I’m a Woman for Israel Because...
“I am a Woman for Israel because Jewish National Fund-USA has enabled me to be “boots on the ground” in Israel.
We spoke with three women who recently participated in Jewish National Fund-USA volunteer missions to Israel. Their experiences were life changing. They provided moral support, solidarity, and real hands-on help to the people of Israel at a time when it’s needed most.
“Being on these recent missions was the highlight of my life,” says Sheryl Buchholtz of New York. Sheryl’s involvement with Jewish National Fund-USA began in 2008 when she went on a President’s Mission to Israel. As she likes to say, “I never left.” Recently, she participated in two Jewish National Fund-USA volunteer missions. Upon her return, she said, “I felt proud, joyful, and purposeful. I worked hand in hand with the Israeli people. Volunteering felt like the greatest mitzvah I could do right now.”
Her tasks as a volunteer were wide ranging. She repaired uniforms on an army base and picked clementines at an abandoned farm where the Thai workers had returned to their country and the Israeli workers had been called up to serve in the IDF. She cooked at a Druze restaurant, which had been converted into a kosher kitchen to feed the soldiers. This last experience inspired Sheryl to slip notes into the food packages for the soldiers that read, “Thank you, with love from a Brooklyn safta.”
Sheryl reported that Israelis greeted the volunteers with hugs and expressions of gratitude everywhere they went. Some soldiers even insisted on buying them drinks and toasting them! Sheryl Buchholtz is on the JNF-USA National Board as VP, Speakers Bureau. She is also a Women for Israel Circle of Sapphire Plus and National Chair of the Jewish National Fund-USA Galilee Culinary Institute Task Force.
Sara Cannon of California described her purpose and that of her fellow mission volunteers as one of “soldiers fighting for Israel and for all of us.” Sara’s group brought gifts to patients in the hospital, many of whom were suffering from the aftereffects of October 7th. This included patients with heart attacks, people who couldn’t get their medications and patients in trauma. When the staff expressed their worries about Israel being hated and abandoned by the world, Sara’s group told them, “American Jews are with them, and we are one people—am Yisrael.” She emphasized that throughout the mission, they were able to comfort people with kind words and an abundance of hugs.
Sara and the other volunteers were available from early morning until late in the evening to help. This included assisting a farmer with his irrigation system, packing food for soldiers and gifts for hospital patients, and taking disabled children from the JNF-USA affiliate Adi Negev rehabilitation facility outside for the first time since October 7th. Says Sara, “I loved every minute of it!” She pointed out that when you go to Israel on a mission “you will be bringing strength and affection from the U.S., and when you return, you’ll bring some of Israel back with you.” Sara Cannon is the National Sapphire Society Co-Chair on the National Women for Israel Executive Board.
“Doing the most meaningful things I have ever done” is the way Robin Feldman of Georgia summed up her recent experience as part of a volunteer mission trip to Israel. Robin, a member of the JNF-USA Atlanta board and a proud Sapphire says she plans to return because, “it gives me a deeper purpose and connects me to the land.”
Robin is relatively new to Jewish National Fund-USA but has wasted no time getting involved in a big way. After attending the Jewish National Fund-USA National Campaign Summit in NYC, last August, Robin Feldman returned home describing the event as “life changing with phenomenal people who do great work.” Eighteen months later, Robin is chairing Atlanta’s Breakfast for Israel and says she is now “immersed in a bigger way than I could have imagined.”
In fact, Robin is so immersed that she decided she wanted to celebrate her milestone 65th birthday by participating in Jewish National Fund-USA’s very first volunteer mission. Robin delivered kits to wounded soldiers, worked in the fields of two farms, and said Kaddish at Revivim Cemetery. She remembers seeing so much good being done at Adi Negev, a Jewish National Fund-USA affiliate, all while feeling safe and appreciated. Robin returned home with a clear mantra: “Donate. Volunteer. Pray. Amen!”
Join a Jewish National Fund-USA Volunteer in Israel Mission Trip today.
Written by Betsy Rosenthal, past co-chair of Los Angeles Chai Society
Miriam Seiden, Jewish National Fund-USA Central New Jersey board member, member of JNF-USA Arad task force, Sapphire