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IN THIS
ISSUE:
WITH CEASE-FIRE, ISRAELI
MOVEMENT REFLECTS AND PLANS FOR FUTURE
A cease-fire between the
IDF and Hezbollah has gone into effect, and while it’s clear that such
agreements are always fragile, there is much to be said about the role
played during the recent hostilities by members of the Israel Movement
for Progressive Judaism.
First and foremost, the
Progressive congregations in the areas targeted by Hezbollah rockets
continued, wherever, possible, to provide services to their congregants,
as well as to the immediate community. As so aptly said in a wartime
report by the IMPJ, “Our rabbis have stood in the center of the storm,
serving as rocks of support to scores of members of our congregations
and to many others.” The report specifically cited Rabbi Edgar Nof of
Congregation Or Hadash in Haifa, student rabbi Cory Zeidler in Tivon and
student rabbi Yishai Ron in Karmiel.
Throughout the
hostilities, Or Hadash provided activities for preschoolers below ground
in its bomb shelter, which was also turned into a sanctuary for worship
services, complete with a temporary holy ark and Torah. Some bar and bat
mitzvah ceremonies took place as planned, but with far fewer guests and
simpler, post-service kiddushin. Across town, the Haifa
municipality provided activities for city children aged 6-14 in an
underground garage at the Leo Baeck Education Center. LBEC held a day
camp for younger children in one of its bomb shelters, and opened its
gym and library to the general public.
The IMPJ joined with the
country’s Masorti (Conservative) movement to establish a crisis hot line
staffed by rabbis and social workers who provided spiritual and
emotional support. Most of the callers were new immigrants from the
former Soviet Union or South America, whose trauma was heightened by
being in an environment that was still foreign and new.
The Israeli movement’s
B’Kavod social action project assembles parcels of much needed goods
(food, clothing and children’s games) for those who remained in the
north, where many stores and businesses had shut down. Many of these
parcels – delivered directly to bomb shelters – were packed by members
of the Noar Telem youth movement, as well as by Progressive and Reform
youth from abroad who were spending the summer in Israel.
B’Kavod staff coordinator
Sharona Yekutiel relates that, once up north, many volunteers also went
door to door, and some of what they encountered was heartrending: “In
Ma’alot," she says, "we found someone who was connected to an oxygen
tank and unable to go down to the shelter, while her grandson, aged 11˝,
fed her.” Yekutiel tells of an elderly man whose “shirt was covered in
blood because he had had a blood test some days before and it seemed the
spot where they had drawn the blood hadn’t healed. We had to shower him
and help him change his clothes.” In yet another apartment, they found a
blind woman who was unable to descend to the bomb shelter. “There were
people who, when we entered their home, began to cry. So we hugged them
and caressed them and gave them what we could.”
Other shipments were
brought north in weekly convoys of about a dozen vehicles organized by
IMPJ affiliate Congregation Yozma in the city of Modi'in, about halfway
between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. These convoys traveled to such
war-damaged towns as Karmiel, Ma’alot/Tarshiha, Kfar Ramah, Safed, Rosh
Pina, Hatzor Haglilit and Kiryat Shmonah.
The Israeli movement also
provided assistance to those who had decided to pack up and leave. When
public transportation in the north was initially disrupted, the IMPJ
immediately rented buses to evacuate people from Safed, Nahariya,
Karmiel and Kiryat Shmonah. A rocket landed about 100 yards from one of
the vehicles, but no one was hurt.
Once clear of the war
zone, the displaced families found temporary housing through efforts of
the IMPJ, whose member congregants generously opened their homes to
entire families. The congregations included Kol Haneshama, Har-El,
Mevakshei Derech, Tzur Hadassah and Mevasseret in the Jerusalem area;
Yozmah of Modi’in; Kibbutz Yahel and Kibbutz Lotan, in the Arava region;
Esh-David of Ashdod; and Beit Daniel of Tel Aviv. In addition, Beit
Daniel organized a special day camp for youngsters, Kehilat Tzur
Hadassah organized a special youth club, and Esh-David organized
activities for Russian-speakers.
In Jerusalem, Mercaz
Shimshon/Beit Shmuel, the World Union’s education and culture center,
provided numerous activities for hundreds of residents of the north.
They included free walking tours to many of the city’s famous
attractions, and a special kids’ day on the Beit Shmuel patio that
included creativity and movement workshops, as well as music and street
theater, and ended with a performance by a hilarious clown/magician. In
addition, steep discounts were offered for theater productions at the
facility.
Beyond this, the movement
discovered additional unmet needs – this time among people with
disabilities. In parallel to the activities aimed at housing families in
the homes of congregation members, the staff of Kehilat Tzedek (an IMPJ
social action project implemented jointly with the Israel Religious
Action Center) worked to find housing solutions for people with special
needs. The staff worked hand in hand with welfare officials in the north
and became the main address for the Ministry of Social Affairs’ northern
rehabilitation branch. The difficulty of matching disabled people with
host families whose homes could meet their special needs was a daunting
task, but one that in most cases was successfully accomplished.
One of the IMPJ’s greatest
challenges was finding a facility large enough to house hundreds of
refugees. Once its summer camp at the Kfar Silver youth village near
Ashkelon was over, it rented the facility for an additional week, and
was able to house some 200 people, among them a two-day-old infant. As
Kfar Silver had been rented by others for the following week, the IMPJ
found accommodations at a hostel in the Negev town of Mitzpe Ramon, and
moved everyone 75 miles to the southeast. When that solution
turned out to be temporary, the IMPJ once again moved more than 200
people, this time 75 miles northeast to the guest house on Kibbutz Almog
near the shores of the Dead Sea, where they remained until the end of
the hostilities. The cost to the movement for housing these people came
to $5,000 per day.
Many of the people housed
at Almog found time to make their appreciation known, either verbally or
in writing. One of these messages, a particularly moving letter, appears
in the Addendum section below.
With the cease-fire,
things in the north are slowly returning to normal. Says Or Hadash's
Rabbi Nof, “After holding activities for the
past 35 days in the bomb shelter, the children have returned to the
upper floors. Most (80 percent) returned to our three preschools and to
the first-ever summer camp for second graders. [They] were relieved that
they didn’t have to go to the shelter, and they might even go to the
pool later this week. These are wonderful signs.” (Editor’s Note: The
children at Or Hadash eventually did get to the pool – see the photo
below.)
Of course, all this could change at a
moment’s notice. What's more the war will have long-term costs – beyond
the dead and wounded. Says Rabbi Nof, “Many
children are showing symptoms of anger, anxiety and other suppressed
feelings. We will need the help of an educational psychologist.”
It’s clear there’s more to do.
Many wartime efforts by
the IMPJ and its various institutions and congregations have seriously
depleted their financial resources. While the north rebuilds, so must
the country's Progressive movement if it is again to provide its
constituents with the peacetime services they have come to expect.
Please help us. To find out how,
click here.
Children at Haifa’s
Congregation Or Hadash enjoy the summer weather after a month spent in
bomb shelters.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
-
Join us in Jerusalem, March 15-20, 2007, for Connections 2007 –
the 33rd International Convention of the World Union for Progressive
Judaism. Further details soon.
-
World Union’s
International Humanitarian Awards Dinner honoring Betty B. Golomb
and Rabbi Jonathan A. Stein in New York City, September 10, 2006
-
Rabbinical ordination at
Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam, Germany, September 14, 2006 –
the first ordination of liberal rabbis on German soil since 1942
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Shared Destiny – the World Union’s International Humanitarian
Awards Celebration honoring Rabbi Roberto D. Graetz, Lorry Lokey and
Joanne Harrington in San Mateo, California, October 8, 2006
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Special World Union
Mission to South America, November 9-20. (Adobe Reader required
for this download)
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ADDENDUM
TEXT OF
MESSAGE OF GRATITUDE FROM A NORTHERNER HOUSED BY THE ISRAEL MOVEMENT FOR
PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM DURING THE RECENT FIGHTING.
August 8, 2006
Dear Israel Movement for
Progressive Judaism:
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 children sleeping soundly
(after a day filled with activity and playing in the pool), which would
not have been possible except for you.
[D]espite everything, I
succeed in finding for myself a moment of quiet in this “green haven” of
Almog to write to you the words of my heart.
I thank you….
…for giving me the
possibility to take my children away from that hell of missiles raining
down on us.
…for giving us the
possibility to be with a group of people that understand our feelings
and our fears.
…for saving my children
from the physical and psychological scars of war.
…for allowing my children
to smile and laugh freely and be with their family.
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 feelings in this letter and, for this, I apologize.
Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you!
With prayers for better
days,
Hagit Lavie
Kibbutz Gesher Haziv
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