Midreshet Yeud

Soup Kitchen, one out of the many fulfilling choices I have for sherut leumi at midreshet Yeud does not only put a smile on so many people's faces, but it makes me smile seeing others happy as well.

For my Sheirut Leumi requirement i work on a therapeutic horse ranch where we help mobily disabled children gain mobility through riding on horses while getting them to do different movements simultaneously.

Once a week I do my Sherut Leumi at a nursing home called Hod Yerushalayim. It is not an easy place to volunteer at, as most of the residents are very low functioning; some of them have suffered from strokes and have lost limbs.

When deciding on which Sherut Leumi jobs I wanted to do, I was very specific. I tried out a few until I found two jobs that I absolutely loved: The Chabad School and Shalva. On Mondays, I go to the Chabad School to teach children English.

Throughout high school I volunteered for an organization called Keshet that works with children that have different types of disabilities. When I decided that I wanted to spend my year in Israel, I knew that I wanted to continue to work with children with various disabilities.

My Sheirut Leumi on Monday mornings at the Tali School is one of the most worthwhile experiences I’ve ever had. Once a week I walk down the block to a conservative school and help teach the Israeli children English in grades 3,4,5 and 6.
There is one specific time I’ll never forget.

Even before coming to Israel, I knew that I wanted to volunteer in a soup kitchen. In America, it’s the kind of thing that people only think to do on Thanksgiving Day; but here, it is a much more common thing to do on a daily basis. Volunteering at Chazon Yeshaya is a new experience every week.

Today is our last day of Sherut Leumi. We’ve volunteered for ten months, loving, hating, and learning. Some have stayed, dedicated to one organization, while others have weaved around, spreading chesed in many.

On Wednesdays, I work at Chazon Yeshayah, a soup kitchen in Yerushalayim. As any cook with tell you, working in a kitchen is hard work. Peeling potatoes or carrots can get tedious and the pressure to get the food cooked before all the people arrive for lunch can get intense.

I work at Melabev, a day center for the elderly struggling with dementia. The work is interesting and sometimes hard, but sometimes just funny. One day, they were doing exercises with everyone and I saw there was a woman not participating.