“After Oct. 7, it’s really important for people to know who [the real Israelis are],” said Liraz Bar, a member of the 2024 Tzofim Friendship Caravan. Bar, along with the other nine members of Caravan Amit and their two group leaders, Noa Drukman and Tal Maikel, will be spending their summer months traveling the country. “There’s a lot of Jewish people who don’t really know and realize about Israel…they don’t really know the true Israel.”
Drukman, a member of the 2017 Caravan along with Maikel, also emphasized showing the humanity of Israel. “The mission is always to bring Israel to the communities, but this year it’s to show the real story of Israel, to bring the love, spirit and hope,” Drukman said.
The Friendship Caravan has been sharing the “real story of Israel” for over 50 years, and they now visit Minneapolis annually. “Every year the scouts [come], they [hear] from the [Scouts of the] previous year, everything…how much fun Minneapolis was,” Bette Blumenberg, former Twin Cities Community Chair, recalled. “They wanted to go to the Mall of America… they [are] just teens, the same as our teens were. We took them to baseball games… they didn’t exactly like that because it was too slow for them. But we just took them to a lot of different places and introduced them to a lot of Minneapolis.”
The community welcomes the Caravan each year with the help of the community chair: Sharon Rosenblum has served as the community chair for two years. The chair coordinates everything for the scouts, from housing to meals and formerly being their chauffeur, according to Blumenberg, the chair for seven years.
Blumenberg always ensured the scouts felt part of the community, just as Rosenblum now does. “They were placed in homes with kids their own ages. The caravan [are] kids that are 16 [going on] 17, or 17 already. And so what we do is find homes where we could place them and the kids could really be with another American kid, a child who is or a teen who is their same age, and they realize they are a lot alike. Obviously the kids in Israel have a much different life. Our kids could learn from them, and they learned from our kids,” said Blumenberg.
Rosenblum revealed her process for ensuring the scouts feel connected to the community. “The scouts were debriefed about the community and what to expect, as were the host families and venues. This way, both sides knew what to expect for the most part. Before the scouts arrived, I asked them to fill out a questionnaire with their food preferences, because it is always nice to come to a home that has food you like, and all the host families followed through. The Twin Cities are one of the two longest communities they visit in 2.5 months, so it is nice for them to be able to settle in for a bit. We have a long-standing reputation as a welcoming community, and the kids look forward to coming here every year,” said Rosenblum.
Now, in a world after Oct. 7, that learning is more important than ever. The theme of this year’s performances is “This is Our Story.” “Each of us is a whole story, and everything that’s happened to Israel is a full story that we came to bring. More than the fact that we bring our specific stories, we bring our smiles, joy, and hope, and we receive hope from the communities that we meet, which is an important thing to do in such an important time,” Drukman said.
“It’s really important for us to see the audience stand with us and explain the story and what happened on Oct. 7,” said Bar.
Blumenberg believes that “when [the Caravan] comes, they are really like ambassadors to the States from Israel. And, you know, they teach and they tell [everyone]… not just the kids, but the whole community as far as what their life is like there. And they always want you to come and visit…Their main reason, their main goal… [is to be] ambassadors for Israel…They do a really good job with that. And I think especially this year, with things going on in Israel and Gaza, it’s really important for them to be here in communities, because we hear what’s on [our] news, they love it. And that’s what the important thing is when they’re here, you really get to get to know and understand what it’s like to be living in Israel now or anytime, but especially this year.”
