The Whole (ESRA) Country is Pulling Together

Knitting Groups 

There are so many people volunteering in so many ways. People pick fruit, wash clothes for the many evacuees staying in hotels, and cook food for evacuees as well as soldiers. The whole country is pulling together to help where they can. Each week volunteers are working with ESRA, Sarel, and Bayit Shel Benji, to name a few nonprofit organizations. The ESRA volunteers are amazing, they know exactly what they have to do, no matter what age or where they live or how long they've lived in Israel, they are all busy.

We have many knitting clubs in different parts of Israel, Degania Bet, Netanya, Raanana, Modiin, Beer Sheva, and Ramat Hasharon. Many, many items have been donated to hospitals, soldiers, and young children—hundreds of items knitted with love and care. I am enclosing remarks from some of our wonderful volunteers. I'm sure they are all looking for new volunteers.

Well done to all our volunteer knitting groups

Beer Sheva Knitting Group, aka the "Wool Pack", gets together once a week to knit, chat and relax. We have just knitted 15 black hats for soldiers to keep them warm while they are fighting to keep us safe, we pray for their safe return. Before the war, the lovely ladies of our knitting group made Twiddle Muffs and fidget balls for seniors with dementia. The twiddle muff with items attached helps keep fidgety hands active, busy, and warm and gives dementia patients the power of self-soothing. Before Rosh Hashanah we donated our muffs to the geriatric ward in the mental health center, where they were received with great joy.

Sharon Frankel

Deganya Bet

Our group has about 20 members. We meet on the first Monday of the month and have a potluck lunch. Anything left over goes to the volunteer guards which they greatly appreciate.

We knit baby blankets and hats for the maternity units in Poriya and Nazareth. Particularly welcome in Nazareth where the nurse in charge ensures that the blankets go to needy mothers.

We make teddy bears for the Jordan River Village which provides holidays for children with chronic illnesses. Each child is given a teddy bear to take home.

We also make catheter bag covers, knitted or sewn, that we give to social workers for distribution.

Many hats and balaclavas were sent to the soldiers. We have many contacts, mainly children or grandchildren who are in the army and the soldiers take the knitted items to their units.

Carol Eisenberg

Raanana Knitting Club

Every Tuesday morning the ladies of the club meet to knit, chat and catch up with their friends. There is always delicious cake especially if someone has a birthday. Lots of knitted dolls are sent to different hospitals and the small children love them. Beautiful knitted sweaters are sent to young children. Some people knit in their own homes and deliveries have come (in the past) from Australia and the UK. Woolen hats are knitted and sent to many of our soldiers so that they can keep warm at night.

Rivka Walles

Petah Tikva

We all know that ESRA has wonderful programs, clubs, help groups, bookshops, and second-hand stores. Recently I had contact (with the help of Glenis who made the connection) to the Raanana Knitting Club.

I have recently started to volunteer in Petach Tikvah and there is a whole range of families, from all religions and walks of life who unfortunately find themselves in stressful circumstances.

A kind word and a little prize / gift help the visit to have a positive feeling, and the wonderful knitted toys from the Raanana knitting group certainly were received with a big smile.

We have also received wonderful knitted hats, cardigans, and ponchos which have been knitted with much love and care by the knitting ladies. These items are passed on to needy children so that they can have as much positive influence as possible.

Thank you to all the ESRA members who volunteer their time and invest so much care and attention to helping those they don't know, just for the pleasure of giving.

Miriam Crosby

Ramat Hasharon

I'm managing two knitting circles, in cooperation with Migvanim Kiriat Hazeerim, Ramat Hasharon, which I started four years ago. Each group has 12 knitters, and most of them are pensioners. We meet once a week, one group on Sunday, and one on Monday morning. We aim to bring joy to children and today, also to soldiers. Lately, we knitted 250 hats for the soldiers and 50 hats for children from the South. Besides this, we knit a lot of "animals / dolls" which we bring to the hospital and to shelters for the children of battered women and kindergartens, etc.

Arlette Kaplan

Modiin

It has now been nine years since our wonderful knitting group started. From a small group of 10 eager ladies we now number 21 ladies. Not only do we knit and crochet, our group has also become firm friends, and we all enjoy our fortnightly social morning.

Over the years we have made various items, such as hats, booties, and blankets for premature babies. Scarves, hats, and gloves as gifts for the children in NEVE ESRA. Neve Esra is a project, funded and run by ESRA Modiin, for children in need of a place of safety after school. Bed socks, hats, gloves, scarves, and blankets for various old age facilities. Besides all the above we make wonderful knitted and crocheted toys which are distributed to the children in hospitals. We were proud to have knitted special prostheses for women who have had a mastectomy. Lastly, but most importantly, we have been very busy knitting hats and gloves for the soldiers. So much that you could not find any black wool in the stores in and around Modiin.

Every year we deliver boxes full of our finished items to hospitals around Israel. For example, Schneider Hospital, Hadassah Hospital, and Share Tzedek. This year we sent a box of different items to a group of evacuees from the South, who are living temporarily in Modiin.

We welcome any keen knitter to join our group and would be happy to receive donations of wool.

Rhona Berzack

Netanya

The Netanya Knitting Group is under the leadership of Rose Glaskie. The group grows daily both in Netanya and in England, where Rose has enlisted many knitters to help the cause.

This year the knitting group delivered more than 300 jerseys, dresses, sleeveless, and long-sleeve pullovers to over nine kindergartens (in weaker areas of Netanya). Added to this were beautiful scarves, hats and hand mittens. The visits to the kindergartens were a huge success for the children, teachers, and knitters themselves with much fun trying on the items. The larger hats and mittens were happily received by our students in the Students Build a Community Project in Netanya. Since October 7th the group has worked tirelessly to knit hats and scarves to provide extra warmth for our brave soldiers, especially as the night temperatures drop drastically in both the north and south of the country.

Nina Zuck

Rishon LeZion

This group has been volunteering for about 30 years. Unfortunately, the branch is now officially closed but they did send a great selection of 120 knitted scarves, neck warmers, and hats for the soldiers. Up to not long ago eight knitters were working in their own homes.

Lorna Toube

Tel Aviv

Lucy has been running the Tel Aviv knitting group for 18 years. She also organizes a knitting group in her seniors club. Unfortunately, there are only five people involved. They are hoping to get together again in February when a number of their group will be returning from other countries. They have knitted small puppets for children from broken families. They did get messages from Bayit Shel Benji saying that they needed various items and they managed to send off 99 hats. They will be knitting for the homeless via a request from the south Tel Aviv municipality. They are always looking for new knitters in their group.

Lucy Laketer