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David
Joseph* Lynch, a very enterprising and dedicated
Books for Israel
coordinator,
is bringing together diverse populations in active
support for Israel in his home state of Idaho.
Idaho is a US state made world famous for its tasty potatoes and spectacular landscape. Historically, it was the
last US state to be visited by European explorers. Idaho is
famous for its natural resources, including powerful rivers that
provide generators with hydroelectric energy. You can read more
about Idaho and see some pictures of its landscape on the state's
official website at:
http://www.pbs.org/idahoportrait/about/geology.html
But beyond being famous for its natural resources and landscape, one
man has set out to make Idaho famous for reaching out to children in
Israel.
David J. Lynch originally read about Books
for Israel in "Being Jewish," a web-based and print publication
created by Gil Mann. After reading about B4I, David
got in touch with B4I organizers and, upon discovering that there was no
book drive in his area, simply took it upon himself to organize the
state of Idaho
himself.
As of now, David has a number of items in
the air.
He began by interesting his Boise based chiropractic physician, Dr.
Tim Dudley, and his office manager, Margene, in getting a book drive going.
David then got in
touch with Miss Rachel Tutko, the Administrative Assistant of the Idaho
Department of Education. With Miss Tutko's help, David has begun the process of
reaching out to the 115 school superintendents throughout his state.
One of the first schools to become involved is Warren McCain Middle
School in Payette, Idaho, where Ms. Tawnya Lubbes helped to arrange
for a large donation of books from the school library as well as from
students. David has
also been in cooperative contact with Dr. Vicki Simmons, the Deputy
Superintendent of the Independent School District of Boise City, and
Ms. Alice Cottle, the Community Relations Facilitator of Boise
Independent School district. Through this outreach work, more of
Idaho's children and their parents are becoming involved in
contributing to the book drive in various ways. David has set himself
a target that eventually he will get at least one book drive organized
in every one of the thirty two counties in Idaho.
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The
famous Idaho flagship car that David Lynch drives while organizing
for this project and picking up books to be sent to schools
throughout the center of Israel in Kohav Yaakov and Jerusalem,
and in the north of Israel in Nazareth and Migdal Haemek.
In addition to being in touch with schools, David has been
reaching out
to
the community at large. Mr. Allen Gorin and the
group "Idahoans
United
for Israel" introduced David to
Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Benson, the
new owners of
a used book store called "Twice Sold Tales" in Nampa, Idaho. This book
store
became an active
contributor to David's drive. Mrs. Claire
Leibowitz, a member of Hadassah and the Ahavath Beth Israel Synagogue in
Boise have pledged to help out with book collecting and fundraising
to send the books. Mr. and Mrs. Randy Pound, franchise
owners of three locations of the International House of Pancakes
have offered use of their restaurants as book collection centers.
And the local Office Depot store has been providing good, sturdy
boxes for packing up the books so they can be safely sent to Israel.
On a different level, David is working with the Criminal
Justice
Administration Department and the Communications
Department at
Boise
State University. A volunteer assistant to Roger Cockereille,
Magistrate Judge for the Ada County Small Claims Court,
David has excellent
contacts with the Justice community, many
of
whom have
been warmly
supportive of Israel and the Books
for Israel Project. Photos
below from David's efforts on campus
show that
students
have been
stepping up to get involved in
helping out --
whether by donating
books, funding the shipment
of books, or joining
in the back straining
work of lugging and
sorting those books until they make their way,
safely packaged,
to the post office. Under the circumstances,
David probably makes excellent use of his visits to the chiropractor offices of Dr. Dudley
these days due to all those book lugging activities!.
Recently, Dr. Andrew Giacomazzi, Associate Professor of the
Department
of Criminal Justice and Faculty Advisor to Alpha Kappa,
the local Chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma, the National Criminal Justice
Society, has joined David in his work and helped to get Boise State
University's
Alpha Phi Sigma Chapter involved. In addition, another
Boise
professor, who prefers to remain anonymous, has taken a
personal
interest in the project in her own department and has
been encouraging
her students to get actively involved in B4I.
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Prior to WWII, David
Joseph Lynch served as an enlisted member of the staff of the admiral in
command of Battleship Division Four, whose flagship was the U.S.S.
West Virginia. Re-enlisting after the war began, he was assigned to a
fleet tanker, the U.S.S. Tappahannock
He shares a story about how his ship was under attack by five Japanese
bomber planes who fanned out over the ship, dropping their bombs close
behind. Despite the limited range of their guns, the Navy succeeded in
downing two of the bombers, and frightening off the remaining attack
planes who flew off, thankfully leaving the Tappahannock and its crew
intact.
Comparing those events of war with the daunting task of organizing for
education and peace,
David remarks:
"Not since my ship, the U.S.S. Tappahannock
(A0-43) was under attack
in the Solomon Islands during World War II have I been confronted with
such as challenge as I am facing today!"
David in Navy uniform, with his beloved wife,
Eleanor Marie Hill Lynch. |
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Books collected by David Lynch's Idaho flagship will be sent for
distribution in the area of Jerusalem and Kohav Yaakov bringing
together religious and secular Jewish populations and Muslim Israeli
Arabs and in the north of Israel where the Salvatorian Sister's
Greek
Catholic school will be distributing books to establish libraries
in
Christian and Jewish schools in the area of Nazareth and
Migdal
HaEmek.
The Woman
Whose Memory Inspires David to
Keep Up the Hard Work
David
organized
his state-wide book drive
in loving memory
of his dear late wife,
Eleanor Marie Hill Lynch
(January 27, 1915 -
July 31, 1999).
David
requests to note that his
middle name, Joseph, is in honor
of his father, Joseph Aloysius Lynch,
who immigrated from Ireland as a
young man, married,
took care of his family and was very successful in
business. Most unfortunately, Joseph Lynch lost his business, money
and possessions in the Depression of 1929,
an event from which he
never recovered.
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