Israel Day One 2/5/24
This is a 1 am missive, after thirty seven hours of travel and mission work, interrupted by only two hours of sleep. I am so energized to be here that I finally popped a sleeping pill so I could rest. I want to record some of my raw thoughts from today, before they merge into tomorrow's activities. I'll start by noting that the eleven hour flight from Miami to Tel Aviv was delayed by two hours due to an emergency tornado warning: it was a sign of the whirlwind day to come!
Upon arrival, we set out straight from the airport, donation bags in tow, and did not check into our Jerusalem hotel until 11 pm. We paid our respects at a Shiva for our local Miami Rabbi's father, who had just passed away in Kfar Chabad. They are a beautiful family and we again send them our condolences. We then went to an agricultural center just 7 km's outside of Gaza, helping in the greenhouses and listening to their stories. Many of these families are displaced and only three of their forty foreign workers remain. The farms are understaffed and the work is a struggle, but they are positive and determined, even while instructing us to disregard the sound of nearby planes, artillery or ground rumbles from tunnel distraction. A day prior, a drone had actually crashed into one of the greenhouses and caved the roof in, so the farmers had put on their construction hats to quickly assemble the roof. The drone was taller than me and remained in the corner of the greenhouse, wedged into the mud, waiting for authorities to retrieve it. I wouldn't say that the bizarre has become commonplace, but it does feel expected. I marvel at their sense of grit and determination.
Next stop was the 188 tank battalion, who were instrumental in halting and repelling the attack. Their representative, an Israeli man of American parents (it's always shocking to hear an IDF soldier speak perfect English) tried to frame Oct 7th in a historical context, drawing more parallels to the Holocaust than the 1948 War of Independence et al. He informed us that all IDF commanders are required to visit Auschwitz, to learn a lesson about humanity. He said that the sheer volume of what they saw in the kibbutzim aftermath - piles of bodies, rows of burnt houses and cars etc - only reminded them of Poland. Horrible parallel.
Late afternoon, we stopped by the home of a young woman whose husband was killed in the police station takeover at Sderot. She's 26 years old with three children and only three months into a new job - she’s also a police woman. She's one of only seventeen Haredi (religious, skirt wearing, head covering) police women in all of Israel. Her house was filled with people, she was trying to serve us coffee as proper Middle Eastern hosting requires, her 3 kids under the age of 6 were running around like they just mainlined sugar...and yet she exuded calm and poise. She was unflappable. When she spoke, it was the only time our boisterous crew was absolutely silent. We were riveted by her words: you must be happy and live life to the fullest, or you let the enemy win. She only asked that we do a mitzvah, or a good deed, in his name, to honor him. His name was Eliahu Michael Harush. I am in awe of his widow, Hodaya Harush.
We visited several more places in a bus that weighed 26 tons due to armor. There were checkpoints around every bend in the road, as well as roadblocks with massive signage barring passage to Israeli citizens. When we finally parked in Hebron, it was at the base of the cave where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah are buried. Hebron, from the Hebrew word Heber or connection, is literally the place where Gd connected to man: the presumed site of the Garden of Eden. We prayed tehillim at their graves, while higher above ground, the connecting massive mosque issued the final daily call to prayer out of the minaret loudspeaker. It was a surreal, bucket list experience before continuing deliveries to families, small businesses and soldiers. This work never feels like enough because it's not. They need our help - moral support, goods, funds - to win this war. And though we came laden with bags, it felt as though we were the ones that left with a gift. The Israeli spirit is indomitable.
Am Yisrael Chai
Kelly