Ida Crown Jewish Academy senior class volunteers in Israel

After Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7, Ida Crown Jewish Academy empowered students to find creative ways to help. Students prayed, performed extra mitzvot, fundraised for Israel, lobbied elected officials, educated themselves and their peers, and attended rallies for Israel. It was after one of those rallies–the March for Israel in Washington D.C.– that Ida Crown seniors developed the idea of volunteering in Israel.

Learning how former students from their school had traveled to Israel in 1973 to volunteer during the Yom Kippur War, students asked if they could do the same now. Within days, a volunteer mission to Israel took shape, and the majority of the senior class spent a month in December in Israel volunteering to help the Jewish state in its time of need.

The third of the Ida Crown senior class who stayed back in Chicago chose to volunteer at Chicago’s Bikur Cholim kitchen, preparing meals for those in need. The teachers at the school shouldered a double teaching load, delivering in-person classes to seniors who remained at home, while offering Zoom classes to students in Israel.

But for those who did go on the trip, they felt appreciated. “Three hundred thousand Israeli workers have been drafted into the army,” explained Ida Crown senior Maayan Dallal, who volunteered to pack Shabbat meals for Israeli soldiers. With so many laborers missing from the workforce, she noted, Israel is facing a crisis–crops going unpicked, farms needing maintenance, and Israeli soldiers and their families facing strain.

Dallal and her classmates helped ease some of that burden. “I was excited when I found out I had this opportunity to go,” she said. “I realized this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”

At Anava Winery, and a nearby olive orchard, outside of Moshav Nechushim, the students weeded grapevines, repaired fences, and harvested olives. It was hot, backbreaking work, but the students embraced the chance to help. “I was really excited,” said senior Hayden Gradstein. “I [felt] like I was making a difference. Everyone here is united-we’re trying to help each other the best way we can.” He noted that the work he and his classmates did at the winery would have taken the winery’s skeleton crew weeks without the students’ help.

For senior Nava Cohen, farming in Israel gives her a new and powerful way to connect with the Israel: “It really connects me with the land physically,” she said. “In school, I’d learn about it but not experience it. Now I’m connecting with it and seeing it with my own eyes.”

Israelis extended their gratitude to the students for their support. As Vintner Nadav Jesselson who oversees Anava Winery told the students. “You don’t know how important it is that you are here,” he said. “‘מעט מן האור דוחה הרבה מן החושך’- ‘a little bit of light pushes away much darkness’. Your coming is much more than just a little bit of light.'”

Yvette Alt Miller, Ph.D., is Director of Communications at Ida Crown Jewish Academy.