Media: Helen Keller is greeted with flowers at Kfar Uriel, 1952. Photo by Benno Rothenberg, the Meitar Collection/Archives of the National Library of Israel
From article “20 celebrities with unexpected connections to Israel, from Will Smith to J-Lo published in Israel21c on May 1, 2022, Helen Keiller was listed.
“This remarkable deaf and blind writer and social activist came to Israel for 15 days in 1952 as part of a tour on behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind.
“She told the children at Kibbutz Degania, “I can’t see you, but I feel you. I know that you are happy, because you are in your homeland, which is being rebuilt.”
“When she arrived at Jerusalem’s Jewish Institute for the Blind, Keller hugged and kissed the students as they handed her dozens of letters written in Braille.
“At Kfar Uriel, an experimental project aimed to integrate blind Yemenite immigrants into nearby workplaces, Keller communicated with immigrants and visited the local daycare.
“I leave Israel greatly impressed by everything that is being done here,” Keller said. “The flourishing cities, villages and kibbutzim that are being built, the industrial factories and the happy, healthy faces of the children and youth – they all fill my heart with faith in Israel’s prospects for future development.”
Source: www.israel21c.org/20-celebrities-with-unexpected-connections-to-israel-from-will-smith-to-j-lo/
