In February, 2012, with the help of an ROI Micro Grant, Shimon Levy participated in an international delegation devoted to sharing the realities of Israeli life.

This past February, a delegation of 75 Israelis from all religious and ethnic backgrounds set out on a 10-day journey to over 13 different countries around the world to advocate for Israel. This diverse group was comprised of Druze, Ethiopians, Israeli-Arabs, Hasidic Jewish members and more individuals from Israel's vastly multicultural society. The individuals present were so different from one other by tradition, culture and religion that we could not single out too many common grounds, except one: Israel.

Israel, like all states, doesn’t provide the ideal example in all affairs. But we were all certain that the good is much greater than what requires reform, and we embarked on the road to present our Israel with no relation to governmental policy, only our truth and personal stories for good and bad.

Throughout the delegation we encountered students on campuses, Pro-Israel activists, Pro-Palestinian activists, Sikh communities, Gospel Churches, Hispanic communities and many more. All this was through lectures, Q and A sessions and visiting them in their houses of worship.

My delegation of six members was designated to New York, and consisted of Dina, an Ethiopian Jew, Miri, a Hasidic mother of four and feminist who orchestrated the Beit Shemesh flash mob, Yochai, a film maker and poet, Dan, a Russian immigrant, Roi, a life coach and handicapped national basketball player, and myself.

Through the ROI Micro Grant, we were able to rent professional film equipment in order to document and film this extraordinary experience and were able to produce over 15 hours of film which will be properly edited into a documentary film. This endeavor of Filming Israeli's from Israel's vast multicultural society representing Israel abroad is the first of a kind. All of the challenges that we experienced throughout the intense 10 days abroad were beyond our expectations -- the parts where we succeeded and the parts where we failed, all while taking care of a fellow delegate who is handicapped and seeing how his daily life effected our perspectives on our lives.

We are currently in the process of creating a 60-second film preview and it will be sent to all of the ROI Community members to better understand all that words cannot truly portray.
Thank you to ROI for this incredible opportunity.