July 13, 2007 – Under
the leadership of 16-year-old activist
Gabrielle Flaum of Short
Hills, NJ, the URJ Eisner and Crane Lake Camps
represented the Reform Movement’s youth during the
“Free the Soldiers Rally” on Monday, July 16, 2007
at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at the United Nations in
New York City.
S.O.S.: Save Our Soldiers (“S.O.S.”),
the national youth movement created by Flaum upon
returning home from a NFTY in Israel trip last
summer, is dedicated to raising the awareness of
captured soldiers Regev, Goldwasser, and Shalit.
Flaum will be joined by a delegation of 300 people
including the Eisner and Crane Lake Camps’
Machon
Leadership Program participants, members of the
Camps’ Israeli staff and faculty members, as well as
campers from Kutz Campus, the Union for Reform
Judaism’s NFTY Leadership Academy.
“S.O.S., Gabrielle
Flaum and her peers have become a driving force in
the effort to win the release of Israel’s kidnapped
soldiers, demonstrating a deep and abiding
commitment to advocacy,
tikkun olam
and the prophetic ideal that serves as the
underpinning of Reform Judaism,” said Rabbi Eric
Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.
“In these and all their deeds, may these young
people go from strength to strength and may the work
of their hands help to bring about the swift and
safe return of Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and
Gilad Shalit.”
Flaum became the
leading force behind legislation that was introduced
in the New Jersey State Legislature, demanding that
the United Nations assist in the release of the
soldiers (SR94/AR244). Flaum and S.O.S. testified
before the New Jersey State Assembly and Senate,
leading to the passage of the Resolution two weeks
ago, becoming the first state to pass such a
resolution.
A product of the
Reform Movement and member of Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel,
Flaum is currently a counselor-in-training in the
Machon
Leadership Program at Eisner Camp, after having
spent ten summers as a camper. Upon her return to
the United States last year, Flaum sought an outlet
to release her energy and new found passion for
Israel. She hoped to do something for the three
kidnapped soldiers and engage others in her mission.
“Eisner Camp and the
Reform Movement are proud that Gabrielle’s devotion
has manifested itself in New Jersey and hopes that
her work will be continued at the United Nations,”
said Louis Bordman, Senior Director of URJ Eisner
and Crane Lake Camps.
Machon campers Robbie Heeger and
Aaron Mazie wrote
Pikuach Nefesh, a song supporting Israeli
soldiers, while in Arad, Israel during the
Israeli-Lebanese conflict in the summer of 2006. The
song, which will be performed during the rally,
urges peace and unity in the Middle East from the
eyes of our Jewish-American youth.
Through advocacy and
activism, this group hopes to engage others in the
Jewish values of
pikuach nefesh (saving a life) and
hava’at shalom beyn
adam l’chaveyro (making peace amongst
human beings), carried out through the
mitzvot
(commandments) of
pidyon shvuyim
(the redemption of captives) and
tikkun olam (repairing the world), to
simultaneously act quickly to bring our soldiers
home.
This rally was
sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major
Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community
Relations Council of New York and in cooperation
with the United Jewish Communities, the Jewish
Council for Public Affairs, the UJA-Federation of
New York, and the American Zionist Movement, and
urged the United Nations to demand the immediate and
unconditional release of Israeli soldiers Gilad
Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev, who were
kidnapped by Hamas and Hezbollah one year ago.
To learn more about
Shalit, Goldwasser, and Regev, please visit
www.freethesoldiers.org. For more on the New
Jersey State Resolution please visit:
www.njleg.state.nj.us/2006/Bills/SR/94_I1.PDF
