On March 28, Rev. Billye and Pastors Lynn & Mac Hammond led a delegation of church leadership to visit the City of Ariel. Billye and the Hammonds are long time friends of Ariel and Mayor Ron Nachman. Fortunately, Mayor Nachman successfully changed his plans that day to make the time for his distinguished guests and their group’s participants.
After an eye-opening visit to the Ariel National Leadership Development Center, the group was greeted by Mayor Nachman at the Ariel Regional Center for the Performing Arts. Mayor Nachman spoke not only about the City of Ariel and its achievements but also about the many meaningful joint experiences that he and his guests had shared.
After meeting with Mayor Nachman, the group proceeded to the Ariel Holocaust and Heroism Memorial Museum. There they met Irena & Kuba Vadislavsky who shared their personal stories of survival under unimaginably difficult circumstances. The group was touched by the experience, expressing the desire to spend more time with Irena and Kuba on future visits.
The group tour of Ariel and Samaria continued into the evening when they enjoyed a private dance performance by two of Ariel’s youth dancing troupes. In addition to the impressive Hasidic, birthday, Italian and cowboy cultural dances, our visitors were dually impressed by the origin of our young performers: each and everyone was
either born in the Former Soviet Union or born to parents who made aliyah from the Former Soviet Union. It was then that much of what we had discussed over the course of the day came together. The significance of the “ingathering of the exiles” as a living and breathing reality, far beyond a theoretical dreamlike idea, is part and parcel of Ariel’s community rhythm.
The following morning, after departing from the Eshel Hashomron Hotel, the group insisted on one final stop at the Antenna Hill IDF Post. As Lynn Hammond pointed out, the only way to truly understand the security situation in Israel today is to see Ariel, its neighbors and the role of the IDF all from one vantage point. Lynn was right – Antenna Hill and the Israel’s Security Fence helped our visitors appreciate what it means for a People to renew their presence in their historic and biblical land – despite the countless aggressors who threaten their survival.
We thank our esteemed guests for their visit, and we look forward to hosting them again in Ariel in the near future.