Amit Kanfer and his family. Courtesy: Amit Kanfer  

 Twenty years ago, at the age of 22, right after the Israeli Army and just before college, Amit Kanfer was offered to travel to four states in the U.S. as part of the JCC Maccabi Games program. This offer didn’t come as a complete surprise as he was a “Maccabi Tsair” (a youth instructor) for four years while in high school. So, when the offer arrived, he said he immediately jumped on the opportunity and started preparing for the trip.  

For those who are not familiar, the JCC Maccabi Games are a sports event that takes place every year in one of the JCC locations, hosting many if not all the JCC in the U.S., allowing the young athletes to compete in all sorts of sports. Whenever the athletes had a break, or if they lost sooner than expected, there was an “Israel hang time room” where they could just relax, play, chat, hear music and learn about Israel and what it has to offer.  

“Funny thing, the first week was at the JCC in Austin, Texas. That’s when I saw for the first time in my life how beautiful Austin was,” said Kanfer. “We hung out with the young athletes in the morning, and danced on 6th Street at night, as the saying goes – we worked hard played hard. We were constantly invited to stay and have dinner with Jewish families. It was truly a remarkable and flattering experience.”  

Fast forward 20 years, Kanfer and his wife Shany chose to relocate with their family to the U.S. To where? Austin of course, straight from Even Yehuda, Israel. Then, one of their kiddos started school at the Zeifman Family Early Childhood Program (ECP) and the other two joined second and third grade. A few months later, a nice email landed in Kanfer’s inbox from Shalom Austin with the subject line, “Help host our staff from Israel.”  

“Didn’t take me a long time to respond with an ‘absolutely!’ How great it’ll be to be a hosting family to young shlichim, exactly 20 years after I was in their exact same shoes,” said Kanfer.   

“A few weeks went by, and Shany and I were lucky to host Gilad and Raz for the weekend. The moment they walked through the front door, it felt like two cousins arrived. Kids were all over them, and my wife and I joked that it’s like “we now have a full-time babysitter for the weekend. It was fun! It was fulfilling and rewarding to be able to help young Israelis, show them around and give them a good time while in Austin.”