SAN MARCOS, Calif. (KGTV) – Rabbi Yair Yelin of San Marcos is a man of faith flying thousands of miles into a war.
“There were two main goals,” Yelin said. “It was to collect funds for equipment; tactical, medical equipment that we were getting requests from the Reserves. And secondly, it was for me to be able to bring our message to the soldiers there about our support internationally.”
And one way to show that support was through a hot meal.
“We made barbecues for them,” Yelin said. “I asked them, and they said we mainly eat tuna and cold food. So, I said, 'No, no. You need the best.'”
The best thing may have been seeing the look on the soldiers faces getting that barbecue.
“The feedback that I got back was hugs and thank yous and tears,” Yelin said.
But before all of this, Yelin had to let his family know where he was going and what he was doing.
“My first gut reaction was, you know, I felt there’s lots of rabbis in Israel like what are you going to bring to it? But once I heard of the mission I had absolutely no fear at all,” said Chanie Yelin, Yair’s wife.
Seeing what Yelin was doing brought a sense of ease and pride.
“It brought so much encouragement when I saw those videos and clips that were coming. And I saw the faces of the soldiers, what was going on there. Our whole community, everybody was just so proud,” Chanie said.
Yelin returned home to San Diego County on Thursday.
But serving the community isn’t over, as they welcome people for their annual Challah Bake.
“It’s about bringing people together and baking together. So, we say when we bake together, we rise together,” Chanie Yelin said.
Yelin told ABC 10News he and his partners are planning a second campaign and if he needs to go back to Israel, he will.
