While touring with 150 members of Faith Bible Chapel,
Tami meets up with flagship organizers from the
four communities adopted by ActionIsrael's Colorado book drive
and with Israel coordinators of B4I, Jade and Ilan Bar-Shalom

After having supplied three flagship communities
(in Kohav Yaakov, the Meron, and Buena-Nujidaat)
with thousands of books each over the past two years,
ActionIsrael's Books for Israel Project in Colorado
now pledges to adopt the flagship of Nazareth as well.

In early September,  Tami Knopping, Lynne MacDowell, and
Joan Baronberg, the central organizers of ActionIsrael's Colorado
Book Drive, contacted Books for Israel again to discuss their future
plans. The incredible Denver-based team, hardly daunted by the massive
organizing tasks they had accomplished so far, informed B4I that
they had elected to adopt yet another community of schools.
Since 2002,and nearly since the inception of the Books for Israel Project,
ActionIsrael's Denver book drive has literally sent thousands of high
quality books to each of three flagship communities operating out of
Kohav Yaakov in the center, the Meron in the northwest Galilee,
and Buena-Nujidaat in the central Galilee area. 

To date, Colorado's ActionIsrael initiative has brought together Jews and
Christians of various denominations throughout their locale in a remarkable
campaign that, in addition to book drives being run out of schools, libraries,
culture centers, churches, and synagogues, includes Israel advocacy and explanation, cultural exchange festivals featuring Israeli performing artists and pro-Israel groups which encourage the sale of imported Israeli products and handcrafts, clothing drives for impoverished families in Israel, and fundraising for the soup kitchens which are providing meals for a growing number of hungry youth and their families as terrorism continues to grind the Israeli tourist based-economy to a halt. Despite their incredibly busy schedules and their own obligations to work and family, the three lead organizers of the Books for Israel aspect of ActionIsrael's many projects insisted that the group was ready to take on yet another community of schools. Eventually, after having reviewed the profiles of new and established flagships, Colorado's ActionIsrael decided to adopt the Nazareth flagship running out of the Salvatorian Sisters Greek Catholic School. Headed by English teacher Rana Zaher, the Nazareth flagship will be establishing school libraries on behalf of children in schools representing Christians of various persuasions and Muslims in the city of Nazareth, and Jewish communities in the nearby town of Migdal Haemek.  ActionIsrael was particularly interested in the diverse interfaith support network that the Nazareth flagship represents.
Over the past months, Tami had been planning that during her November 2004 trip to Israel, she would get to meet up with some
of the flagship organizers of the communities that Colorado's ActionIsrael Books for Israel Project has adopted. She also
planned to finally meet Jade and Ilan Bar-Shalom, the Israeli coordinators of the project, with whom she has regularly been in touch. During her tour of the north, Tami did get to meet Rana Zaher, flagship coordinator of the newly formed Nazareth flagship. 
Although that meeting was a short one, it was, as Tami noted,
very heartwarming and inspirational. 

Following a boat ride over the Kinneret, Tami met up with Books for Israel Israel coordinators Jade and Ilan Bar-Shalom.  The meeting was a very emotional one and although Tami has never met Jade and Ilan personally before, their extended contact by e-mail over the course of this project made them all feel long-time, close friends.
 

Jade and Ilan took Tami on a walk on the Arbel overlooking the town of Migdal
and the Lake Kinneret shoreline. After a rather intense update concerning
Books for Israel activities and a quick overview of the history of the area
being viewed, Ilan drove them all to Buena Nujidaat where, at sundown,
the principal of the flagship school, Dr. Muhamed Fukara, and his family
had prepared a lovely Ramadan dinner in Tami's honor.  The Fukara family
were kind hosts, and Tami was plied with St. Peter's fish, various traditional
salads, and a dish of hot wheat, prepared in the local manner much like spicy
rice.  During dinner, Dr. Fukara explained how the Buena Nujidaat flagship
has not only reached out to the Christian community of nearby Eliabun,
but would shortly be supplying special textbooks for weak learners to
flagships containing different religious and language communities from
all over the country. Flagship coordinators will from different geographic
sectors in Israel will be coming to Buena over the next few weeks and
months to shake hands and pick up hundreds, or if needed, thousands of
copies of these books for schools in their communities.

After dinner, flagship coordinator and lead English teacher, Widad Slieman,
joined everyone for a wonderful desert of fresh knafee (hot cheese
cake) and sweet Turkish coffee.  Tami presented Widad with a present
of a big bag of favorite American candies to give out as prizes after
the Ramadan each time a child completed reading a required section
or an entire book. Later that evening, Tami was taken on a special
tour of the junior high school complex specifically to see the new
English room which is now under construction.
 

After a festive dinner -- the Ramadan desert prepared by our hosts, Diana Fukara and Dr. Muhamed Fukara, school principal of Buena Nujidaat junior high school, the flagship for the area. Diana confessed that she'd been working on dinner since noon that day -- and we only sat down after sundown, around 6 p.m.  Muhamed Fukara blessed this opportunity that Muslims, Christians, and Jews were all dining together in respect for their differences and commonalities, and prayed that someday all people in Israel would be brave enough and capable of doing the same on behalf of all their children, without fear of terrorism or other violence.		Hot Turkish coffee, warm fresh knafee, traditional pastries of honey and nuts... Who could ask for anything more?  Tami, Jade, and Widad Slieman (flagship coordinator) after Tami presents Widad with a bag of American candies to serve as a sweet incentive to encourage children to read and read more.
		When Jade and Ilan escorted Tami to her hotel, they presented her with a silver spice box, used traditionally in the Jewish Havdalah ceremony to demark the end of Shabbat and the beginning of the new week, and with official certificates made out to Tami Knopping, to Lynne MacDowell, and to Joan Baronberg in thanks for their tremendous organizing efforts. Tami presented Jade and Ilan with small gifts for them and their children which had been lovingly sent from the Colorado organizing team.  They departed with many hugs and with Tami's promises to try to meet up with the flagship coordinator for the Kohav Yaakov community while she tours Jerusalem. We will all stay in touch and look forward to an incredible year of continuing our work together in support of Israel, democracy, mutual tolerance, and peace.
On a special night-time tour of the school, Tami views the budding English library and center, just relocated a few weeks ago to a large room made by breaking down the dividing wall between two classrooms. Widad explained that children are still involved in the process of organizing books with the teachers on the shelves according to levels and subjects. Widad and Muhamed shared with us some insights into the difficulties against illiteracy, ignorance, and prejudice and explained that the B4I project is truly manifesting itself as part of an overall effort for peace at the grassroots level.		To all of you working with ActionIsrael out in Colorado - We salute you! To all the educators and children receiving books with love from ActionIsrael, Colorado - Warm hugs are sent to you from everyone involved in ActionIsrael's book drive.  We hope to hear from you as students and teachers about your accomplishments in English and your joys of reading. Keep up the good work!

(Click here to read about ActionIsrael's Colorado Book drive)