As I prepare to leave Djibouti, the former French Somalia, and Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, it is truly hard to compress my emotions in an e-mail. How can I describe finding nine Jews and making the minyan, bringing a sense of home and normalcy to this 106 F. environment where 2,000 Americans and a few international forces live in tents and metal containers as they wage peace, struggling to bring a modicum of tikkun olam in a very broken place.

A few vignettes: How about the 28-year-old Army officer, the product of a major Conservative congregation in South Florida who is preparing to be the military advisor to the African Union Troops that till now have not succeeded at remedying the plight of our fellow human beings in Darfur? We go to rallies, he goes to the heart of the beast. How about the Navy Civil Engineering Corps officer who grew up in a congregation I once served (talk about a surprise) who will oversee the drilling of wells here in Djibouti, bringing potable water to a place were thousands die every year of typhoid and other water-born illnesses?

These Jews and thousands more celebrated the holidays with rabbis and lay leaders supported by JCC Association-JWB Jewish Chaplains Council. These Jews and thousands more called home with phone cards, observed Shabbat and Havdallah, dipped apples in honey hoping for a sweet year, and joined in breakfast meals because our JCC Association made a difference.

Hard to tell you how difficult it was to leave them with only best wishes and a Gemar Hatemah Tova.

Gemar Hatemah Tovah to all of them and all of you.

Wish me a nisiah tova.

Rabbi Harold L. Robinson