I’ve lost track of how many people have written me over the past few months to ask about volunteering opportunities. There are dozens of Israeli websites and WhatsApp groups where Israelis are sharing updates about what is needed and where, but for those who need English, options were much more limited. Then there are those who cannot be in fields for physical reasons, or lots of other factors people needed to be able to work with.
Enter Yocheved Ruttenberg and Hagit Greenberg Amar, who just months ago didn’t know each other. Yocheved, from Texas, and Hagit, Israeli, met through Yocheved’s brother, a lone soldier serving in a commando brigade, and eventually came up with the idea of creating a Facebook page for those who wish to volunteer.
Their page, Sword of Iron - Israel Volunteer Opportunities, now has more than 16,000 members from diverse backgrounds and locations around the world. The number grows daily. They are inspiring people to take an active part in healing Israel through volunteering.
We reached out to Yocheved and Hagit, and asked them to tell us their story. We’re making the conversation available to everyone.
More on that below.
FRIDAY (03/29): A new series of videos called “240 seconds” is making its way around Israel. They’re four minutes long, mostly about the need for a change in government, but also, in many cases, interesting and illuminating about moments in Israel’s past. Today we’ll sample one with one of Israel’s preeminent historians, Professor Anita Shapira, on how David Ben-Gurion thought when his Israel was under attack.
The link to today’s conversation with Yochved Ruttenberg and Hagit Greenberg Amar is at the top of the page, at the beginning of the post.
In addition, once on the subject of volunteering, we’re also including a conversation with Dr. Steven Frank, who recently came to Israel to volunteer as a physician.
Dr. Frank is an endowed tenured professor of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Frank is the Executive Director of the Particle Therapy Institute and Deputy Head of Strategy for the Division of Radiation Oncology. In addition to his many professional accomplishments, Dr. Frank served in the military as a U.S. Navy Diver and submarine officer on the fast attack nuclear submarine USS Batfish (SSN-681). He is married to Dr. Ivy Frank, a veterinarian; they have four daughters.
The audio to our conversation with Dr. Frank follows, here:
Impossible Takes Longer is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and at other booksellers.
Music credits: Medieval poem by Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Gvirol. Melody and performance by Shaked Jehuda and Eyal Gesundheit. Production by Eyal Gesundheit. To view a video of their performance, see this YouTube:
Our Threads feed is danielgordis. We’ll start to use it more shortly.
Sword of Iron - Israel Volunteer Opportunities: Two women, an American and an Israeli, join forces in a unique way