JBHS Students Mission on a

19th Annual Chesed Mission to Israel returns for the first time since 2020.

Over winter break, 60 JBHS students and faculty members embarked on the 19th Annual Chesed Mission to Israel after a two-year, pandemic-related hiatus. Upon landing in Jerusalem, the group prayed at the Kotel, many for the first time. The rest of their trip was spent doing good for others, building awareness of the less fortunate, and spending quality time with children and adults alike who needed someone to talk to.

At Meshi, Afikim, Shalva, Adi (Aleh), Hakshiva (founded by alumna Adi Kahn), Keren Or and Bet Elazraki, the students celebrated Tu B’Shvat by decorating planters, planting flowers, playing basketball and holding dance parties with disabled, mentally challenged, visually impaired and special needs children. Two of the children at Afikim received a year of services dedicated by the class of 2021 in memory of Lisa Didia A”H.

Students purchased handmade art and met with the artists at Yad LaKashish, a workshop for the elderly, and at Susan’s House, a space that employs teenagers facing various challenges. They delivered gifts to sick children at Hadassah Hospital, visited with heart surgery patients at Save a Child’s Heart and packaged food at Pantry Packers for elderly Ethiopian Jews.

To show their solidarity with IDF soldiers, they distributed gifts at several army bases, and spent a solemn visit to Har Herzl. The Chesed Mission also hosted a breakfast for lone IDF soldiers at the Michael Levin A”H Base.

Students spent the rest of their time visiting The Blind Museum in Holon, shopping at Machane Yehuda Shuk, and taking a Jeep tour of Gush Etzion with counterterrorist Steve Gar. On the tour, they passed through Derech Avot, where they stopped at an ancient mikveh and saw the memorial for Ari Fuld A”H and the three soldiers who were kidnapped in 2014.

They spent a beautiful Shabbat in Jerusalem before heading back home from a trip they will remember for a lifetime.

This year’s Chesed Mission is dedicated in memory of Mr. Raymond Mosseri A”H. ה״ע לזמ ןב םימחר, a man of consistency with his religion, family, and charity, by his children and grandchildren.