The volunteers from Boston

Every year, Steve and Carol Doppelt gather a number of American friends and volunteer in Haifa for an entire month

Reuters | Published: 03.31.11, 08:12

Steve and Carol Doppelt have been living in the United States for four generations. At first the family lived in New York and then moved to Boston, where they live to this day. And yet every year they arrive in Israel with a growing group of volunteers for an entire month of voluntary activities in the Haifa area.

Why? Because they feel like it.

"We visited Israel for the first time to celebrate our son's bar mitzvah in Jerusalem," says Steve. "After that time we simply fell in love with the country and realized that we wanted to come back here again and again.

"Since then we try to come every year, just to volunteer. We bring along good Jews who love the country and try to do all they can to develop Haifa and help educate the next generation."

The latest delegation, which landed here about two months ago, included 15 people who volunteered in the northern city's schools for four weeks. They taught the children English and tried to help in whichever way they could, even with matters requiring labor.

All this took place thanks to the Boston-Haifa Partnership which flew them here, while the city's residents took care of their accommodation.

"We feel like we've come home when we arrive here," Steve adds. "We want Israelis know that in spite of the situation there are always people who will come and stand by them here. We do it every year and we're happy to see the positive effect of what we do. Let's hope we can continue coming and doing this for many more years."

Why don't you just make aliyah?

"The truth is that we've also taken the opportunity to study Hebrew in an ulpan. Who knows, maybe in the future we'll even make aliyah."