This November, World Emunah welcomed the first Great Neck Mother Daughter Chesed Mission.

A group of 24 mothers and daughters from Great Neck, New York came to Israel for a week. The girls are all students in the North Shore Hebrew Academy. They came with their beloved teacher, Amit Yaghoubi as the group leader.

The group enjoyed many fun activities- a scavenger hunt in Nahlaot, a visit to the Jerusalem Aquarium, the Night Experience at the Tower of David, shopping and eating in Machane Yehuda, bike riding in Emek Hamaayanot, jeep riding in Beit Lechem Haglilit, tefilot at the Kotel, Kever Rachel and the tomb of Rabbi Akiva. On the serious side, they had an informative VIP tour of Yad Vashem.

The group visited and interacted with four Emunah projects. At each stop, World Emunah representative, Debbi Siman-Tov explained the importance of each project and the crucial role Emunah plays in Israeli society.

They began their trip with a visit to the Emunah Day Care Center in Yaffo. The girls and their moms participated in tefilla with the children and made a project with them. The fun part of the morning was blowing bubbles with the children in the centers playground.

The visit to the Emunah Torah and Arts High School in Jerusalem was a great success. The head of the dance department, Niv and nine of her students welcomed the group into their lovely new dance studio. Niv taught the group a fun dance and everyone had a fabulous time. Aside from dancing, the mothers and their daughters learned about the Emunah network of high schools, our successes and our challenges.

The group traveled up North and met six bat mitzvah girls from the Afula Children’s Home. The girls joined the group for lunch and a boat ride on the Kineret. On the boat the Afula girls surprised everyone with a dance they had made up in honor of the Great Neck Bat Mitzvah girls. The Great Neck girls brought a lovely gift of a necklace for each of the Afula girls.

Last and definitely not least, the group spent Shabbat at Bet Elazraki.  When the group arrived in Netanya on Friday afternoon the girls went with the Bet Elazraki bat mitzvah girls and their counselors to make challah. The moms were taken to the Alexander Winery where they had a delicious wine tasting and met with the head of the winery. The older kids at Bet Elazraki are learning the wine making process at Alexander and have already planted a vineyard.

Shabbat in Bet Elazraki was beautiful and very meaningful.

This trip was a huge success and the Great Neck community is already discussing another mother /daughter bat mitzvah mission and one for fathers and sons too.