המשפחה הישראלית The Israeli Family

01/08/2021

Exactly 1 decade ago, we left our house in the desert, we left our elder daughter in TLV, and started a very special world tour: The Israeli Family project. We created this idea 2 years earlier and set a date for taking off: August 1st, 2011.
For 7 most intesive months we travelled through 33 countries and states to talk about the Israeli people, about our life, about everything that was interesting for the crowds to hear.
For 7 months we attended more than 300 !!! occasions, from potlucks to theatres, from east to west, from north to south, from kindergartens to retirement homes, we were everywhere. From NBC to deserted radio shows, we were there.

Ten years after, back in our Moshav, a wider family with kids who are much older, with much more experience, in the same house with the same garden, we still cherish this challenging period of time and still miss all the many people we met and cooperated with, and still remember the constant movement and the endless adrenaline that we had for breakfest, lunch and dinner.

Thank you for following us then and since.

Oksana and Chami Zemach

25/10/2020

Today I met with my “families”: Eritrean refugees living in Israel.

My goodness, how hard it is!
Their needs are so great! Most of them worked in restaurants or shopping malls - the very places that have been shut down for so long now. The children are home from school and most don’t have computers or internet. Those children who used to get a hot meal at day care now have to go without. People who have lost their jobs have no health insurance or unemployment benefits. There is no money for diapers, baby food, rent, electricity, nor for health insurance for the children – the list is endless!
We are all exhausted by the situation but the refugees have no one to whom to appeal: so I am appealing in their name!
We need money to purchase basic food staples, baby formula, diapers. We need regular funding for rent aid and for health insurance at least for the children. These are the most urgent necessities of the moment.

I am Oksana Zemach, a volunteer with the Negev Center for Refugees and you can contact me with questions at 0097252-3422397 or at [email protected] Tax-deductible donations can be made via Rabbis for Human Rights (who will transfer the money to us). https://rhr.org.il/eng/donations/

If you can commit to making a monthly donation, no matter how small, this will help us to budget the resources needed to support the Eritrean community. Please pass this appeal on to as many people as you can!

Thank you!

https://payboxapp.page.link/AR8BN46naG7vbqa39

02/08/2019

It is already 8 years since we went on the road.
More then 300 programs and meetings in almost 8 months, talking about "The Israeli Family", our point of view on the the Israeli society and its challenges.
Dozens of thousands of people, kids and adults, were part of this groundbraking project, hundreds of interviews to the media and a very nice Israeli web series who followed our steps.
8 years !

52 שבועות, 27 מדינות, 4 יבשות. חמשת בני משפחת צמח יצאו למסע חובק עולם במטרה אחת: להכיר לעולם את המשפחה הישראלית. וואלה! תלווה אותם במהלך המסע מדי שבוע. ציונות,...

20/11/2018

אירוע ההכרזה על הזוכים בפרס הכתיבה - 'באר' 2, על שם בארי צימרמן, יתקיים ביום רביעי, 5 בדצמבר 2018, נר רביעי של חנוכה, בשעה 19:00 בבית עלמא, רח' שד"ל 6 תל אביב.
תלמידיו ומוקירי דרכו של בארי צימרמן מוזמנים להצטרף אל המשפחה, החברים, בוגרי המכינות הקדם צבאיות, מורים ועמיתים שהיו שותפים לדרכו.

לפרטים נוספים: 052-2756225

20/11/2018

אירוע ההכרזה על הזוכים בפרס הכתיבה - 'באר' 2, על שם בארי צימרמן, יתקיים ביום רביעי, 5 בדצמבר 2018, נר רביעי של חנוכה, בשעה 19:00 בבית עלמא, רח' שדל 6 תל אביב.
תלמידיו ומוקירי דרכו של בארי צימרמן מוזמנים להצטרף אל המשפחה, החברים, בוגרי המכינות הקדם צבאיות, מורים ועמיתים שהיו שותפים לדרכו.

לפרטים נוספים: 052-2756225

הזדמנות אחרונה להגיש יצירות לפרס 'באר' 2018!

20/11/2018

איזה כיף. מסתבר שהקטע הזה הועלה לרשת על ידי תאגיד "כאן" לפני כשנתיים ובמקרה נתקלנו בו אתמול. עברו שבע וחצי שנים וכיף להיזכר בהתלהבות הגדולה שמילאה אותנו, ברגעי החשיפה שהיו טובים אך מורכבים, במאמץ המשפחתי המשותף וגם בתכניות הגדולות, חלקן התקדמו אתנו והבשילו לכדי עשייה וחלקן נותרו כרעיונות נהדרים שיושבים עמוק במגירה. היה מדהים אז ומדהים לא פחות גם עכשיו.

06/11/2018

We were honored to host a short visit today of Joan Wilson and Martyn Wilson, a Canadian couple from British Columbia, who followed us on a daily basis during our world tour in 2011-2012, supporting us with their good thoughts and prayers. It is their 2nd visit to us and we would love seeing them again here soon.
Good people are hard to find and in case you meet some, you should take good care of them, because there are not many of them.

01/05/2017

Yom Hazikaron - "Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism" - in our garden.
It is spring time, a good time to remember the loved ones who died while defending our lives, our society, our beloved contry. A time to remember those who died while serving in the IDF and Israel's other forces. The time to remember those who were murdered by terror attacks and by the radicals who aim to destroy our state and the world that we live at.
It is spring time and the garden is blooming while some of the flowers fall on the ground and we try to remember them all.
It always comes together here.

30/04/2017

On May 12 2004, an M-113 APC carrying 5 IDF soldiers was hit by an anti-tank missile when trying to track down tunnels used to smuggle weapon from Sinai to the Gaza strip. The APC was exploded and since it was carrying explosives to blast the tunnels, it was blown into pieces that were spread all over a wide area on the “Philadelphi” rout between the Egyptian border and the south area of the Gaza strip.

This tragic event and few others that happened before was followed by a wide IDF operation in that area called “Operation Rainbow”.

Only an hour after the APC was blown up, a group of young soldiers was brought to the place where the APC was hit for the toughest mission of their life. They were called to do something that I believe no other army has even done. They were given an order to search every inch of the sand and to pick all the pieces of the bodies of their friends who were exploded in the APC.

I call this picture of the IDF soldiers who crawl on sand seeking for the small parts of what had left of their friends: “That Picture”.

That Picture

That picture is the toughest picture I have ever seen

That picture is the most human picture I have ever seen

This is our picture

This is our picture

That picture shows us who we are

That picture shows our deepest values

This is how we look like

This is how we look like

That picture you will never see in any other place

That picture you must cherish and memorize

Carry this picture in you

Carry this picture in you

When we look ourselves in the mirror

When we track a wrinkle here and stubbles there

When we endlessly criticize ourselves

When we slap our faces till we bleed

Remember this picture

Remember this picture

[Chami Zemach]
http://il-family.com/en/?p=569

30/04/2017

התמונה הזו היא התמונה הקשה ביותר שאני מכיר,

התמונה הזו היא התמונה האנושית ביותר שראיתי בחיי,

זאת התמונה שלנו.

זאת התמונה שלנו.

התמונה הזו היא מי שאנחנו,

התמונה הזו היא הערכים שלנו,

ככה אנחנו נראים.

ככה אנחנו נראים.

את התמונה הזו לא תראו בשום מקום אחר בעולם,

את התמונה הזו צריך לשנן היטב,

קחו אותה אתכם.

קחו אותה אתכם.

כשאנחנו מסתכלים על עצמנו בראי ורואים קמט פה וזיף מיותר שם,

בביקורת גדולה, סותרים על לחיינו עד זוב דם,

זכרו את התמונה הזו.

זכרו את התמונה הזו.

[חמי צמח, ערב יום הזיכרון לחללי מערכות ישראל, תשע"ב]

http://il-family.com/he/?p=1974

17/04/2017

We first met Or Bass and Noam Weinstain in the annual conference of the Shlichim of the The Jewish Agency for Israel in North America, in New York State, on November 2011. We became friends in few minutes. Then, they were a very young couple, passionate for their mission in Youngstown, Ohio, and the first among the emissaries who understood the potential of the program of המשפחה הישראלית The Israeli Family.
Now they are still a young (young but older) couple, they got beautiful twins, and they are even more passionate about their demanding works in the Israeli education system.
And we are still good friends.
We were very happy to have you here again Or and Noam, Itamar and Gilad.