One of Israel’s most iconic images is being turned into desperately needed help for the homeless of New York City. For generations, Jews have traveled to Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall. Now a group of young Jews recently returned from a free ten day trip to Israel sponsored by Birthright Israel are using the inspiration of that experience to tackle a problem closer to home – helping to ensure that homeless New Yorkers have the blankets needed to endure one of the City’s coldest winters in years.
On Monday night (January 31st), approximately 3,000 volunteers of the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) will fan out across the five boroughs for the seventh annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE). Conducting the survey throughout the early morning hours, participants will become the eyes and ears of the City – canvassing streets, parks and other public spaces to identify individuals living unsheltered.
The next day — Tuesday, February 1st — the Birthright Israel Alumni Community is holding an event exploring the link between Zionism and Humanitarianism. “When we found out we were doing an event on humanitarianism the day after our City counts those wrestling with homelessness, we decided that our event had to help,” says Natalie Solomon, 26, who was so moved by her own Birthright Israel trip that she decided to work full-time with the Birthright Israel Alumni Community. “We’re exploring how Zionism inspires humanitarianism, so we chose the kotel, the Western Wall, to connect our alumni’s love of Israel with helping a humanitarian cause right outside the doors of our event.”
On February 1st at 6:45pm upwards of five hundred young people will crowd into the Edison Ball Room in Times Square joined by philanthropists, activists, New York politicians and NGO aid workers. Admission to the event is $25 and, in a local example of how love for Israel inspires humanitarian action, each ticket includes the purchase of a blanket for The Warming Wall, a towering collection of blankets displayed at the event like a miniature of The Western Wall in Jerusalem. The blankets will be distributed the next day to emergency homeless shelters, a transitional housing facility, and a shelter in the Bronx for those suffering from advanced AIDS.
The blankets will be distributed by the Latin/African American Chaplains Association (LACA), an organization founded in the wake of 9/11 that works closely with New York homeless shelters. “When they told me that these kids wanted to help the homeless because of Zionism,” says Chaplain Jose Rosa of LACA, “I was a little surprised. But this is going to help a lot of people.”
But that feeling of surprise isn’t just Chaplain Rosa’s alone, says Rebecca Sugar, Executive Director of the Birthright Israeli Alumni Community, the organizer of the event and blanket drive. “Today ‘Zionism’ has become a word under frequent attack both from Israel’s detractors without and increasingly appropriated by extremists from within. But the young people who have seen Israel through our trips know the truth and have decided to ‘take back’ the word Zionism.”
The event will feature Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, as well as Ido Aharoni, Consul General of Israel to New York City. “They will be sharing the unheard story of Israel’s 50 yearlong quest to funnel to the developing world the same technologies that fueled Israel’s own rapid development and how ‘Zionist’ aid workers and NGOs are serving on every continent on Earth. Israel was first on the ground in Haiti after the earthquake and helped in New Orleans after Katrina and in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami,” says Sugar. “You can go to TakeBackZionism.org to learn more.”
The young people who go on Birthright Israel trips pick up Israel’s commitment to help people and bring it home with them, she says. Natalie Solomon agrees. “We prayed at the Wall in Jerusalem. It was that experience that makes us hope that our Warming Wall will be an answer to prayers for a better winter.”
