Yuma’s Jewish congregation Beth Ha Midbar is hosting a singing and dancing Israeli girls-and-boys scout troupe in Yuma. KAWC’s Maya Springhawk Robnett sat down in the studio with Fred Brown of the Yuma Jewish Community Council to talk about the troupe’s upcoming performances…
The Tzofim Israel Friendship Caravan is a traveling group of five girls and five boys who perform cultural songs and dances. Since 1978, the Tzofim (the Hebrew word for "scouts") have been coming to the United States and for the first time in those nearly 40 years, they are visiting Yuma.
Fred Brown with the Yuma Jewish Community Council said they reached out to sponsor the Israeli Scout Cultural Exchange. “Somehow Yuma figured out that wait a minute—they’re going to be in Tucson on this past weekend. They’re going to be heading to San Diego. And the only way to get from Tucson to San Diego by vehicle is to come through Yuma Arizona!” Brown said.
The songs, in Yiddish and Hebrew, will be about friendship, cultural exchange, and hope for the future. The Tzofim have been rehearsing for more than a year for these performances.
They will perform Tuesday, June 27th at 1PM and 7PM at the Littlewood Fine Art & Community Co-Op. Tickets are available at the Littlewood Co-Op, the Yuma Jewish Community Council, and the Yuma Center for Spiritual Living.
An extended interview with Fred Brown discussing the Tzofim, their performances, their history, anti-Semitism in the world, and cultural exchange, can be found below:
“In a time when radical views can be expressed anonymously, here’s a group that is not the least bit anonymous willing to share their culture. Isn’t it incumbent upon all of us as humans living on the same big, blue ball called planet Earth to get to at least know what a different side looks like and thinks? That’s the real value of cultural exchange, be it Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhism, Confucianism...”