Dozens of sets of the Four Species – etrog, palm, myrtle, and willow – traditionally used for prayers during the festival of Sukkot have recently been transferred to the few Jews still living in Arab countries like Syria and Iraq.
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The Yad L'Achim organization took care to organize the shipments, which were transferred in a secret operation.
Amir, the Yad L'Achim official responsible for overseeing the organization's operations, explained this week that the Four Species sets were in transit to "various countries."
Video: Yad L'Achim/Yahaduton
According to the outreach group, sets have also been supplied to Jewish women who married Arab Israeli men in Israel, and their children.
In recent years, Yad L'Achim has been working to bring Jews living in Arab countries and Arabic-speaking Jews elsewhere in the world closer together. Arabic-speaking Jews in Palestinian refugee camps, whose mothers are Jewish, have also reportedly reached out to the group and asked for help strengthening their Jewish identities.
Yad L'Achim offers them information about Judaism and support in the form of Torah lessons by telephone and shipments of items for Jewish holidays.
Increased outreach to Arabic-speaking Jews has led to a corresponding rise in demand for Jewish information in Arabic, such as guidance on various issues of Jewish law. In response, Yad L'Achim has begun cooperating with the YouTube channel Yahduton, which has produced dozens of outreach videos on Jewish subjects.
As part of the initiatives, actors who speak Arabic have been recruited to help make a video titled "How Do You Build a Sukkah?" The video is expected to reach Arabic-speaking Jews and make the holiday more accessible for them.
"There are dozens more Jewish outreach videos on the horizon," Yad L'Achim promised. "It excites us every time to discover the strong desire among Jews who reach out to us from places we never imagined."
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