Dear Lab/Shul Community, The Refugee Task Force is excited to invite you to join Lab/Shul’s upcoming trip to Lesbos, Greece this July 28 to August 4 to support the International School of Peace. The ISOP is an extraordinary school founded by Jewish and Arab Israeli educators to serve hundreds of children whose refugee journeys bring them through the island of Lesbos. Lab/Shul is sending community members to Lesbos for a week this summer to support the ISOP’s mission by volunteering at the school, meeting the school’s teachers, students, and parents, learning about the history of the refugee crisis, visiting the island’s refugee camps, and celebrating Shabbat together.
Want details about the trip? (It’s filling up!) Click here Want to learn more about the ISOP, including how to donate? Click here Want to join us? Email ISOPtrip@gmail.com
As part of Lab/Shul’s ongoing support for the ISOP, members of our community including Amichai, Boris Khmelnitskiy, and Nathaniel Obler have traveled to Lesbos over the last year to visit the school and volunteer. Nathaniel spent a week there in December 2018 and wrote a summary of his experience with some pictures from the school.
Hi, I’m Nathaniel Obler and I’m helping organize this summer’s Lab/Shul trip to Lesbos. After meeting the Israeli ISOP team at the Lab/Shul fundraiser in NYC in mid-December, I departed a week later to fly to Lesbos via Athens. I stayed at a small, affordable Airbnb in the middle of Mytilene, which was an easy five or ten minute drive or taxi (or 30 minute run!) from the school, and only 10 or 15 minutes from the airport. I spent my first days getting adjusted to life on the island, which is slow-paced and starts late, and helping out at the school, which is bustling and high-energy from the minute the first student arrives by bus from the camps until the last student departs after the evening meal. Behind the commotion, the Israeli administrators, refugee teachers, and students themselves run the schooldays smoothly, so I was mostly able to assist with tasks like slicing apples and preparing grilled cheeses for the afternoon snack, bringing supplies to teachers’ classrooms while they taught, escorting students who needed to get from one place to another, and leading games and playing with students during recess. The best part of these days was connecting with teachers and students during breaks, recess, meals, bus rides, and in the staff room. On the days the school was closed for Christmas and New Year’s I rolled up my sleeves to help the Israeli team and some of the teachers improve the school physically. We painted the exterior walls of the ISOP’s newest classroom and repaired and extended a fence enclosing the school’s front yard. These days I wasn’t with the students, but working hand-in-hand with the team from Israel was special and particularly rewarding was seeing the tangible results of my contribution around the school. On these days I also had a chance to explore the island, which is beautiful (particularly in the summer, I’m told!), including some long runs in the hills and hiking on Mt. Olympus with new friends. The food I enjoyed throughout my trip was also remarkably good and every meal on the island seemed to consist of very fresh and simple local Greek dishes.
I’m still in touch with many students and teachers from ISOP whom I’ll never forget. One teacher I became close with was Estera, a smart and gifted young woman who is on a long journey with her husband and toddler which began at her Syrian university, to Turkey, then Lesbos, and now to Athens and onto elsewhere in Europe. Despite her young family’s difficult circumstances and the uncertainty in their future, Estera came to school every day with a calmness and warmth that made her a favorite of the students. After celebrating New Year’s together at the community center, she told me that she had a book to write, which she had in fact been writing for years, about the refugee experience, so that everyone from all over would have the chance to understand what it’s like to live as a refugee in the modern world. I remembered Amichai’s moving words to our community that we were all refugees once; that Sister or Brother, today it may be you, tomorrow it may be me.
My experience at the ISOP was extraordinary. I don’t think you could take a trip this summer anywhere quite as special as Lesbos. If you have a chance to visit this school – you should take it! I’d be happy to answer any questions by phone, email, or otherwise, and you can reach me through ISOPtrip@gmail.com. With love, Nathaniel
