More than Just a Holiday

In the Tzahal Absorption Center in Tsfat, new immigrants help the soldiers prepare for their holiday best with painstaking cornrows. In the Karmiel Absorption Center new immigrant students from the FSU, Ethiopia and Latin America prepared and performed a ceremony marking Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Citizens Killed by Acts of Terror. In the Beit Canada Absorption Center in Ashdod, a new immigrant opens the Independence Day Celebrations by lighting the festive candelabra with a local resident and Friend of the Absorption Center. At the Ibim Student Village / Absorption Center near Sderot, new immigrants gather around the Lag Ba’Omer bonfire.

During Passover, Jews traditionally begin the counting of the Omer, seven weeks which culminate in the celebration of the receiving of the Torah on Shavuot. During this holiday-packed period, new immigrants chalk up lessons in history and future.

Spring in Israel is more than just new leaves on the trees or streams full from the winter’s rain. The onset of the Omer after Passover ushers in an emotional roller coaster and a heavy dose of Jewish Israeli identity. For new immigrants, it is a learning experience like no other. In Absorption Centers where the staff devote hours of thought, organization and creative energy to the holidays, new immigrants enjoy the optimal opportunity to celebrate, commemorate and understand the meaning of the period from Passover to Shavuot. Standing together for the sirens on Holocaust Day and Memorial Day, dancing past midnight on Independence Day, building fires on Lag Ba’Omer, participating in traditional learning or in harvest parades on Shavuot - are all part of the Israeli experience.

Dorit Heyman, Director of the Galil Absorption Site on Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar, uses the holidays to strengthen the tie between veteran and new Israelis. “Just as the new immigrants must learn the language and the ways of Israel, Israelis must learn to appreciate the new immigrants, Ethiopians in our case, for what they can offer to the community experience.” Dorit, with her groundbreaking programs and extensive community outreach, was recently awarded the Aliyah and Absorption Department’s Outstanding Employee Award, along with eight others.

The Galil Absorption Site’s dynamic and large group of Friends in Rosh Pina invites the immigrants living in the Site to celebrate Independence Day with them every year. “But we don’t just arrive as onlookers,’ says Dorit. “Our children perform a traditional Ethiopian dance which is one of the highlights of the evening. This year, our children also joined the Rosh Pina Shavuot parade of tractors displaying the fruits of the season. A group of parents and children from the Center performed a dance in traditional costume, and the crowd was simply mesmerized.”

A few days before Lag Ba’Omer, the Friends organized an event celebrating the renewed spirit of volunteerism. The commons area of the Absorption Site was filled with booths featuring Ethiopian cooking and crafts, while the many visitors looked, admired and bought, englarging the sphere of exposure with each interaction. “Integration doesn’t simply occur through osmosis. It is something that has to be promoted, planned and implemented with sensitivity, efficiency and resources.”