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Before Jerry Geffner left Oakland for Guatemala in December, he sat down and wrote a poem.

In it, he imagined himself to be a Guatemalan refugee returning from exile in Mexico, making a new home in a country that had recently seen the end of a 36-year war. He recognized the refugees' opportunity for a new beginning while remembering their scars and losses.

"We're both unique cultures that have survived against very bad odds," says Geffner of the Guatemalans and the Jews.

A social worker with Pathways Hospice in Oakland, Geffner was part of a 14-member delegation that returned in January from a cultural exchange visit to Guatemala. At the center of the 12-day trip, organized by the San Francisco Jewish Sanctuary Coalition, was a four-day stay in CopalAA.

The year-old village and coalition sister community is home to nearly 100 returning refugee families.

"It's good for people to know that we as Jews are supporting other cultures," he says.

Jennifer Rader, coordinator of the JSC-CopalAA Sister Community Project, calls the visit "a wonderful trip." The delegates, who ranged in age from a 16-year-old high school student to a mother in her 60s, shared a common goal, she says: "a commitment to help and to learn."

Some had worked extensively in Central America in the past; others had never been there before.

Esther Sheats of Palo Alto left her 6-year-old daughter for the first time to go on the trip. She says that when explaining to her daughter why she was going to Guatemala, "I told her that these were people who needed some help, and that there'd been a time when our people needed help too."

Most of CopalAA's current residents, indigenous Mayans, fled Guatemala for Mexico in the 1980s at a time when the Guatemalan military's declared slogan was "drain the sea and catch the fish." The "fish" were guerrilla insurgents within a "sea" of indigenous peoples. Approximately 100,000 Mayans were killed during ensuing military purges, with another 200,000 driven into exile.

It was in a Mexican refugee camp, in the early 1990s, that Rader first met some of CopalAA's Mayans. During the 18 months she worked in the camp, Rader witnessed the successful organizing of Mayan groups, leading to the signing of a 1992 peace accord. January 1993 saw the refugees' first collective return to Guatemala.

Rader says Jews and Mayans have much in common. "As Jews, we're familiar with persecution and exile through our history, and we feel a bond of mutual commitment and support."

For their part, the Mayans got a chance to learn about Judaism during an interfaith service in CopalAA, where they discussed parallel experiences and beliefs with the JSC delegation.

"Suddenly, we were no longer this mysterious, different group," says Dan Sudran, JSC chair. "When we spoke about the Holocaust, one of the community leaders said to me, `Now we understand why you are here.'"

Berkeley-based Mark Barnett, who works for the group Jewish Youth for Community Action, acted as the group's "rabbi" in the interfaith service. Prior to the trip, Barnett had sent a letter to 50 friends and family members, explaining the Mayans' cause and asking for financial support. More than half responded, and in addition to financing his own expenses, Barnett raised $3,000 for JSC.

Barnett, who also spent the summer of 1992 in Guatemala, says that the opportunity to be part of a Jewish humanitarian group was a big draw for him. "A lot of aid groups in Latin America are working either as missionaries or as faceless `helpers' who never reveal anything about their own culture. Ours was a true, mutually respectful interchange."

Rader, who previously worked with the Washington-based group Witness for Peace, agrees. "It's very powerful to be able to do work as a Jew in a Jewish group. JSC gives us a chance to show that Jews in the Bay Area are paying attention to what's happening in Latin America."

The delegates also met with a member of Guatemala City's small Jewish community. The community that "didn't have the luxury of siding with rebels during the war" is now "interested to meet with us and see what we are doing," according to Barnett

Now that the trip is over, JSC's priority is finding a new Spanish-speaking "accompanier" to live in CopalAA and help residents maintain international ties and guard against human rights violations. The current accompanier will be returning home in June.

The group, which can be reached at (510) 527-4104, also plans to begin outreach programs in Jewish day schools and synagogues, and will continue to raise money for CopalAA through its annual sale of Rosh Hashanah cards.