I accept JTA’s policy.
By submitting the above, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use of JTA. org.
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Wearing armed green helmets and bulletproof vests, the organization of U. S. rabbis and network leaders stood by the ruins of a building on Kibbutz Beeri as singer Luis Cattan sang El Maleh Rachamim, the classic Jewish prayer for the dead, for “All Those Who Have Been Killed in Israel and Beyond. “
They then recited the Mourning Kaddish together and quietly returned to their bus.
This was the first day of a three-day solidarity project with Israel, which took the organization through the devastated communities of southern Israel, to a volunteer center in Jerusalem and back home. One of the many such projects being carried out this week, another was organized through the UJA Federation of New York; the aim of the event was to inform participants about the horrors of Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, provide them with an opportunity to give back, and help them formulate a message to share. their communities.
“I keep hearing American Jews say there are no words,” said Rabbi Neil Zuckerman of New York’s Park Avenue synagogue. “I think, actually, there are a lot of words. And I think being here provides us with some words that want to be spoken. about what’s going on here, the ethical clarity that’s here, whether it’s the pain and the acts of unity that we’re seeing.
The 34-person organization was made up of 19 Americans and 15 other Israeli counterparts and staff, and was organized through the Fuchsberg Center in Jerusalem, a complex that serves as a base for conservative Judaism in Israel. This took place from Monday to Wednesday. The goal, said Stephen Daniel Arnoff, Fuchsberg’s chief executive, was to help “our colleagues in North America have a first-hand and very human experience of this horrific time in our world. “
After landing at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday, the participants traveled first to Ofakim, a city in southern Israel that also suffered from Hamas invasion, where they visited the home of Rachel Edri, who became an Israeli folk hero after outwitting terrorists by providing them with cookies. From there, the organization traveled to Beeri, where the attackers killed more than 100 people.
They were the first organization of civilians since the massacre, along with journalists, who arrived at the site, where houses are burned and blood and knives still cover the ground. They ended the day at Camp Shura, a military base that has become a center of identity. for the bodies of those who died in the invasion.
“What I saw and experienced is etched in me for the rest of my life,” said Rabbi Marc Soloway of Congregation Bonai Shalom in Boulder, Colorado. Arnoff said, “We were hurt to see what we saw and the complicated but natural reaction was to say prayer for the dead. “
On Tuesday, he pledged to volunteer at an aid center in Jerusalem and meet with families directly affected until Oct. 7 and Israel’s upcoming war against Hamas in Gaza. Among them were Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin is being held hostage by Hamas. , along with about 240 others. The couple have become two of the leading faces of the not-so-easy motion for the release of the hostages, which galvanized Jewish communities in the United States and beyond. Before speaking to the delegation, Goldberg-Polin’s parents had made the opposite trip: returning to Israel after a brief stay in New York to defend their son.
“I’m amazed at the world without my heart,” Goldberg told the group. She and Polin described the horror of not knowing if Hersh is still alive, after he was last seen in a video emerging from his own forces in the back of a Hamas van on its way back to Gaza, having lost one. His weapons in a grenade attack that killed 18 of the other 29 people crammed next to him in a roadside bomb shelter.
“We are not convinced that the Israeli government is prioritizing hostages,” Polin said. “They talk about war and victory, but they don’t talk about hostages. It is essential, even in Israel, not to abandon the 239 hostages. “The greatest ethical victory this country desires is for 239 hostages to be returned to their families. “
Goldberg described herself as a naturally shy user who has become unable to feel feelings such as nervousness or worry when she is brought into the public arena to press for her son’s release. But he added that small gestures make a difference. “It actually helps to get a one-line message on Whatsapp,” he said.
The final day of the holiday was dedicated to “resilience and inspiration” for “clergy and community leaders to come home, representing tens of thousands of people who are frozen in worry and don’t know what they can do to help,” Arnoff said. . . ” Now you can go back and see what you saw, what you witnessed. “
The solidarity project is part of Fuchsberg’s broader efforts to respond to the crisis. It has also turned its Jerusalem campus into a sanctuary for 200 families evacuated from southern and northern Israel, who live in dormitories reserved for scholars from the conservative annual Nativ program. He also opened his synagogue so that young Israelis of all kinds could sing and pray together.
“I came here because it’s my home and I needed to stop by and deliver the message to all those who are struggling, who have lost people, who are suffering: you are not alone, we are with you,” the rabbi said. Annie Lewis of Congregation Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
A private moment for Zuckerman came when he was able to temporarily hug his son, who serves in the Israeli army in Gaza. He compared his experience today as a pulpit rabbi to how he felt at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 19 pandemic.
“Anything we planned to do this fall with our communities, we’ve replaced it,” Zuckerman said. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. “
I accept JTA’s policy.
By submitting the above, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use of JTA. org.