Gray Academy’s visiting exchange students return to Israel

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This article was published 19/10/2023 (723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of Israeli exchange students whose Oct. 12 flights out of Winnipeg were cancelled when Hamas launched a co-ordinated terror assault on their country are back home after an extended visit.

A Winnipeg MP took to social media late Wednesday to announce he was “absolutely elated” to learn students and staff from Danciger High School had returned to Israel safely.

“They have been away from friends, family, and neighbours while their country has been terrorized, and been left to grieve losses and traumas from afar,” said Ben Carr, the Liberal MP for Winnipeg South Centre, in a post on Instagram.

Carr said the Danciger group demonstrated “the highest degree of calm, patience, and courage” in the face of uncertainty.

It’s an annual tradition for students from the high school in Kiryat Shmona, Israel’s northernmost city, to visit their Canadian sister school, Gray Academy of Jewish Education.

The schools participate in an annual exchange through Partnership 2Gether, an international network that promotes relationship-building among Jewish diasporas in North America.

This year’s cohort — a dozen Grade 12 students, two teachers and their principal — landed in Winnipeg on Oct. 4, several days before armed gunmen began systematically killing Israelis — mainly civilians — and taking others hostage.

They were originally scheduled to stay for a week, but air traffic in and out of the region was impacted by the Israeli government’s declaration of war in the hours after the attacks.

Gray Academy and local host families made arrangements to extend their care of the students.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca