On the Ground in Israel A personal view of our efforts in Israel from Amir Shacham, UJC MetroWest Director of Israel Operations

March 3, 2008

“On the ground” this time is written in the air. I am now flying away from my home community back to my homeland after an intense and emotional visit in NJ. Intense due to so many meetings and discussions with so many UJC MetroWest community members and members of MetroWest partner communities in Israel, who are looking for ways to do more for each other and to connect more to one another. Emotional because of the real war that is developing on the Gaza border during this visit, and the expensive price in human lives, destruction, and trauma that it is causing. While boarding the plane, I heard about major rocket attacks on Ashkelon and one hit just meters away from my parent’s home. It is sure getting closer, and I’m anxious to be back where I need to be.

Both symbolically and practically, the flight from home to home reflects the intimate “Living Bridge” family relationship that has been developed between UJC MetroWest and its partner communities in Israel. We are partners in better times and during difficulties, in happiness and in sorrow. The personal connections make us one family. I would like to highlight some of your Israeli family members that are now serving all of us as soldiers, commanders and heroes of this war.

Roni Yechiyeh (z”l) was killed Wednesday by a direct hit from a Kassam rocket in the Sapir College of Sha’ar Hanegev. He was a resident of Moshav Bitcha in the Merchavim region. His home and the place he was killed are both partner regions with UJC MetroWest. Idan, Roni’s younger son, is a participant in our Youth Futures program in Merchavim.

Roni was not a typical college age student; he was 47 and a father of four. A few years ago, he had a successful kidney transplant and went on to complete his studies as part of his rehabilitation process. One of the projects we supported under Partnership 2000 (P2K) was called “A Second Chance,” in which we gave an opportunity for adult Moshavim residents in Merchavim to complete their academic degrees. Roni was getting his own second chance and was at the beginning of a new chapter in his life, but didn’t make it.

Avner Mori, mayor of Merchavim, next-door neighbor and relative of Roni, experienced his first Kassam missile in his region recently, and now, the first Kassam casualty. The Ofakim Merchavim MetroWest P2K family will help the Yechiyeh family to cope with their loss. God bless his memory.

Dalia Yosef was born in Sderot and now lives in Merchavim. She is the director of the “Resilience Center” of Sderot, which deals with the trauma and post-trauma effects of this war. It is a big job, almost impossible, and yet in her “spare time,” Dalia finds energy to contribute to her community.

Together with Lisa Lisser of Short Hills, she co-chairs the Partnership 2000 “Renewal Process” between Ofakim-Merhavim and UJC MetroWest. Dalia was in New Jersey last week, leading a group of Israelis for a joint retreat with the Americans. I can now reveal that she almost cancelled her trip at the last minute. She called me to consult and asked whether she should go at all. She felt that she couldn’t leave the children of Sderot alone. I told her that in my mind her volunteer role in P2K is no less important for the resilience of the community than her professional role in Sderot, it is only a few days absence, and that in any event she physically cannot stop any Kassam. Yet I could identify with her dilemma. She came and the retreat was a great success. However, the discussions were held in a meeting room with not enough light or fresh air. Everyone, other than Dalia, complained that they couldn’t breathe. She told me with much relief that now that she is so far away from her daily stressful routine in Sderot, ironically for the first time in many months she can finally breathe deeply. On the day Dalia landed back home, Roni was killed and she came back to reality much faster than expected.

Shaul Goldstein is the mayor of UJC MetroWest’s other partnership region of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. It was snowing last week in both Gush Etzion and in New Jersey. While most people were snowed in, Shaul was not. He recruited a semi-trailer truck, loaded it with the white stuff, and delivered it to the Sha’ar Hanegev kibbutz of Nir-Am, only two miles south of Erez. This is the kibbutz that is most affected by Kassams as it is located on the flying route between Beit Hanun, Gaza, and Sderot, Israel. Many of the rockets that technically cannot make it all the way to Sderot land in Nir-Am. The director of the kibbutz once joked with me that they are insulted by the fact that they only get the weak and disabled rockets. However, the trauma and danger in Nir-Am are not a joke. One can imagine what it was like for the kibbutz children to leave their “safe rooms” one morning and see a “mountain of snow” right in their playground, a gift from their family in Gush Etzion.

“The main purpose of this act,” Goldstein said, “is to warm the hearts of the kibbutz kids. Ironically, the only way to warm people’s hearts in Israel nowadays is with cold, white snow.”

Alon Shuster, the mayor of Shaar Hanegev, wrote Shaul a very nice thank you letter and didn’t forget to thank UJC MetroWest for the matchmaking of these two regions.

“Shaul, I was really excited to learn about your intention to share the snow with us. It was even more exciting to watch the children of Nir-Am going out of the protected area laughing and smiling to play in the snow like their peers anywhere else, while watching their parents keeping an eye out and looking for the nearest safe room, just in case. Thank you MetroWest for connecting us, thank you Gush Etzion friends for thinking of us, for the solidarity, for the bright idea, and for the execution. Your reward for this mitzvah is the moments of pure happiness of the children and their parents. We all pray that the 'white war' of throwing snow balls will distance the 'red war' of the Kassams. Hugs, Alon.”

George Horesh is a veteran tour guide and a friend of many in the MetroWest community. George has “been there and done that” for many years. He will not be angry at me if I say that he is cynical. Aren’t we all, after living here in this neighborhood for so many years? That’s why it was especially surprising to get this e-mail from George:

“I never send mass e-mails, but this time I must. This is one of the days I felt so proud to be an Israeli. We were more than 15,000 people that went down to Sderot for solidarity and for Friday shopping. No one cared if the Kassams fly across the Gaza border, we just went down there, and to me it was the most fantastic day as an Israeli.”

Among the crowd in Sderot that day there was another partner of UJC MetroWest, mayor Nahum Hofree of Ra’anana, who came with an impressive convoy from his city.

“I came in order for you to know that we love you,” Hofree said.

The UJC MetroWest community should be proud to see how she and its partners in Israel are cooperating and supporting each other. The MetroWest extended family in New Jersey and in Israel reflects Jewish peoplehood at its best.

Drishat Shalom,

Amir

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On the Ground archive

• February 13, 2008