The Ebenezer Emergency Fund Germany has maintained close ties with the exchange partners of Yitzchak Rabin High School in Tel Mond for many years. After October 7 they have been in even closer contact with each other.

Since the Israeli Ministry of Education didn’t allow their school partners in Tel Mond to come to Germany in December 2023 due to a rise of antisemitism in Europe after the massacre on October 7, the group leaders Angelika Pranzas and Stefanie Böhmann decided go to Israel to visit the school, the organization SELAH, their partners and dear friends. They shared the grief, the deep pain and depression that is laying like a cover over the country, over every single family.

The visit in Israel in January 2024 meant a lot to everyone involved in this exchange partnership. Group leader Stefanie Böhmann wrote a detailed report about their 5 intense days of encounters that you can read here [only in German]. Several students and teachers of Yitzchak Rabin High School in Tel Mond also wrote letters to share their thoughts with us. You can read them here [in English].

Reflecting on all the encounters and discussions they had during those days, Böhmann concludes:

They are happy about everyone who listens to them and makes the effort to listen carefully, who tries to understand them and believes in peace. Knowing that these lines are very personal, I would like to encourage every reader to read information carefully and check facts. I wish everyone the opportunity to speak to an Israeli at eye level in order to learn to understand this people and their plight. Because ‘never again’ is now!