included an opportunity to interact with the students, who were all very impressive.