Left to right: ESRA volunteers Harriet Eisenberg, Jean Ullman and Gert Goldstein manning the table with Ethiopian embroidery products at the Hadassah 100th birthday celebrations.

After a summer of great preparation and thanks to Phyllis Bloch, the Head of ESRA’s Ethiopian Embroidery Project, Gondart, the beautifully embroidered items were displayed for sale at the International Hadassah Convention in Jerusalem.

Phyllis, together with her group of amazing volunteers, spent long hours and days preparing for this convention, and on the day travelled by taxi to Jerusalem together with many boxes of embroidered and printed articles.

A crowd of 1700 delegates participated in the 3-day conference at the National Convention Center in Jerusalem.

On the first day the biggest demand was for our challah covers – the royal line of the collection. On the second day, the star Ethiopian embroiderers, Zafira Adany and Osnat Kabeta, joined us and delighted the visitors at the convention with their skill and expertise.

The Hadassah staff and volunteers welcomed us and treated us well, recognizing the worth of this project by giving us a table for our goods free of charge.

After three hectic days, our exhausted but happy team members spent the weekend with their feet up and are now ready to continue their dedicated work. We still have all our old favorites and many new items such as Kindle and I-Pad covers and, of course, the ever popular guest towels.

We’re looking for one-time volunteers to offer their homes and invite their friends for a morning’s sale of these beautiful products. If you’d like to share in this lovely program, please call Phyllis at 09 767 6526.

Our deep thanks and appreciation go to Phyllis and her team of volunteers - Harriet Eisenberg, Denise Silverman, Cecily Hanson, Gert Goldstein and Jean Ullman. This is true volunteering together for the community. "Yasher Koach"!