Eagle Scout Andrew Cerame of Troop 252 in East Brunswick presents a commemorative patch from the Ten Commandments Hike to Israeli Scout Ayah Bar-Oryan as fellow members of the Tzofim Friendship Caravan look on.
Photos by Debra Rubin
June 24, 2008
Ten talented teenage Israeli Scouts came to Middlesex County this month to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel through song and dance.
The 11th-graders, accompanied by two slightly older leaders, brought their Tzofim Friendship Caravan to Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick June 4, where their exuberance proved contagious.
The group also performed June 3 at Congregation Neve Shalom in Metuchen.
Audience members in New Brunswick — including local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Brownies who participated in the opening ceremony — clapped along to tunes celebrating the history of Israel, from “Jerusalem of Gold,” to a new take on “Adon Olam,” to the national anthem, “Hatikva.”
Performing in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish, the five male and five female Scouts changed costume several times, performing in uniforms, Middle Eastern garb, festive blue-and-white outfits, and in attire characteristic of shtetl life.
The program included a film about Sderot, the Israeli town that has been subjected to daily missile attacks from Gaza for seven years, and how the Israeli Scouts movement has helped young people there cope with the stress.
A plea was made to remember three captured Israeli soldiers — Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev, and Gilad Shalit — who were abducted in the summer of 2006.
The concerts were coordinated by the Raritan Valley, Metuchen-Edison Gesher, and Colonia Hadassah chapters and their male “associate members.”
Proceeds were earmarked for programs in the United States and Israel sponsored by Young Judaea, the Zionist Youth Movement of Hadassah.
Israeli Scouts celebrated Israel’s 60th anniversary in song and dance during performances June 3 and 4 in Middlesex County.
“They bring that pride to us as American Jews,” she said.
This is the second year in a row that the chapters have hosted the Scouts. Last year’s concert at Neve Shalom was such a hit that a second engagement was added this year.
This year marks the 35th anniversary that the Tzofim scouting movement has sent Friendship Caravans to the United States for three months each summer, bringing Israeli culture to America and encouraging friendship between both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences and Israel.
Israeli Scouts from the Tzofim Friendship Caravan pose with local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Brownies following a June 4 performance by the Israelis at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick.
“We have come to connect with and teach Jewish Americans about Israel,” said Bar Shelley of Lod, a student at a science high school. “It has been very nice. Americans have been so warm and hospitable to us.”
Sharon Cohen of Ramat Gan, who studies cinema and likes to compose songs, said her experience so far has been “really amazing. It’s been really great to see all these people at our shows.”
After the performance, the Israelis were presented with commemorative patches from the annual Ten Commandments Hike by Eagle Scout Andrew Cerame of Troop 252 in East Brunswick, who was one of the hike’s four organizers.
This year’s hike, under the auspices of the Central New Jersey Council of the Jewish Committee on Scouting, took scouts of all religions to various houses of worship to learn about each of the Ten Commandments.
Audience member Mikayla Talmud, nine, of East Brunswick said she “liked the music. I also like that they’re having a show here while they go around the country.”
Aviva Kamens, nine, of Highland Park found the performance “kind of interesting” but, she added, “it also looked tiring.”
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