Israel

As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart, With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion, Then our hope - the two-thousand-year-old hope - will not be lost: To be a free people in our land, The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

These words are immediately recognized—they are the translation of Hatikvah, “The Hope,” the national anthem of the State of Israel. These words were written by Naftali Herz Imber, who was an English Jewish poet, originally from Bohemia (the melody was composed by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldavia, who based his composition on Bedrich Smetana’s "Moldau.").

When Imber wrote these words more than 100 years ago, he expressed the hope uttered by Jews for more than 2000 years that the Jewish people would live freely on their own land. Today, 58 years after the founding of Israel we still sing about our longing for peace and freedom. We still dream of the day when that hope will become a reality.

These days, just a few weeks into a shaky cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, so many of us are worried about the future. The pervasive view is, “They hate us and always will.” There are questions about the conduct of the war against Hezbollah and what the lack of a clear victory portends. Can the people of Israel still depend on its vaunted armed forces to keep the country safe, especially when the other side has weapons more powerful than expected or imagined? What will Syria and Iran do? Will the nations of the world that brokered the cease-fire provide the necessary buffer between Israel and Hizbollah? And, what effect will this war have on Prime Minister Olmert’s vow to pull out of the West Bank and Gaza?

In short, are the words we sing about hope and peace meaningless? Do we have reason for hope? Is the proverbial cup half-empty or half-full?

While it is true that these are dark and gloomy days for Israel and her supporters, there may be reasons to be hopeful. A lesson to be learned for those living on both sides of the border is that, ultimately, peace is the only answer and that peace negotiations need to begin as soon as possible. Perhaps the Palestinians will look at the destruction Hezbollah brought to southern Lebanon and come to the conclusion that there is another way. And, perhaps the nations of the world have learned that terrorist groups like Hezbollah cannot continue to operate with impunity. Similar groups are certainly capable of doing to other countries what Hezbollah did to Lebanon. Hopefully, the lesson has been learned.

We can take hope from the way the Diaspora Jewish community came together to support our brothers and sisters in Israel. The money raised, the letters written, and the rallies held all attest to the love and concern that transcends all other issues when Israel is in crisis.

We can take hope from the incredible courage and resiliency shown by the people of northern Israel. The first-responders defied the danger of falling missiles to help those in need. The firefighters put out hundreds of forest fires. The shelters were opened and maintained. People may rant at their government after the fact (this is Israel, after all), but during this month-long crisis people did what they had to do to support each other.

We can take hope from the wonderful way the Progressive movement in Israel responded to this crisis. Refugees from the north were taken into homes and synagogues in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities and towns. Leo Baeck Education Center and Or Hadash Synagogue—to name just two of our institutions in the North--converted bomb shelters and parking garages into safe havens for children traumatized by falling missiles. Our rabbinic colleagues visited hospitals and entertained children and spent precious resources on supplies to make people comfortable. Their stories will inspire us long after this war has concluded.

Of course there is reason to worry. But there is also reason to hope that lessons have been learned and that good people will find a way to live together. Given the bad neighborhood in which Israelis live, relations between nations of the Middle East may always be tense, but it cannot be hat people want to live in a state of war forever. May it be that “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore (Isaiah 2:4).”

Rabbi Robert Orkand is the rabbi of Temple Israel of Westport, CT and ARZA Associate Treasurer

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Earlier this month as rockets fell on Northern Israel and parents worried about their sons and daughters fighting in Lebanon, we received this letter from an Israeli mother who had fled her home in the north and was being sheltered by the Israeli Reform Movement:

“Tears of fear, sorrow and longing for home drip down onto the cloth from my eyes. My glance moves over to the bed next to me and I watch my child sleeping soundly … (after a day filled with activity and playing in the pool) that would not have been possible except for you… In my name and in the name of my entire family, I thank you and wish you “yeshar ko’ach” – may you go from strength to strength. I have only barely expressed all of my feeling in the letter and for this I apologize. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! With prayers for better days.”

Now, just over one week later, the ceasefire on Israel’s northern border seems to be holding, and this mother and the thousands of Israelis who fled the north, as well as the thousands of Lebanese who fled from the terror of war, are returning to their homes and beginning to rebuild their lives. We pray these positive developments continue and this agreement holds for the benefit of all people affected by this war – but much remains to be done.

The donations of thousands of North American Reform Jews made it possible for the Israeli Progressive community to help this mother and countless others. During the war North American Reform Jews donated more than $650,000 to the 2006 Israel Emergency Fund. Today we are writing to tell you what has been done with these donations – and highlight the needs that the Israeli community will have in the coming months.

The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) is working non-stop to care for and comfort northern refugees and Israeli soldiers. Immediately after the vicious, unprovoked attacks a month ago, the IMPJ opened the doors of its summer camp facilities, arranged home hospitality for almost 200 families and helped establish day camps and clubhouses in many Reform congregations for children from the north. Since the ceasefire, the IMPJ has been helping families return to their homes and rebuild their lives.

In Tel Aviv, Rabbi Ilana Nesher of Congregation Beit Daniel had a unique opportunity to celebrate during this war when she officiated at a collective wedding ceremony for ten displaced couples from the north. This joyous event took place against the beautiful backdrop of Tel Aviv University campus as the bombs continued to drop on the couples’ hometowns.

Groups organized by Kehilat YOZMA, located in the city of Modi’in in central Israel, delivered donations of food, toiletries and toys to families and children in bomb shelters in Safed, Akko, Naharia and Haifa.

In Southern Israel, Kibbutz Yahel opened its bed and breakfast to low-income Northerners seeking refuge from the shelling. Hundreds of people have been living on the Reform Kibbutz since July. Kibbutz Lotan also opened its conference facility to people in need. Before Yahel and Lotan opened their doors, these families had been confined to small bomb shelters in the north unable to find safety elsewhere.

The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) found housing for hundreds of people with special needs from the north. Working in conjunction with welfare officials, IRAC became the main address for the rehabilitation branch of the Welfare Ministry in Northern Israel. Additionally, the Progressive Jewish community was organized to provide a Rabbinic Counseling and Social Worker Hotline for people working on the front lines or those with nowhere else to turn.

The Leo Baeck Center runs 12 different social service centers for more than 250 people daily throughout the city of Haifa. Even during the heaviest fighting, the Center’s satellite branches continued to provide services for the elderly, families and children. Early in the war, at the request of the Haifa Municipality, the Leo Baeck Education Center converted its parking garage/bomb shelter to an underground playground for children who were unable to play outdoors as a result of the shelling.

These are but a few of the outstanding programs being run in Israel by Reform Jewish institutions. Working with our partners at the IMPJ, the World Union for Progressive Judaism and ARZA, the Union for Reform Judaism has allocated donated funds to support these and other ongoing relief efforts in Israel. We offer our deepest thanks to the many donors who have made these efforts possible.

The relief efforts of the Reform Movement in Israel were felt throughout Israeli society. Thousands of people encountered Reform Judaism for the first time and were comforted by its presence. We are proud of the Israeli Reform Movement which has grown to the point where it is able to provide these services to the public-at-large. But it cannot do this without us. Our partners in Israel need our help. And they need to know that we stand with them.

On September 8-11 join with hundreds of Reform congregations in solidarity with Israel. Our Israel: A Reform Response is a Movement-wide response to the current crisis in Israel. ARZA will provide all materials necessary for your congregation to participate in this important solidarity weekend. For more information, click here.

Before us lays the challenge of recovery. Homes and lives need to be rebuilt. Working with the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, Reform congregations are developing programs to support, counsel and comfort those returning home. Your continued support of the Union for Reform Judaism Israel Emergency Fund helps to support efforts to rebuild and recover from the recent fighting. Thank you for helping so many in Israel through your generosity.

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'Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.'

'I should have called it
Something you somehow haven't to deserve.'
-Robert Frost, “The Death of the Hired Man”

When we first came to live in the Galilee sixteen years ago, and I was very much taken with the physical beauty of the land here (as I still am), I became fascinated by the question of what causes us to develop an attachment to a particular landscape. Obviously, many places are beautiful, each in its own unique way – whether the majesty of the desert or the refreshing green of rolling meadows or the deep tranquility of the forest. The Galilee is beautiful, but not “objectively” more so than, say, the Alps, or Hawaii, or lots of other places in the world – including places I have lived at various times in my life. Why, then, did I so quickly develop a kind of visceral attachment to the view from Shorashim? And what is the meaning of this attachment to place? Is it a force for good, or a destructive component of human nature?

Often, when groups of teenagers come to us for encounters with Arab teens during the summer, we start the program with a short activity for the Jewish kids alone, under a carob tree part way up Mt. Gilon, with a view out across the olive groves toward the sea. We ask the kids to interview each other about their homes: physical appearance, surroundings, memories, degree of attachment. We discuss definitions of “home” (where you feel comfortable, where you can walk around in the dark, where you can always go, where there are people you love...). And we read some texts that help us understand the difference between our own modern, western relationship to land as a commodity, as a resource – and the attachment of the pre-modern farmer to his soil, in which he may have been rooted for many generations. In other words, for some people, their land is a central part of their identity (“you can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy”). The Bible presents the inheritances of the various families of Israel as a sacred assignment that can never be relinquished or lost. But through centuries of exile, when we could not put down roots anywhere, when it made sense to keep one’s assets liquid and portable, we became outsiders to the notion of attachment to the landscape of our residence. The landscape that figured in our identity was the one never actually seen, but only collectively remembered through the Jewish calendar and in the Biblical narrative: Eretz Yisrael.

The Zionist revolution sought to restore the “days of old,” when Jews were rooted in the soil. It rejected our existence as homeless luftmenschen (“air people”) and idealized the earthy peasants of Russia – and later of Palestine; they were our role models. If 20th century Europe was organizing itself around the concept of ethnic homelands, then so should we – after all, we were carrying around the deed to our own homeland, a document far older and more authoritative than any modern declaration of statehood among the nations that arose out of the collapse of the Old Europe. There was something seductively simple about redefining our identity in ethnic national terms, in seeing Jewishness as parallel to Frenchness, or Hungarianness, or Germanness. No more halachic nit-picking, no more tortured identity conflicts. Land and language and culture would be integrated into a seamless identity. We would – all of us – pack up and leave our precarious, temporary perches, and return, finally, home.

Hence the language of the Balfour Declaration in 1917: “His majesty’s government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

A hundred years have gone by, and for the vision of European nationalism it has been a rough century. And we too are left with troubling questions… Among them - just what is a “national home?”

Marc Rosenstein is the author of the Galilee Diary and is the foundation director of HaMakom, Reform Rabbi and former high school principal with a PhD in Modern Jewish History, extensive experience in teacher in-service training, as well as in informal education.

This entry was originally published as a 10 Minutes of Torah commentary. To learn more about the 10 Minutes of Torah series, please visit www.urj.org/torah/ten.

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I keep coming back to the image of the kids in the Leo Baek Center's parking garage. (scroll down to see picture)

I can't get over having to spend your summer cooped up in a bomb shelter. The funny thing to me is that Israel is such a close family that soldiers are caring for the kids in that parking garage. I've missed that since I came home, that sense that everyone around is part of the same family pulling for the same team. That is not to say Israel isn't fragmented and political just like any where else they are, more so because politics is so tied to religion, but when it comes right down to it Israelis take care of their own. Really that is why I am not so worried about my Carmel friends who are still in Israel because I know that they will be taken care of.

For those of you considering travel to Israel on a URJ program I can say only two things first they are the most overprotective group of organizers you can find so don't worry about your safety too much, they'll take care of you. Second no matter what you will have the time of your life I know I did.

Mara Goldberg was Carmel participant 2004-2005

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This letter was delievered to the student orginizers of the first letter of petition

Dear Matt and Adrian,

Thank you for your passion and your commitment to the State of Israel. We appreciate your desire to give voice to your beliefs and to participate in determining the direction of the Reform movement. Obviously, our KESHER and NFTY programs have encouraged you to ask hard questions and to be concerned with justice in our world.

The loss of innocent lives is terrible beyond words. As I said in a speech on August 1, “let us not think for a moment…that we can be indifferent to the death of innocents. The death of any child, Israeli or Arab, Muslim or Jew, is an unspeakable tragedy that rends the heart.” It is not possible, however, to equate the unprovoked attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas with the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces. The IDF, as has been well publicized, warned the citizens of Lebanon of impending attacks and did everything in its power to avoid the loss of civilian life. Hezbollah, in contrast, operates from civilian areas and uses Lebanese civilians as shields while firing missiles at Israel’s cities. It does this knowing that in order to protect its own citizens, Israel will be forced to endanger the lives of Lebanese civilians, and the result will inevitably be to increase civilian deaths, no matter how precise Israel’s weaponry. And these deaths in turn will be used to ratchet up the violence and hate.

No side is completely blameless in a war, but I am confident that the government of Israel has taken all reasonable precautions to avoid civilian casualties. I am confident too that when we review all aspects of this conflict, justice clearly resides with Israel.

We all are grateful for the recent ceasefire. We hope and pray that the ceasefire will hold and the killing will stop.

Thank you again for sharing your views with me.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie
President
Union for Reform Judaism

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This letter was delieved to Rabbi Eric Yoffie and Chairperson Robert Heller in response to the first student letter

We are a group of students, led by members of the KESHER-ARZA Fellowship and other campus leaders, who are distraught by the recent letter sent out by our peers surrounding the issues in Israel. While we agree with many of the issues that they have presented, we disagree with their call for an unconditional bilateral cease-fire and equivalency made between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hizbollah.

We would like to applaud the Union for Reform Judaism, its leaders and affiliates, for its support of the State of Israel during this time. We would like to urge the URJ to keep its trust in the Israeli government as it decides the best path for Israeli security. The decision to refrain from military escalation while attempting diplomacy shows their willingness and eagerness to achieve peace. They have also expressed a willingness to support an international force in Lebanon.

We are concerned about the equivalency made between the tactics of Hizbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces. We understand that civilian casualties are a horrible effect of war. We hope that no civilians would be caught in the cross-fire; or more deplorably, directly targeted. Israel has shown that she cares about civilian life. We applaud her efforts to protect civilians, both Israeli and Lebanese. She warns Lebanese civilians of impending attacks while trying to keep her own citizens safe and has expressed sorrow for the loss of civilian life in Lebanon. Hizbollah shows complete disregard for civilians, even their own, using non-combatants as shields while directly and indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians.

Diplomacy and negotiations are one of many darchai shalom, paths of peace. However, an unconditional bilateral cease-fire at this time is not a true derech shalom. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hizbollah claimed victory. In the last six years they have continued to be rearmed by Iran and Syria, in preparation for this war. We cannot let this happen again. A true stand for peace and justice would not place Israeli citizens, both Jewish and Arab, at risk to more attacks by Hizbollah. The world must call for Syria and Iran to end their wanton aggression towards Israel through their supply of weapons and training for Hizbollah. A lasting peace cannot be achieved until militant groups in Lebanon, specifically Hizbollah, are disarmed as the UN has already resolved. The true stand for peace is to call the world to support the government of Lebanon to protect its citizens from the violence initiated by a group of terrorists.

We would also like to urge the URJ to continue supporting the Israeli government and non-governmental organizations that are helping Israelis who are being hurt, emotionally and physically, by this lechima. Kol Yisrael arevim zeh l’zeh; we need to support ourselves and our movement first and foremost, until we as a people are no longer in need.

Lastly, we urge the URJ to not forget the three kidnapped Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev, and Gilad Shalit, and to do all in its power to have the soldiers freed by Hizbollah and Hamas and returned to Israel.

We thank the Union again for its continual support of Israel and her people during this difficult and unnecessary war. We also continue to urge the URJ to continue to support the actions of the Israeli government and not to put Israeli into a position that could prove detrimental to her security and the safety and wellbeing of her citizens. We hope that Israel and her neighbors soon realize peace and the casualties will cease on both sides. V’natata shalom ba’aretz v’simchat olam l’yoshveiha.

L’shalom,

Members of the ARZA-KESHER Fellowship including:

Suzy Goldenkranz, Washington University in St. Louis

Jesse Paikin, York University

Brett Willner, University of Minnesota

Steven Buchalter, University of Western Ontario

Elayna Frames, University of Toronto

Elizabeth Camuti, Indiana University

Rachel Schonwald, Indiana University

Alexa Broida, University of California, Los Angeles

Rachel Lowdermilk, Barnard College

Matthew Reber, Montclair State University

Sari Bourne, Stanford University

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This letter was delievered to Rabbi Eric Yoffie and Chairperson Robert Heller on August 15, 2006

We, the college and youth leaders of the Reform Movement, urge the Union for Reform Judaism to take a stand for the Jewish values of peace and justice by declaring its support for a sustained bilateral ceasefire and peace negotiations in the Middle East.

As the future leaders of the Reform Movement, we heed the call of Rabbi Hillel to “be from the students of Aaron, love peace and pursue peace.” As we see events unfold around us, we look to fulfill our religious obligation by speaking out on the moral issues of our day. As Jews, we declare our commitment to protect our historic homeland, Israel, and to ensure the safety and well-being of its inhabitants. As Jews, we also believe that upholding the sanctity of all human life is of the utmost importance.

In a month of war in Lebanon, over 700 civilians, both Lebanese and Israeli, were killed. During the same period of time, while the world was focused on Lebanon, over 150 Palestinian civilians were killed in the Gaza Strip as well.

In light of these facts:

We applaud the Union for condemning Hezbollah’s and Hamas’s violent and terrifying rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, who have been put in grave danger by the ongoing conflict. We support the Union’s denunciation of these groups’ destructive behavior, which has harmed the lives of thousands of innocent Israelis and Arabs. We express solidarity with our Israeli brothers and sisters, who are bravely coping with the mental and physical hardships of war. We support and appreciate the Union’s ongoing efforts to ease the trauma of Israelis in this difficult time, as well as provide for their safety, security, and well-being.

We urge the Union to likewise condemn the Israeli Defense Force’s killing of unarmed Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, as well as its premeditated targeting of civilian infrastructure, which has put additional lives at risk and hampered relief efforts. As we recall, in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, God agrees to spare the cities if Abraham can find even ten innocent civilians. In light of this, we implore the Union to make clear that these actions violate our religious values, and are morally unacceptable responses to Hezbollah’s and Hamas’s provocations. Furthermore, we ask the Union to support humanitarian aid efforts underway in Lebanon and Gaza, in the same spirit of chesed which has guided its support for relief work in Israel

We are proud to be part of the Union, a movement that has declared its support for the principle of peace negotiations. As indicated by the resolution “Support of the Peace Process,” the Union called on “the United States Government to continue to lend its good offices to the ongoing negotiations for peace” (General Assembly - November 30 - December 3, 1995 Atlanta). The precedent for the Union to advocate for diplomacy in the name of peace has already been set.

We therefore call upon the Union for Reform Judaism to declare its support for a continued bilateral ceasefire and renewed peace negotiations in the Middle East. Only dialogue, diplomacy, and mutual understanding will bring a lasting peace and guarantee the security of all peoples. We recognize that there are a variety of opinions within the movement on the current conflict. As is appropriate for our Reform tradition, we embrace a diversity of viewpoints. Unfortunately, we feel that our voice has been excluded from Union statements and materials, and we ask for inclusion. We look forward to beginning a healthy and meaningful dialogue in the name of peace, here and everywhere.

B’shalom,

College – Kesher

Matt Adler, Kesher Liaison, Washington University in St. Louis, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Adrian Shanker, Kesher Liaison, Muhlenburg College, Temple Shaaray Tefila, Bedford Corners, NY
C. Lauren Arnold, Kesher Liaison, NYU, Temple Israel, Memphis, TN
Sarah Baracks, Kesher Social Action Vice President, American University, Temple Isaiah, Stony Brook, NY
Julia Baskin, Kesher songleader, Washington University in St. Louis
Shaun Bernstein, Kesher member, York University
Isaac Binkovitz, Kesher member, McGill University, Temple Beth Shalom, New Albany, OH
Nick Burka, Kesher songleader, University of Maryland, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Alex Bookbinder, NFTY member, Temple Har Zion, Markham, Canada
Matt Carrick, Kesher member, University of Pittsburgh
Rebecca Dautoff, Kesher member, Wellesley College, Temple Beth Am, Seattle, WA
Abby Dobbs, Kesher member, Northeastern University, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Meredith Dobbs, Kesher member, Tufts University, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Nate Dumtschin, Kesher Liaison, University of Cincinnati, Vice President AEPI, Temple Beth Or, Dayton, OH
Emily Flaxman, Kesher member, Yale University
Chase Foster, AEPI President and Kesher Liaison, Purdue University, Wise Temple, Cincinnati, OH
Matthew Goldenberg, Kesher member, St. Olaf College
Ben Gorban, Kesher member, American University
Natanya Green, Kesher member and fmr. RCVice President NFTY Central-West Region, UC Davis, Congregation Bnai Israel, Sacramento, CA
Sara Gunning, Vice President Jewish Students Association, American University, Temple Beth Emet, Evanston, IL
Katie Helfand, York University, Narayever Synagogue, Toronto, Canada
Stephanie Helfman, Kesher member, York College of PA, Baltimore Hebrew Cong., Baltimore, MD
Neal Karlin, Kesher member, Towson University
Zachary Krensky, UNC-Greensboro, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Rachel Levine, Kesher member, NYU, Temple Menorah, Redondo Beach, CA
Shayna Liberman, Kesher member, University of Michigan
Bridey Maidhof, Kesher songleader, University of Kansas
Phil McCauley, fmr. Northern Vice President NFTY Mid-Atlantic Region, University of Maryland, Temple Adas Shalom, Havre de Grace, MD
Ryan McDonald, Kesher member, Washington University in St. Louis
Gabriel Merlin, Kesher member, Washington University in St. Louis
Elizabeth Moorehouse-Stein, McGill University, Temple Emanu-El, Toronto, Canada
Marissa Patterson, Kesher Liason, Bryn Mawr College, Temple Israel Dayton, OH
Eric Reif, fmr. Membership Vice President NFTY-Mid-Atlantic Region, Washington University in St. Louis, Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church, VA
Emily Samuels, Kesher member, University of Michigan, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Adam Schloss, Kesher member, Carnegie Mellon University, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Dave Shapiro, Kesher member, Washington University in St. Louis, Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn, NY
Anna Steinberg, Kesher Liaison, University of Buffalo, Temple Beth Zion, Buffalo, NY
Amy Tilles, Kesher member, Indiana University, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Kyle Wassell, Kesher member, Drexel University, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Alicia Wolman, Kesher member, West Virginia University
Kilby Yarbrough, fmr. Kesher Chapter Treasurer, Washington University in St. Louis, Beth Israel, Jackson, MS

High School – NFTY

Rachel Boochever, CBEYG Programming Vice President, Congregation Beth Emeth, Albany, NY
Caryn Cohen, BATY member, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
Rachel Eisen, BATY President, Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, MD
David Gross, Social Action Vice President Texas and Ohio Region, Temple Beth El, San Antonio, TX
Jeremy Sanders, CBEYG President, Congregation Beth Emeth, Albany, NY
Rebecca Wolchok, CBEYG Religious and Cultural Vice President, Temple Beth Emeth, Albany, NY
Dan Zarchy, Pace University, Temple Emanuel, New Hyde Park, NY

Rabbinic Ally

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, Chicago, IL

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As dawn broke, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two remaining daughters, lest you be swept away because of the iniquity of the city.” Still he delayed. So the men seized his hand, and the hands of his wife and his two daughters – in the Lord’s mercy on him – and brought him out and left him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, one said, “Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away.”… Lot’s wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt.

-Genesis 19:15-17, 26

The recent experience of living under Katyusha fire in the Galilee brings into sharp relief the eternal tension between attachment to home and the pull of other values such as life, family, and faith. Most of the residents of the Galilee, we are told, left home and for temporary quarters in the center and south; indeed, the government actively encouraged people to leave endangered communities, and provided some (minimal) help in doing so. There were tent cities, and people sleeping in schools, and many families who took in relatives, friends, or even complete strangers. The instinct to get out of harm’s way is obvious and healthy. On the other hand, a large minority stayed in their homes, even though they had to run to the shelter ten times a day (if they even had one), even though life in the community was half-paralyzed, even though the risk was real, palpable, and immediate. The scorched fields and bomb craters and smashed houses are clearly visible to even a casual visitor. One could say, paraphrasing God’s instructions to Lot: “Are you crazy or something? Get out of here!”

But it turns out that the decision is not simple, and everyone has a different calculus of risks and benefits and thus a different red line. Some examples of responses to the possibility of leaving:

We have no one to stay with, and can’t afford a hotel, and aren’t prepared to subject ourselves to living in a mass shelter. We can’t afford it. It is easier on us and the kids psychologically to stay in our familiar surroundings and let that sense of at-home-ness help us cope with the trauma – better than the trauma of living like a refugee. This is my house, this is my place, and no terrorist is going to dislodge me. Zionism is about putting down roots in the soil, refusing to wander any more. What’s the big deal? There are dangers everywhere. What, really, is the probability of our being harmed? Anyway, when your number’s up, it’s up. Nothing will happen to me. God will provide.

And as I watched my coworkers and neighbors wrestling with the decision, it was hard not to be reminded of the dilemmas that must have been faced by…

Lot: “Oh no, my Lord…I cannot flee to the hills…” (Gen. 19:18); i.e., the prospect of the journey is too daunting – I cannot face it. Jews in 15 th century Spain: convert and stay - or flee, maybe forever. Jews in Germany in the 1930’s: this is our place; we have faith that its underlying values will prevail. Arabs in Israel in 1948: this is our land, this is our place, what will be will be. Settlers in Gaza in 2005 Residents of New Orleans in 2005 Sodom was a horrible place, a human and moral disaster before it became a geological one. But to Lot’s wife it was home, and I’m sure that when she looked back it was beautiful in her eyes.

Marc Rosenstein is the author of the Galilee Diary and is the foundation director of HaMakom, Reform Rabbi and former high school principal with a PhD in Modern Jewish History, extensive experience in teacher in-service training, as well as in informal education.

This entry was originally published as a 10 Minutes of Torah commentary. To learn more about the 10 Minutes of Torah series, please visit www.urj.org/torah/ten.

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Over the past week, families from the north, from Naharriya to Kiryat Shmona, Jews and Arabs, have arrivied at Kibbutz Yahel to stay in our "bed-and-breakfast." This may not look different from the last three weeks, but there is a difference. These northerners arriving have not left the shelters since the beginning of the war due to the fact they come from low income families and could not afford to travel or are physically limited. In cooperation with the IMPJ, we will be hosting these people for a week, providing rooms, meals and activities for the children and adults alike. We will continue with this program as long as needed.

I would like to translate a letter from one of the Israelis staying with us.

Shalom,

My name is Norit Naftolovich, from Kibbutz Eilon, situated on the Lebanese border in the Western Galilee. From the first days of the war we stayed in our concrete homes. All around us were the booms of the IDF cannons and the Katyusha rockets, shaking our homes to the foundations. We hoped that the Katyushas would fall in open areas and not in the kibbutz. After a week, we decided to go to the bomb shelters.because the situation was worsening. At that point a number of families decided to evacuate to a safer place. We turned to the local welfare office, and in cooperation with the Southern Arava office we arrived at Kibbutz Yahel, not knowing what the future holds for us. To our pleasant surprise, we have been embraced by the wonderful people of Yahel. All of our needs are taken care of, from food to laundry, child care to showers in members homes. We number 30 from Eilon, and Yahel provided us with their library complex. Everything we asked for has been provided without hesitation. We feel a part of Yahel, and when the time comes to return home, that will be very difficult. But we miss our own homes, our beds, the familiar surroundings, and are looking forward to that moment. But wothout a doubt, we will never forget the extraordinary people of Yahel.

Sincerely,

Norit, Yonatan, Gal, Tal, Amit and Shachar

Ron Bernstein is the Pomelo Orchard Manager and Summer Desert Tour Guide at Kibbitz Yahel in the South of Israel

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I was so happy to hear the news about the ceasefire, that I didn’t read any of the 19 Resolution 1701 articles. After 33 days of war, we here in Haifa want to see the end.

In the media they discussed who is the winner, Lebanon, Hizballa or Israel? I think that in this war everyone lost. More than 100 soldiers were killed already, half of them were reserve duty soldiers, ages 21-41 (I was a reserve duty soldier for 20 years, it could have been me but since I am 45, I am too old to be sent to fight). The other half were young men, ages 18-21, who just finished high school and didn’t even have a chance to go to college. More than 50 civilians were killed from all denominations, Jews, Christians, Moslems and Druze. Many hundreds are wounded and are still in the hospitals. I heard a mother whose child is wounded, saying that she is happy that her son doesn’t have to go back to Lebanon and fight.

Friday was my son Ariel’s 9th birthday. Since none of the children would come to the party, we canceled it. Instead we decided that the whole family will go to a restaurant. Unfortunately, there were so many sirens (four in one hour) that we decided to have the party in the bomb shelter at Or Hadash. Since the toy stores were closed, the grandparents decided to give money instead of a present, and made a promise which they wrote on paper, to take Ariel and buy toys after the war is over. It wasn’t the nicest birthday party I can remember.

On Shabbat two of the three Bar Mitzvah ceremonies were canceled and the Bar Mitzvah family who came did so without the grandparents (they were afraid to come and stayed in Rishon Letzion).

A few minutes before Kabalat Shabbat on Friday night, there were a couple of sirens but still there were a few dozen brave members who came to pray.

Just a few minutes ago I came back from the Shivah for the mother of Dr. Roxana Reichman. It is so unfair that she took such good care of her mother for two years, and as a consequence of the fear of sirens and the loud noise after bombs landed, she died from a heart attack. Dr. Tamara Luka was a sweet 84 year old Jewish woman. She was an M.D. who took great pride in her work all her life. She is another one of the victims of this cruel war.

Since we opened our shelter for children’s activities, 12 days ago, to everyone in our neighborhood, many mothers can now go to work.

Today 35 of these children were playing in our shelter, during the many sirens that bothered us this morning, once again. In this crazy reality there are U.N. resolutions on one hand, and bombs and sirens in our city on the other hand. The media reports that more than 3,700 katyushas and rockets landed in Israel, on average 130 katyushas each day.

Yesterday we were lucky, only 70 landed in Israel, it is probably because Israel decided to expand military efforts in Lebanon and destroyed part of the kayusha infrastructure. Our soldiers paid with their lives for us to have less bombs and sirens.

Rabbi Dr. Edgar Nof is the leader of Or Hadash in Haifa

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Friends, colleagues and relatives from the US have been calling to express their support and concern for my family and for all the people living in Israel. I would like to use last week’s Shabbat experience to give you an example of our life in the shadow of the war.

Last Friday, Parashat Va-et'chanan, I volunteered to lead Friday night services in our congregation Sulam Yaakov together with another member of the congregation, Lior Doron, a mature, intelligent youth who is very committed to 0ur youth movement. I was very excited, it being the first time in my personal and professional life that I was asked to lead the services and I took it very seriously. In spite of my sizeable experience leading adults and children, this experience was very moving for me.

Lior and I did a lot to prepare ourselves for leading the prayers and the singing and also to give the sermon that deals with the verse “Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad” which appears in this parasha. 25 men and women from the congregation gathered for the Kabbalat Shabbat. We arranged the hall in the building we rent from Wizo, with the chairs in a circle and there was an atmosphere of togetherness. With us there was also a couple that are members of our congregation in Naharia who were staying with the Melameds because of the war. They came to Zichron Yaakov our charming town to relax from the noise of the rockets and the sirens and the daily fear.

The service proceeded calmly and the only discordant sounds came from the differences between Lior’s bass voice and my high one and Itai, the charming young guitarist’s differing versions of the songs…

In our congregation after saying “Mi Sheberach” for the sick we continue with the Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel and the Prayer for the Welfare of our Soldiers. These past few weeks these last two prayers have taken on even more validity and meaning because of their relevance.

In the middle of the Prayer for the Welfare of the State, suddenly a terrifying cry rose up as if from the bowels of the earth which we immediately identified as an air raid siren. After a moment during which we all exchanged glances with one another, we pulled ourselves together and ran to the hallway and bathrooms because we don’t have a shelter in the building we rent for our synagogue. The scene that played itself out during the next 15 minutes was quite surrealistic and if I hadn’t been there I would have said it was a Zionist propaganda skit.

There we sat on the floor, members of the congregation from age 7 to the oldest, Simha who will be celebrating his 85 birthday soon. I sat opposite Simha, he on a chair and me on the floor. Simha, the gabbai of the congregation, is a dear man with an eternal smile in his eyes. On Holocaust Memorial day last year he told us his life’s story and described his journey of survival from the Nazis in WWII through ghettos and extermination camps and finally his entrance to Israel before the creation of the State. During those minutes sitting on the floor waiting for we knew not what, perhaps a rocket would fall in the neighborhood , or perhaps a worse attack further north, looking at Simha I could not help but think of the catastrophic, crazy history of this country during the past 6 decades of its existence.

At the same time my husband and children were at home because my son Yuval was not feeling well so they didn’t come to shul. I knew they were protected in our shelter but my heart was divided between my desire to stay with the congregation and the instinctive need of a mother to protect her children. After a few minutes of sitting, some even lying, on the floor, we all decided to continue the services in spite of the fact that we were crowded together in the small space between the hall and the bathrooms. And so we resumed the Prayer for the Welfare of the State from the exact place the siren had interrupted us. This time said with even greater devotion. 15 minutes passed, the allotted time we must take shelter after the alarm sounds and then we helped each other up and returned to the service. At the end, standing embracing each other in a circle we said a very powerful Kiddush.

I think, “God in heaven, for once in my life I take on the challenge to lead the prayers instead of the rabbi and this is how you test me?” The real test is the normal life we must continue to lead as a Jewish and Israeli society in the State of Israel, to always remember we were created in His image and to believe that the future will be more secure and more relaxed.

Makki Osheroff – Gerzon is a member of Sulam Yaakov & Director of Education Department of the IMPJ

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The war in the North grinds into the 4th week. Ground operations have expanded and with that more soldiers killed and wounded. Staff and students at the College have relatives and loved ones enlisted or recently called into service. In this country there are maybe "2 degrees of separation." So our greater community finds itself visiting the wounded and attending military funerals. The North remains a combination of ghost towns and cities struggling to function. As my colleague at the Leo Baeck Centre in Haifa told me: "we are operating at 50%." These are hard and heavy times. At this writing, there is serious talk about a Cease Fire, so let us hope….

Something remarkable happened this week in Jerusalem. In the midst of this difficult and painful war, hundreds gathered in the Forscheimer Courtyard at the College for the opening of the first ever Inter-faith gathering, as part of World Pride 2006, an affirmation of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender (GLBT) Community. Under the full moon of Tu B'av (the 15th of Av) an impromptu student choir of cantorial and rabbinic students, led by upperclassman SSM Student David Berger, set the evening with a magnificent rendering of Psalm 122 and they continued to sing throughout the evening. What a heavenly choir they were, with them we could really soar to a place of transcendence we so needed to get to.

I welcomed the hundreds including many of our students, who joined together to hear the inspired four Keynote Speakers. Representative Jerry Nadler of New York was on hand to greet the assembly. Then one after another each religious activist transformed us. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the largest GLBT Synagogue in North America spoke of the historic significance of this gathering. Who could imagine that representatives of the three monotheistic faiths could gather in Jerusalem at a time and place of religious extremism and call for openness, tolerance, and co-existence. Rabbi Kleinbaum has been unwavering in her fight to keep the events going this week and sustain the courage to voice the needs and concerns of the GLBT community at this time. This too is "Tikkun Olam", she said; Bishop Zachary Jones of the Unity Fellowship Church shared this first time journey to Jerusalem. He listened for voices telling him not to come, but God did not cooperate and in the thunderous silence he heard the cry for justice and he boarded the plane. In Jerusalem, he found God in the faces of everyone he encountered, and he told the assembled, that he so artfully turned into a "Baptist Congregation", to go out and spread this loving and inclusive Grace of God, Amen! Rev Pat Bumgardner, Senior Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church, with unprecedented passion and fire reminded us that Queer people are not abominations, as the fundamentalists would have it; rather, the hate and violence directed against the GLBT community is the abomination. God is love. It is that simple and that powerful; the rest, as we Jews would say, is commentary. And Irshad Manji, perhaps one of the bravest and outspoken Muslim women in the world today, taught us that human rights means reaching out of your comfort zone and worrying about the other, doing something for the other. She represents an Islam that embraces pluralism and indeed, self-questioning. She was the dazzling coda for this extraordinary gathering; which was followed the next day with plenary sessions, workshops, and a closing ecumenical prayer service.

Dr Joel Kushner, Director of the Institute for Judaism and Sexual Orientation at our Los Angeles campus was here this week meet our students and be an active participant in the Interfaith Conference and other World Pride events. He was able to announce the opening of the Jeff Herman Virtual Resource Center to the general public, coinciding with World Pride 2006. This web-based center is a crucial and vital resource and for clergy and lay people in our ongoing work for inclusion and empowerment of the LGBT community.

This week we concluded our 4 week Thursday program dedicated to Jerusalem. Three remarkable teachers served as our students' guides and educators. Rabbi Moshe Silberschein , master teacher of Rabbinics at the College for many years, turns tour guide- educator in our summer program. Rabbi David Wilfond aka "Gingi" Director of Outreach Projects, working intensively with our program in the FSU (sponsored by the Charles and Lynn Schuterman Family Foundation) took some time to orient our students to his newly chosen beloved city of Jerusalem. He has now completed his second year as "Oleh Chadash", new immigrant. Ofir Yarden, professional tour guide and educator, born and bred Reform Jew, adds his expertise to this intense seminar. Week after week, our students studied texts, walked the paths up down, scouted rooftops, wandered through the gates, explored the underground layers and tunnels, peeling off historic layer after historic layer of this city. It ended overlooking the Old City, at the intersection of the three monotheistic faiths. From the highpoint it can look hopeful, even peaceful. On the ground, we know that the challenge is much tougher. And yet, we can put these events together this week and pray that the rainbow shining over Jerusalem, from our courtyard toward the church spires, Mosque domes, and synagogue walls, that rainbow will be remembered for generations to come.

Rabbi Naamah Kelman is the director of the Year-In-Israel Program and Educational Initiatives for HUC-JIR

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As a practicing physician in Haifa and Nahariya in Israel, I understand much of what Lebanese colleagues have been writing, from a standpoint of true empathy. The current military conflict between Hizballah and Northern Israel has been surprisingly long and bitter, and it is resulting in a wide spectrum of medical implications.

As always in war, the medical staff here has been selflessly getting to work, doing our jobs, trying our best to save lives and limbs. As always in military confrontations, there are many heart wrenching cases of tragedies, which cannot be undone by even the most skilled and best equipped medical teams.

An orthopedic surgeon was killed by combatants while doing his military medical service, and a paramedic was killed in service yesterday. Physicians and medical staff of the North are dedicated and tireless in helping every kind of wounded people, of every faith and nationality and religion. Some of our medical staff are stressed by having families who have left their homes in the North for safer regions. The North of Israel has absorbed some 3000 missile strikes, and the damages have taken a heavy toll. Missiles have slammed into our hospitals and all around them.

The complete disregard of the moral ethical and other distinctions between armed forces and civilians, causes all of us here deep concern. We consider anyone who purposely aims to harm civilians a terrorist. Israel declares to have no civilians as targets, and although there are collateral damages to civilians, the medical staff of Lebanon should know that the people of Israel have never voted for willful attacks on Lebanese civilians. We were aghast to hear Mr. Nasrallah say on TV that two Israeli children whose murders he authorized were martyrs. Over a thousand civilians have been directly injured or murdered by the purposely-directed fire at them by this unlawful militia. Many thousand became refugees with many medical implications. My Israeli colleagues - Jewish and Moslem and Christian and of other religions, all regret every loss of life, particularly of civilians and perhaps most of all of innocent children.

I agree with my colleague from Lebanon that an immediate cease-fire would stop the flow of new tragedies from occurring. Here, many see a ceasefire as a gesture likely to allow the problem of unlawful militia strikes against our civilians to re-commence. Both long-term and short-term solutions are urgently needed. I would hope that our esteemed Lebanese and other medical colleagues, who are generally well respected in their communities, will all try to increase their level of social activism to get the Lebanese government to bring under responsible governmental control, and preferably to succeed in completely disarming, all unlawful militias, especially of the Hizballah. Socially responsible citizens and leaders on both sides of this conflict need to lead our peoples in ways of restraint, towards ways of maximal well being.

Maimonides, also know as the Rambam, and as Ibn-Musa, was a world-famous physician who died in 1204 near Cairo. The main hospital at which I work in Haifa is names for this physician/philosopher and role model. He taught lessons for people of all religions and all peoples. He spoke and wrote in several languages including Arabic and Hebrew. He urged all people to search for the Golden Mean, to train ourselves to tend away from anger, and to work tirelessly, as these are major goals of mankind, to improve the well-being of others.

May physicians world-wide strive tirelessly - in the spirit of the Rambam; may we to learn to lead with humanity, may we learn for ourselves and teach others in our lands to tend away from anger, and may we be successful bringers of healing.

Dr . Jesse Lechter is a member and past President of Or Hadash, Haifa, Israel. He is also a Physician at Rambam Hospital.

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Sunday was my wedding anniversary. My wife, Deborah and I usually eat at a restaurant to celebrate the event, but this year we are “celebrating” at home, hoping that it will be a quiet evening with no sirens (of course we couldn’t find a single restaurant open during nighttime in Haifa).

We were hoping for some calm, but the past Shabbat was anything but quiet. After the 48 hour ceasefire, things changed for the worse. In the past 3 days over 200 katyushas per day landed in the North of Israel, with dozens of civilians killed and many more wounded. Just a few minutes ago, 12 people were killed in Kfar Giladi in what is to referred to as the one of the most difficult days for us since the beginning of the war.

Friday evening, while most people were enjoying their Friday night dinner, Hizballa managed to shock Israelis once again, when Katushas landed in Hadera (near Caesaria). Nasralla’s threat to aim katyushas toward new areas closer to Tel Aviv, came true. Actually, many people were not surprised since Nasralla has already done everything he threatened to do.

The news reports showed residents of Hadera (half way between Haifa and Tel Aviv) shocked about the Katyushas reaching their area. It reminded us of the day( we will remember for a long time), when katyushas landed in Haifa for the first time 25 days ago. We felt such disbelief that katyushas can reach Haifa.

Most people like to take their time on Saturday and rest, but at 8 am a siren woke everyone up (except for me since I wake up early on Saturday to prepare B’nei Mitzvah for their Torah reading). Everyone in Haifa could hear the explosions, since they were nearby.

We constantly hear “mini explosions” without any siren, since they are far away. Even if we become a bit relaxed, these mini explosions remind us we are still in war.

I wanted to share with you the blessing that the mother of our first Bar Mitzvah read to her son on the bima this past weekend:

“Not everyone celebrates his Bar Mitzvah at a time which is so meaningful for our country. When your children and your grandchildren ask you where you celebrated your Bar Mitzvah, you can always tell them that during your ceremony there were sirens in the background and katyushas from Lebanon landed nearby. The three weeks until 9 Be’av mark the period of time when the walls of Jerusalem fell after the siege on the city and the Temple’s destruction. These days, our enemies also want us to leave our land , but we are confident that given how strong Israel is, they will not be able to defeat us”.

It was a beautiful ceremony with three generations of Reform Jews at Or Hadash. The grandparents (a distinguished faculty member from the Technion) were among the founders of Or Hadash in 1964 and they joined us. Their son who has a high rank in the IDF was Bar Mitzvah in 1972. And now their youngest grandchild, Asaf, had his Aliyah to the Torah.

They celebrated all their life cycle events with all 4 rabbis of Or Hadash (in the past 42 years). This ceremony was also special and significant. Almost 70 congregants attended the ceremony which also shows the love and respect for this family, since many of them were afraid to come.

Later that day I traveled to Tel Aviv for another special ceremony. The mother was one of the first women to have a Bat Mitzvah at Or Hadash 30 years ago. All of the cousins had their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs in our Temple. She came from L.A., where the family has been living for the past 10 years. The relatives insisted that the Bar Mitzvah be held in Tel Aviv instead of at Or Hadash. In order for us not to loose more income, I traveled to Tel Aviv and it was a very emotional ceremony.

On my way back home after a few hours away from the sirens, I returned to our new routine of noises and running to the shelter and watching the TV (seeing tragic pictures).

I am still remain optimistic. All 30 staff members of Or Hadash report every day to work. All 3 preschools and the summer camp are open. Today we have almost 70%of the children with us (about 65 children ages 2-9). The food that Shlomit cooked was tasty, I think she made it with special love. Also on Friday night, more than 50 congregants came to pray which means that we are on our way back to our day to day lives.

A million times thanks for your letters and your support: spiritual and material.

Waiting for the U.N. to declare a real ceasefire.

Rabbi Dr. Edgar Dof is the leader of Or Hadash in Haifa.

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Today, Monday, there are the funerals. We bury our dead so quickly it can almost take your breath away. The funerals happen before we can even digest the deaths. Yesterday there were so many deaths, so today there are so many funerals.

Friday afternoon, day 24 of the war, we had just gotten back from the packed "Canyon" mall in Or Akiva, just South of Zichron Yaakov and across the highway from Binyamina. So many shoppers were there, the grocery store ran out of carts and people (us included) were using grocery sacks to carry stuff around the story. When we got back to Zichron, Julie went out to the shed to put on a load of laundry while I unpacked things into the fridge. She came running back in to say, simply, "There are sirens." We stepped back outside and sure enough, the city sirens were wailing in the distance. We immediately walked over to the shed which connects to an underground miklat, bomb shelter, stepped inside, turned the light on and just looked at each other. I took a chair down from a shelf (the miklat here is about 8' x 8') for Julie -- she sat down, burst into tears and asked me to call the boys (one in Herzliya and one in Hod HaSharon) to make sure they were ok.

I immediately realized that she has been quietly fraught with anxiety over Nasrallah's threat on Tel Aviv. I reached the boys, who were fine, and we waited a few minutes until the sirens stopped. Within minutes, the news reported "Warning sirens sounded all over the North shortly before the barrage, from Safed to Acre and Zichron Ya'akov" and that " 70 rockets crashed into towns across the north in under an hour." One person was killed and several people were wounded.

Heard on the news an interview with someone from Tarshicha (Arab village next to Kfar Vradim) who said that the building inspectors in Arab towns often overlook standard Israeli building code requirements -- INCLUDING the required integration of miklatim, bomb shelters. And I'm told that Israel is no different than American in that the building inspectors hold ALL the power in the construction industry. So some of the Arab villages are replete with homes that do not supply safe shelter.

Friday evening, I am at the stove cooking dinner (a sauce of eggplant, spinach, tomatoes, fresh thyme, garlic, cottage cheese and the ubiquitous olive oil all over pasta with fresh bread) when an unmistakable "boom" insinuates itself through the kitchen door -- left open, even though our intention was only to admit the evening's Mediterranean breeze from the West. I turn from the sizzle of my pan to lock eyes Julie across the room.

"What the hell was that?" we both ask each other. Within minutes, the cell phone rings and it’s Sharon calling from Ra’anana to say, “You guys better come down here, they just it Hadera.” Now, Hadera is actually “South” of Zichron Yaakov, so that feels a little freaky knowing the rockets went right over us. Sure enough, the news began trickling in that “Two or three rockets landed in the region of Hadera for the first time on Friday night, marking the southernmost point Hizbullah has fired so far in the conflict, some 90 km south of the Lebanese border. Four locals suffered from shock.

Northern police district chief Dan Ronnen said that the fact that long-range rockets carry dozens of kilograms of explosives could account for the many reports of explosions heard in communities in the region. Hizbullah confirmed on al-Manar that it fired a barrage of Khaibar 1 rockets at Hadera on Friday night.”

At first we started throwing all our stuff in suitcases to hit the road, but then I said wait a minute. This does not make sense – here we have a bomb shelter and the army is recommending that we stay close to the shelter. Getting in the car and driving on the highway that goes right through Hadera is not the thing to do.

Sunday morning. We wake up to the news of Kfar Giladi. 10 miluimnikim (reservists) slaughtered on the spot – 2 more die of their wounds by nightfall. They weren’t even active yet, just gathering for their assignments. Sunday evening and again I’m making dinner when we hear multiple booms. From our hillside vantage point, we can see up and down the coast, including to Hadera, but I don’t see any signs of rocket impacts – no fires, no smoke. We turn the TV to Israeli news and wait. Booms have been heard, they say within a few minutes, but there is not yet a confirmation as to their source. Then all eyes turn to Haifa. At first they only say that there have been rockets in Haifa and some are dead with 20 to 30 injured.

But by the time all the news is in, three are dead and more than 100 are injured. One news station has a cameraman inside the emergency room door at a Haifa hospital and we watch as stretcher after stretcher is whisked in (Haifa’s Rambam Hospital has begun the process of transferring whole wings and patients to a large underground bomb shelter containing hundreds of beds). These were not just Katushyot, says the news, these were explosive warheads and that’s why they did so much damage, bringing an apartment building down, trapping its occupants in the rubble. I dialog over MSN Messenger with my friend Amnon in Newton, MA – he telephones his cousin who lives in Haifa. She was sitting in her apartment when the rockets began hitting and she told him she could see the impacts from her window. Zicrhon talks to Newton who talks to Haifa and news is relayed back to Zichron via Newton. With technology, we all know everything so quickly.

When the night eventually wears us down – we had rented a DVD movie to watch, but the news pre-empted that – we drag ourselves to bed. I think of the day and say to Julie, “You know, these people just woke up this morning and had coffee, just like us. Breakfast and maybe a cigarette. But they just didn’t make it through the day, you know? And their families are devastated forever.” And today, there are the funerals. The news broadcasts their names, their pictures, their ages and their hometowns. Some are
buried in the Mt. Herzl military cemetary. One, it says on the news, will be buried in Or Akiva. We just shopped in Or Akiva on Friday and I wonder, with no rationale whatsoever, how there can suddenly be a funeral for a 20-something soldier boy there. It changes what the town is now. Now Or Akiva has, like so many towns, its death from Milchemet B’tzafon – the small war in the North.

Here’s just one account from Yedioth Achronot. It’s not different or special, it’s just one account:

Shmuel Halfon, 41, from Bat Yam is survived by his wife Iris and three sons – Aharon, 16, Gil, 21, and Liad-Or, who is 11-months-old. Iris said her husband liked to perform reserves duty and loved the army. Halfon was called up for reserve duty about two weeks ago. Last week he was informed that he can return home, but a day after he arrived he was called back to the army. Family members spent long, hectic hours Sunday after failing to reach Halfon on his cellular phone.

"At noon, after we heard about what happened, I tried to call him but couldn't get a hold of him. I called the hospital and then the army office…everyone said they don't know," the wife recounted. "By the afternoon Aharon called the cellular phone and a military police officer answered – we asked him whether he was at Kfar Giladi and he said he was…that's how we realized what happened."

"At six in the evening they rang the doorbell. I told the officer 'please tell me that he's wounded,' but he grabbed my hands and said "let's sit down,' and then I saw the whole world shatter before my eyes," Iris said.

Steve Schuster is the President of Temple Sinai in Worcester, MA. He has been in Israel for three weeks with his wife and two sons.

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It is now three weeks since I arrived in Israel. I am amazed to sit back and recall our conversations then. Kfar Vradim is safe, we all said. Its elevation is too high for the trajectories of the Katushyas. Nasrallah is “threatening” to aim for Haifa. This will be over in just a couple days. Should we go South or just hang out here? Seems pretty safe.

Well, today Kfar Vradim made headlines (locally, anyhow) when it was among the many hard-hit Galilee towns in what is now many consecutive days ofheavy heavy rocket attacks. The headlines read: 8 civilians, 4 soldiers killed in bloodiest day of war.

130 rockets were fired into Israel within 90 minutes between 4:00 p.m. and 5:30 this afternoon. Two hit homes in Kfar Vradim - homes on streets we recognized, of course. We watched the local news with Sharon who knows the homeowners being interviewed, knows the woman shown on the newscast who came from next door to hug the homeowners in tears, knows her father (an Oleh from the U.S. in 1998) refuses to come South and says he won't sleep in his miklat (shelter) because it's "too messy." The Arab village next door, Tarshicha, suffered losses today, as well, when three shephards tending their goat herd were killed by direct Katushya strikes (obviously they were nowhere near shelters).

The news coverage continues to be incredibly different on Israeli TV versus the CNNs of the world. This was especially evident during the Kfar Qana tragedy early in the week which seemed to cause a very quick reversal of the good will toward Israel. The Western press just pounced and now it feels like the old days where Israel is back to being the misunderstood bully of the region.

The Jerusalem Post reported, for example, that CNN "senior international correspondent" Nic Robertson admitted that his anti-Israel report from Beirut on July 18 about civilian casualties in Lebanon, was stage-managed from start to finish by Hizbullah. He revealed that his story was heavily influenced by Hizbullah's "press officer" and that Hizbullah has "very, very sophisticated and slick media operations." When pressed a few days later about his reporting on the CNN program "Reliable Sources," Robertson acknowledged that Hizbullah militants had instructed the CNN camera team where and what to film. Hizbullah "had control of the situation," Robertson said.

Meanwhile, the country is clearly in a state of shock at the physical attacks on Israeli soil. There is a lot of talk now about massive post traumatic stress disorder in the North -- those people remaining up there (25% or so?) are now having to respond in seconds to warning sirens, diving for their shelters, assuming they are close enough to make it. Four of today's deaths came in Akko when some people came out of their shelters after a massive rain of rockets, thinking it was over. More rockets fell and killed them. The news says even the trauma counselers in the North are getting badly needed counseling themselves because everyone is freaked out up there.

The daily announcement of the soldiers killed feels exceedingly painful and local from here, too. When they show a photograph and say what town the killed are from and what their age is and when the funeral will be held, it feels wrenchingly close to home. You know, now that I think about it, we end up weeping over the news at some point every day. But you can't turn away from the news and its realities. Many people have (understandably) implored us to come home immediately, and we will be leaving in less than a week. But Julie and I acknowledged to each other yesterday that we are emotionally unprepared to leave this country behind in war. Anyone who has been here knows it is hard enough to leave Israel at any time -- it is a place that gets under your skin in ways that are not to be understood. But leaving Israel at war, and trying to connect with what we are at this moment so connected with from afar is going to be, we know, very very difficult.

On Tuesday evening, we participated in a large 50th birthday party for our friend Shmulik. A hall was rented in Rishon Letzion, and there was much celebrating among family and friends, including army buddies of Shmulik, who fought in Lebanon in 1982. The evening was undeniably festive, including many toasts and speeches, beer and wine and nosh-type food, collective dancing (picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding), and a comedic belly dancer who began her show by removing her full-length black burka to the tune of Joe Cocker's "You Can Leave Your Hat On" (again, an only in Israel moment?). We had a great time, and for a few hours, the war receded from our minds.

I've heard some discussion among men like Shmulik -- those who are older, who have fought previous wars but aren't included in this one -- there's plenty of admiration for the kids fighting now, but you can also tell that these guys are finding it very hard not to be directly involved.

Evgeny ("iv-GHEN-ee"), the boyfriend of Gila and Shmulik's middle daughter Linor ("lee-NOR"), lives with them. He is a 24-year old Russian immigrant-- they met in the army. The night of Shmulik's party, well the morning after really, the telephone rang around 3 AM. It was a call-up from the army, informing Evgeny that he needed to report to his meeting place (a local school) with his uniform and gear. These calls to reservists are automated -- when the phone rings, it is a recording saying if this is Evgeny, please press one. The calls continue to come every hour until the soldier is successfully reached. till "in a party mood," Evgeny went right to the meeting place where he was informed that nothing was happening in the middle of the night and he would get a call in the morning. Ultimately, he did not get called up, and they gave him the green light to go ahead and leave this Sunday on a long-planned trip to Russia to visit his mother. But we were all on pins-and-needles for a day, waiting to see if he would go. Julie was reminded of the terrible day in 1982 when ALL the boys she went to school with at Tel Aviv University left the dorms dressed in uniform and boarded a long line of army buses for Lebanon.

Here is another example of how life goes on during war. The apartment we are lucky enough to be using in Zichron Yaakov has a small Bosch brand washing machine in the shed (our clothes are hung in the sun to dry). Julie went to open the washing machine door the other day and the plastic handle which releases the latch snapped off. Great. Easy enough to open with a screwdriver stuck in the resulting hole, but we're obviously not going to leave it that way (hardly "leaving a place better than we found it,"
right?).

Via the Bosch web site, I managed to find a phone number for Bosch Israel in Tel Aviv who gave me the phone numbers of the country's two Bosch parts and repair offices -- one in Haifa and one in Lod (near Ben Gurion Airport). Given "the situation" (the war, not the washing machine), I called the Lod parts center and explained *my* situation to them and where I was located and could they ship me a new door? No, they said, Zichron Yaakov is in the Haifa repair depot district and we expect that to reopen in a few days so you'll need to call them. Now, you must also understand that while Julie's Hebrew is FAR better than mine, things like washing machine repair calls are my domain, period. No amount of cajoling (read: begging) would get Julie on the phone with a parts and repair depot of any flavor, in any district, in any language.

So, I'm seriously winging the Hebrew here. "Delet" (door), at least I learned in fourth grade or so. Ultimately, borrowing Gila and Shumlik's Ra-anana address (apparently sufficiently South to qualify for Lod parts and repair), I was able to connect with someone who told me to bring the door and come to the Lod office. Great -- I have a solution that should be quick and painless.

Well, first I have to find the place, and it must be understood that Israelis do not give good directions. It seems that directions to anywhere are essentially the same: "Yashar, yashar, kol haz'man yashar, ad ha-sof, az yamina" (straight, straight, all the time straight, until the end, then right). I'm not kidding. So to find the Bosch place in Lod, I'm given these directions on Highway Four -- in this case, "ha-sof" (the end) is the airport, after which I am to turn right toward Lod and then right into the industrial park. Key bits of information left out are that I actually need to be on Highway One (not Four), that I need to be in the North Industrial Park, and that there is a street name I need to know and even an address. Miraculously, I do find it, and in I go with my door.

I believe that I ask them if they can fix it, although I later learn that while I should have asked them if they can "l'ta-ken" (to fix) my broken door, I have actually asked them if they can "l'ta-kel" the door which has no meaning whatsoever. When I learn this, I wonder whether this linguistic error contributed to the two hour wait which was a fairly comedic form of "how many Israelis does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" The correct part was produced nearly immediately and I was assured that they would assemble
it for me on the spot. But it seriously took four guys to figure this out in the end. First one guy worked on it for a while and then he shouted to another guy, "Get Gadi! He knows how to do it!" Gadi didn't know (but pretended he did for 20 minutes) and finally shouted, "Find Moti! He knows!" And so on.

I kid you not -- four stubborn Israeli men disappeared behind a door and did not come out for 45 minutes. But they had my door and it was assembled. Meanwhile, I made friends with a young guy who had walked there from his apartment in Lod to make a fourth attempt at obtaining the right part for his own washer (I first noticed him standing at the counter with his head in his hands, muttering, "Ten li chazak" -- give me strength...). Later, when I gave him a ride home he tried to sell me a vacuum cleaner, even after I explained that I was only visiting and the electrical service in the U.S. is completely different than that required by his product.

I really hope we'll have some shalom, soon, but I think we're in for a long haul.

Steve Schuster is the President of Temple Sinai in Worcester, MA. He has been in Israel for three weeks with his family.

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This week the Jewish calendar reached its nadir, the lowest point of our Scriptural and liturgical cycle. The 9th of Av represents the saddest and most mournful day of our holy day cycle. The hot dry summer weather corresponds with the associations of despair and desolation. Indeed the difficult events of this past week mirror these associations as well. The death of the innocent victims at Kfar Kana, the continuing devastation of our cities: Kiryat Shemonah, Carmiel, Tzat, Acco, Maalot-Tarshicha and the lose of life in the North, civilians and soldiers weighs heavily on every Israeli everywhere.

We may hit "rock bottom" on the evening of the 9th of Av, but even our Rabbis would not allow us to stay there. By Mincha time on the day itself, we begin to move away from many of the symbols of mourning and turn towards hope. This dynamic tension captures so much of our daily reality. We find ourselves, three and a half weeks into this war, swinging back and forth from mourning to healing, despair to hope. Isaiah was the first to rally us, shake us out of our sadness and sense of helplessness. Haifa writer, "secular" prophet A.B. Yehoshua said in the midst of the toughest days of Haifa, where he remains: "Pessimism is a luxury!"

We in Jerusalem find ourselves in the place where we remain calm and unwavering; not pessimistic, but not quite optimistic; steadfastly between the Earthly Jerusalem and the Heavenly Jerusalem. We forge ahead. Joint Masters Rhea Hirsh School of Education and School of Jewish Communal Service student Laura Siegel and Rabbinic student Matt Cohen expressed their feelings so eloquently on an International web-based broadcast sponsored by the Jewish Agency-Israel Government program MASA. Go to the link at www.masaisrael.org for the full broadcast, including Nancy Lewitt (Coordinator of Student Life and Community building)

Our students are deeply ensconsced in their Hebrew studies. This week we began to focus on the many aspects of Tzedakah and Tzedek that they can choose to be involved with. Author and well-known Tzedakah activist, Danny Siegel, opened the programming by sharing his rich experiences with our students. In the coming weeks they will commit to their ongoing Community Service projects that will give them the opportunity to help those in need or offer support to many community-based and educational organizations. Some may become Song leaders at our Progressive Congregation or volunteers for IRAC and Rabbis for Human Rights while others will tutor children who struggle with English, work with children in families who are victims of terror, and help Ethiopian families in Absorption Centers.

"Charity begins at home;" we began to form the volunteer committees that build community and foster student involvement with different aspects of the program. The Caring Committee does "in-reach" by reaching out to students who need attention if they are at home with a virus or a birthday is coming up, the Israel Committee is planning a series of encounters with their Israeli peers, the Liaison Committee to the Administration makes sure that student concerns get voiced and are responded to, the "Kef" Social and Cultural Committee is planning many "fun" activities, the Sports Committee will make sure our students use their bodies as well as their minds, and an ad hoc committee is planning a Talent Night-Fundraiser, to name a few.

Lastly, students looked to each other for support when they devoted an evening activity to discussing their lives with and without their Significant Others at their side this year. Those partners that are in Jerusalem for the year sat with Wendy Bocarsky, RN, wife of Rabbi Shelley Donnell, while she shared her over 20 years experience as life partner to a Jewish professional. We thank her for her time, but we are deeply grateful to our students' spouses, life partners, and significant others, both near and far, for supporting our students. In a wonderful act of counter-cultural creativity, our other SO’s (singles only) sponsored a text "study" evening (off campus) filled with humor and song and mutual support.

The student-initiated Blood Drive was held this week. This was a spontaneous reaction to the Magen David call for blood so desperately needed in the North. On Shabbat day, another group will be visiting a local Jerusalem hotel where Ethiopian families from the North have been moved to for some rest and relief. They will take the children for some recreational activities, giving their parents the much-needed break.

Student interns and HUC faculty and staff led Tefillah and Study sessions on the 9th of Av. They examined the significance of this day in an era when Jerusalem is restored and we Reform Jews do not pray for a rebuilt 3rd Temple. We do, however, pray for a redeemed Jerusalem. A Jerusalem that Isaiah prophesized is to be rebuilt in Justice and Compassion. Tomorrow, on Shabbat "Nachamu," Isaiah will be a source of comfort. We can look back on our little community in-the-making in Jerusalem -- our future educational, cantorial, and rabbinic leaders -- and can be comforted indeed.

Rabbi Naamah Kelman is the Director of the Year-in-Israel Program and Educational Initiatives, HUC-JIR

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Delivered at Temple Emanuel in Westfield, NJ on August 1, 2006.

We are grateful for the analysis that we will hear tonight. It is important for us to understand as best we can the terrible conflict that rages on Israel’s northern border.

Still, as much as we appreciate analysis and commentary, it seems to me that the distinguishing feature of this conflict is the utter clarity of the issues and of the moral choices that it presents.

This is a war in which the rights and wrongs are beyond all doubt.

Southern Lebanon is taken over by Hezbollah after Israel’s withdrawal. Supported by Syria and Iran, Hezbollah amasses an arsenal of 13,000 missiles and rockets. Over a period of 6 years, it launches dozens of unprovoked attacks into Israeli territory— striking at military installations or launching rockets at civilian targets. All the while, Hezbollah’s leaders proclaim their genocidal intentions: Israel is to be wiped off the map.

And then, after it attacks again, kidnapping and killing Israeli soldiers, Israel finally strikes back. After six long years, it has had enough. But without hesitation, Hezbollah unleashes a barrage of 2500 rockets against Israel’s northern cities, each and every rocket aimed at civilians, each and every rocket intended to kill, or to maim, or to terrorize.

And terrorize they have. A half million Israelis have been driven from their homes; nearly a million pass most of their days in bomb shelters. Life in the northern half of the country has come to a standstill. And not only that. Hezbollah intentionally operates from civilian areas, knowing that this will increase civilian deaths, no matter how precise Israel’s weaponry. And these deaths in turn will be used to ratchet up the violence and the hate.

Could the rights and wrongs of this conflict be any clearer? If Israel’s cause is not just in this war, then no cause can ever be just.

But, of course, there are those in Europe, and here too, far from Hezbollah’s rockets and terror, smug in the physical safety of their own homes, who accuse Israel of overreacting and of failing to exercise “proportionality.”

To my fellow Americans who speak in this way, here is my question: if you were living in Houston, and if a terrorist body that the Mexican government refused to disarm were firing deadly rockets into your neighborhood night after night, endangering your life and terrorizing your children, would you be talking of restraint and proportionality? Or would you be demanding an immediate response from your government to assure that not a single additional missile threatened your family’s well-being?

This is not an abstract question. We know what President Roosevelt did when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. We know what President Kennedy did when the Russians put missiles in Cuba. And we know what President Bush did in Afghanistan, when it gave refuge to those who attacked us on September 11. Americans then did not talk of proportionality; they talked about providing security for their country and stopping those who wished to do us harm.

But let us not think for a moment, God forbid, that we can be indifferent to the death of innocents. The death of any child, Israeli or Arab, Muslim or Jew, is an unspeakable tragedy that rends the heart.

When Abraham argued with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, his plea was: “Ha-af tispeh tsaddik im rasha? Will you indeed sweep away the innocent with the guilty?” (Gen 18:23). And Abraham knew the answer, of course. Because you cannot turn your back on the innocent and still be God.

And so, what do we say about the children who died in Jana? We say that it was terrible beyond words.

But then we look at what happened afterward, and we see once again where justice resides in this terrible war.

Because immediately after the tragedy, Israel’s government said: this was an awful mistake and we are deeply sorry. And the next day, Israel’s papers and airwaves were filled with anguished debates about the moral implications of Israel’s actions. In Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s largest daily, the lead editorial proclaimed: “In a national sense, we are all guilty, because small nations are nations of collective responsibility. This killing is on the head of all of us.” And it went on to say that what Israel must do is take responsibility and ask forgiveness.

Do not misunderstand me. No one was arguing that the war was wrong. Overwhelmingly, Israelis believe that this is a just war, that it must be fought, and that Hezbollah is a threat to their very existence. They know that morality begins with security, and that the first responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens. But Israelis also want to know that everything that can be done to avoid civilian casualties is being done. And they were sending that message to their leaders, loud and clear.

And now let’s ask ourselves: Can we imagine this conversation taking place in the ranks of Hezbollah? As Jewish children continue to die, can we imagine Hezbollah taking responsibility and apologizing? Can we imagine them pledging to do everything in their power to put an end to civilian deaths? No, we cannot. Because Hezbollah is fascist in its politics and fanatic in its religious zeal; and it dreams not of peace but of death—death to Israel, death to Jews, and death to America. Once again, even amidst the tragedy of innocent lives lost, we see with utter clarity who shares our values and who is worthy of our support.

What is our task? It is four-fold.

First, to support our government, which has been a voice of reason and good sense, and to thank our president, who has been a true friend of the Jewish state.

Second, to work for peace—real peace. And peace can come. If the attacks stop, and if Hezbollah is disarmed, peace can come tomorrow. So let us strengthen the hand of all who will join with us in making such a peace a reality.

Third, to make clear that we are not declaring war against another religion. Yes, we will oppose extremism with all our might. But remember: our adversaries are the angry and hating minority in the Moslem world who embrace radical Islam. Surely most Moslems want to live in peace, and with them we must engage in honest dialogue.

And finally, to embrace Israel in her hour of need. Because Israel is a cause for thanksgiving and rejoicing; a bastion of democracy in a very bad neighborhood; a friend of America and an enemy of terror; and an inspiration to Jews and to Christians everywhere. Israel is not a perfect country. It is a contentious country that is as complicated and as difficult as the Jewish people themselves. But it is also a country where most of the time, and certainly now, the best impulses of her leaders and her people determine her direction and give us hope.

And so where do we stand at this moment? We stand proudly with Israel.

And as always, we ask for God’s guidance. And we pray that evil will be overthrown and reason will prevail. And that peace and redemption will come to Israel’s border, and that harmony will hallow Jerusalem’s gates—bi’meheira u’viyameinu, speedily, and in our day.

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