From Our CEO
On the Front Lines with Israel’s Heroes
July 28th, 2014

On Saturday evening, 20 New Yorkers, lay leaders from UJA-Federation of New York, traveled to Israel on a two-day solidarity mission. We had come to Israel to provide strength and comfort to the people of Israel, but in the end, it was these incredible Israelis who strengthened and comforted us. These are just some of the people we met and their stories.

DAY ONE

Tal and Stav

We met Tal from Ofakim (approximately 12.5 milies from Gaza) and Stav from Kibbutz Be’eri (three miles from Gaza), both age 16, enjoying a day of respite arranged by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), a UJA-Federation beneficiary agency. Fear of the tunnels discovered in Gaza keeps them up at night. Stav has less than 15 seconds to get to a shelter. One girl in Tal’s neighborhood won’t sleep with a blanket because she’s concerned it will cost her the precious seconds needed to get to a shelter in time. Tal told us she could go stay with relatives up north. She chooses to stay in Ofakim because her mother — who operates the local trauma center — trained her to recognize signs of shock and trauma in the shelter. At just 16, she assists her mother in treating others.

UJA-Federation board chair Linda Mirels in Sderot, holding a drawing by the daughter of Sderot’s mayor.

Trauma is acute across Israel, particularly in the South. Since the conflict began, more than 650 rockets have fallen in the Sderot area alone. Even the “day after” the last rocket, it will take months to years to restore this population to normalcy. The Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC), created by UJA-Federation, is operating resilience centers across the country and getting 1,500 calls a day to its trauma hotline. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is also providing respite programs for kids with significant disabilities. Alan Gill, JDC’s CEO, said it was “oxygen” for the kids and their parents.

Michal

We met Michal, a seventh-grade science teacher and mother of three who lives in Sderot and is experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder after her home was hit twice by rockets. She referred to the ITC as her “mental umbrella.” When the fighting began three weeks ago, Michal’s 15-year-old daughter refused for days to go to the bathroom or take a shower for fear of not getting to a shelter in time. Now she only goes to the bathroom if her mother comes with her.

Zahava

The home of Zahava and her family in Sderot that was destroyed by a rocket attack.

Another resident of Sderot, Zahava, recalled in a broken voice how she rushed her children and 3-month-old granddaughter into the safe room just moments before her home was hit. Zahava and her family smelled gas and were rescued by neighbors, as their gas lines had been hit and gas was leaking into the safe room. Workers from JAFI arrived with emergency cash assistance. Zahava is very traumatized. Both she and her son kept thanking us.

Mayor Alon David

The mayor of Sderot, Alon David, told us about his seven children — five of who have lived with constant rockets attacks since they were born. He shared a picture one of his daughters drew last week, in which she portrayed one of her sisters screaming “enough.” The trauma in her face was so clear from the emptiness in her eyes. He also spoke of the importance of ITC and what an indispensable and critical resource it is for his community.

Ofir and Bat Galim Shaar

Emotions were especially high when we traveled to a cemetery in Modi’in to meet Ofir and Bat Galim Shaar, the parents of Gilad Shaar, one of three teens who was kidnapped and murdered. This was the first time Gilad’s parents had been to the cemetery since their son’s funeral earlier this month. Gilad’s father spoke about the unity in Israel generated by the abduction. We expressed our heartache, and how the murders had also united Jews across North America.

As we toured across Sderot, we did not hear a single rocket, and there was a sense we were on the cusp of a cease-fire. In the afternoon, though, just as we were leaving the cemetery, we learned that five soldiers had been killed in Eshkol by terrorists who came out of a tunnel in Kibbutz Be’eri. That’s the hometown of Stav, the girl we’d met in the morning. It was just one little indication of how quickly hope turns to despair here, with enormous psychological impact.

DAY TWO

Wounded Soldiers

UJA-Federation CEO Eric S. Goldstein visits a wounded soldier.

We went to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, where UJA-Federation funds life-saving medical equipment. Since the conflict began, 872 people, including 448 soldiers, have been treated there. In one room there were three recently wounded IDF soldiers — one Jewish, one Druze, and one Bedouin. All were extremely touched that we had come to see them. When a siren interrupted our visit, we ran to a shelter and then returned. It was a sad irony that we could run to shelter, while the soldiers could not. They remained in hospital rooms that are not fortified.

People With Disabilities

There are 3,200 people with disabilities in the Beersheva area. Since the conflict began, staff and volunteers at the Center for Independent Living in Beersheva call regularly to check on clients. Funded by JDC, our overseas partner, their focus is on providing food and medicine, and meeting other basic needs.

One of the JDC program staff expressed a hope that people with disabilities, whose common issues transcend difference, might inspire peace. We met with an Arab-Israeli who was handicapped by a car accident. Understandably, the sirens are the cause of tremendous anxiety to people with limited mobility because it’s very difficult to get to shelters in time.

New Immigrants

At the Ye’elim Absorption Center in Beersheva, there are 17 languages spoken by immigrants from all over the world. Despite the recent crisis, hundreds of new olim have come. Aliyah from France is up 300 percent and aliyah from Ukraine is up 150 percent.

We met with young children who are happy to be in Israel, but still feeling anxiety from the sirens and shelters.