March 24, 2010
More than 40 Jewish women from Israel and the Diaspora came together last October to spend a week traveling across the Negev desert as part of the 2nd annual Desert Queen expedition, a celebration of feminism, Zionism and Jewish unity
by Maya Brenner
For the past 12 years, Geographical Tours Ltd. has been organizing week-long jeep tours for women in countries around the world. Two years ago, to mark Israel’s 60th birthday, the company organized a Desert Queen trip in Israel for the first time, in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel. The event was such a success that it was repeated in 2009, and a third trip is already being planned for October 2010. “The Israeli expeditions are special in that they bring together Israeli women and Jewish women from all over the Diaspora,” explains Yifat Yeger, the Geographical Tours’ Desert Queen project director.
Participants in the Israeli Desert Queen adventures are divided into teams of three or four women, and each team is assigned to a jeep. While some teams consist of women from the same country, many are mixed, often consisting of women whose home towns are linked through the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program. Partnership 2000 is a global platform connecting some 550 Jewish communities around the world in 45 partnerships, providing the opportunity for communities to connect and interpersonal relationships to flourish.
Yeger stresses that “no prior experience is necessary and everyone can do it. It is not particularly difficult and there is no need to be athletic or to know how to drive a 4x4 vehicle.” A staff of 10 accompanies the women and takes care of all their needs, including meals, accommodations at night (usually tents, but occasional hostels) and mechanical help with the cars. There is also a doctor on the staff, as well as a tour guide.
Message of freedom
Last October’s 2nd Israeli Desert Queen expedition was especially meaningful, as it aimed to call attention to the plight of soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held captive for nearly four years in the Gaza Strip. The trip set out from the Erez Checkpoint on Israel’s border with Gaza after a poignant ceremony attended by Shalit’s parents. “Meeting Gilad Shalit’s family was very emotional,” says Analia Aloni, one of the participants. “Furthermore, two of the women who participated were the sisters of Eldad Regev and Benny Avraham, soldiers who were kidnapped and killed in Lebanon. I think this gave us a sense of proportion throughout the event that any difficulties we encountered were trivial.”
After the emotional meeting with Gilad Shalit’s family, “each day the journey progressed emphasized even more the meaning of freedom and how privileged we were to be free and able to experience the Israeli desert and each other the way we did,” remarks Freda Surki, post-college program director for MASA.
Shalit’s plight was repeatedly remembered throughout the week. At one point, the women flew kites, represent ing the desire for freedom. On another day, they participated in a joint activity with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, which is involved in a project to prevent the extinction of the oryx, a type of antelope, from the Negev. Every year, the INPA releases a small number of the animals into the wild, but first they must spend time in an acclimation enclosure. The Desert Queen women built the enclosure’s fence by themselves, thereby helping the oryx on their journey to freedom - an activity which again symbolized the desire to see Gilad Shalit released from his captivity.
Although the women were busy every day from early in the morning until late at night, the long hours of driving were broken up with numerous well-planned and interesting activities. For example, participants learned to rappel in Mitzpe Ramon and also went on several hikes in the desert. Another highlight was the evening during which members of Partnership 2000’s Ofakim Women’s Ethnic Empowerment group cooked a festive meal for the Desert Queen participants and told about their experience starting their own cooking and catering business despite their modest backgrounds and limited resources. On a different day, the women met female soldiers from a combat unit when they visited their army base.
Personal enlightenment
After the send-off at Erez, the convoy of jeeps wove through the Negev Desert for a full week, until reaching their final destination in Eilat. “The first stages were hesitant; we had to get to know the other ‘girls’ and to become acquainted with the jeep and the new situation in which we found ourselves,” recalls Hana Sirkis-Katz, who is from Modi’in and serves as the Modi’in-Rochester Partnership director. “We set off for an interesting, indeed fascinating, adventure. Each woman came from a different place and with different ‘baggage,’ so that each of us actually had her own personal desert experience. I, for whom nature, the desert and sleeping outside are not foreign, enjoyed every single moment and especially the endless space. The team in my jeep was wonderful and so happy - constantly singing, cracking jokes and enjoying loads of laughter.”
Freda Surki agrees: “The moments that passed revealed the depth that each one of us has to offer; each woman and her own story, her own personal search and challenge, strengths and weaknesses, hopes and wishes, her own self. We learned more and more about each other and ourselves through the formal and informal conversations, the joint challenges that we had to face, our group activities, long hours of driving, moments of laughter and moments of crying.”
Hanny Shavit from Moshav Kadron also found the experience to be enlightening on a personal level: “I learned to accept help once offered, and more important than that - to ask for it when needed. Life teaches us to be tough and in control at all times, but in the desert you might find that you can not control everything and you can not do it all by yourself and you have to learn how to rely on your team mates and your friends.”
Close partnerships
One of the 4x4 vehicles in the jeep expedition was crewed by Paula Londe from Atlanta, Georgia, and Hagar Ben-Shalom and Analia Aloni from Yokneam-Megiddo. They were teamed together within the framework of the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program, which for more than a decade has twinned Yokneam-Megiddo with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. “Desert Queen was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life,” says Aloni, who is the director of sports activities at the Yokneam Community Center. “It was a truly moving Zionist experience and feminist experience. I’d never done anything like this before.”
Londe stresses that Desert Queen was a wonderful chance to meet people she would never have otherwise encountered. “Analia graciously hosted me in her home before the trip began, inviting me to stay before we even met,” she recalls. “Analia and Hagar were patient and helpful with my elementary school Hebrew, which was rusty from years of not being used. I said that it was stuck in my head and couldn’t find its way to my mouth! But as our time together progressed, the Hebrew came out much more quickly. And their English was incredible!”
Lori Abramson, a US immigrant living in Yokneam and a Partnership 2000 volunteer, prepared Aloni and Ben-Shalom for Desert Queen. “The event meant the Yokneam-Megiddo women would be spending the week with a lot of North American Jewish women, so I helped polish up their English and explained to them about US Jewry, the Federations system and structure. They found it very enlightening.” Ben-Shalom, a social worker with the Megiddo Regional Council, says that for her one of the highlights of Desert Queen was the Kabbalat Shabbat and Friday night meal they all shared in a Negev field school. “There was a great sense of togetherness throughout the week and never was this more evident than at the Kabbalat Shabbat, which stressed how much we Israeli and Jewish women have in common,” she remarks.
Judy Yuda, the Jewish Agency’s Yokneam/Megiddo Partnership Director, who herself participated in last year’s Desert Queen journey in the Negev, agrees that the experience is remarkable. “It was an opportunity to see Israel in a totally different way for both Israeli and Diaspora women,” she says. “Sleeping under the stars, changing flat tires and holding desert parties created a uniquely intimate and intense atmosphere, in which we were all able to get to know each other.”
A unique experience
Hanny Shavit speaks candidly about how her Desert Queen experience affected her. “I went to this adventure after a very difficult period in my life and I was completely empty. I needed this outing to disconnect from my life and to get some air. They told us that we will come back home with a spark in our eyes, a smile stretched from ear to ear and floating some 10 cm. above ground. I did. Only on the way home did I realize how much energy I have charged my batteries with. For me the experience was purifying and empowering in ways I could not have imagined - friendships I never believed would happen, surprises of my physical abilities and things that I can do.”
At first she was hesitant to participate, but her anxieties soon dissipated. “At first I feared the idea of 40 women together, but it turned out to be an amazing experience,” admits Shavit. “There was no rivalry and no bigotries, just comradeship and support. The route was amazing, with great views and driving challenges.”
Shavit’s team of Israeli women was matched with four young girls from MASA who were spending the year in Israel on a one-year program and were chosen to participate. She was impressed with them, as well as with the other Diaspora women. “I found this encounter fruitful and beneficial for all parties involved,” she notes. “It was very interesting to see our country through their eyes. It is customary to think that Israeli women are strong and ‘macho,’ but those women from America were just as determined as us and it was great. The whole atmosphere was amazing.”
In conclusion, says Shavit, “this is not a vacation. It is a unique experience, a voyage to me.”