Thank you to St. Louis for community’s letters to IDF

Editor’s note: The following letter was addressed to the members of the community who wrote letters to Israeli soldiers during the Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration at the Jewish Community Center this summer. Those letters were delivered to Israel Defense Forces soldiers through the “A Package from Home” organization.

Dear children of the St. Louis JCC: We would like to thank you for writing and decorating such lovely letters. The letters have been added to our packages that we give out to Chayelim Bodedim (soldiers with no family in Israel) and combat IDF soldiers.

Our winter packages contain a fleece blanket, bath towel, long sleeved T-shirt, long underwear, ski hat, gloves, 2 pairs of socks, neck warmer, boxer shorts, candies, snacks, toiletries and letters of appreciation.

Our summer packages contain a bath towel, T-shirt, boxer shorts, two pairs of socks, toiletries, candies, snacks and letters of appreciation.

Your letters make the soldiers feel greatly encouraged. The soldiers often tell us that these letters act as good luck charms and often they are posted on the bulletin boards in the bases.

One of the soldiers said, “After receiving my letter, it felt like waves of love coming across the ocean to embrace me.”

Elef Brachot (A Thousand Blessings).

Barbara Bloom Silverman

Founder, A Package from Home

A 9/11 Memorial the world may have missed

On 9/11/11, one of my friends sent me this youtube video to watch: http://goo.gl/0cXCm. This was a 9/11 memorial, in Jerusalem that was dedicated in 2009. The structure was made from some of the steel from the Twin Towers. The names of all the victims who died were placed on this memorial. I sent this to many of my friends, relatives and co-workers.

I got the same reply from all of them, “I didn’t know about this!” I even sent it to a rabbi, who showed it to a group of people at a meeting. None of the people attending the meeting knew of this memorial. True, the date 9/11 is over for the year and this was done two years ago, so why bring it up now?

There are many people who have negative feelings towards Israel. They need to see what Israel did for the United States, in this beautiful memorial structure. I feel every American should see this video, including the leaders of this country.

Trudy Wellen

Olivette