Bringing Music to the Bomb Shelters, Filling them With Fun…
August 01, 2006
Below is a letter from Rabbi Smolarcik, who joined the OU Israel Center staff on their trip North yesterday.View Slideshow of Tuesday's Visit to the North
Hi,
Rabbi Avi Berman, the Director of the OU Israel Center, invited me to join him and some of the OU center staff in a trip today to Haifa, Nahariya and Tzefas. The purpose of the mission was to see first hand the work of the over 700 OU Center volunteers who are visiting the bomb shelters and entertaining the kids who have been forced to live in them for the past few weeks. I decided to join the group and learned many things today about the incredible strength of our people and about the true meaning of chessed.
Our first stop was a shelter in Haifa. The shelter which is in the lower underground floor of a parking garage is open during the day to provide special programs for kids. We found over 150 kids who were being entertained by a magic show. In this shelter the kids also had the opportunity to play ball with IDF soldiers, do arts and crafts projects and to watch children's programs on TV. It was amazing how the city and the volunteers provided these opportunities for kids who would otherwise be sitting in fear in bomb shelters. Aharon Razel, a very cool music artist joined us and played for the kids. We also distributed candy which was provided by an OU donor. It was an incredible feeling to bring happiness to these kids who find themselves in an extremely difficult situation.
We then visited a local bomb shelter where over 30 people eat, sleep and live 24 hours a day since the beginning of the war. We met a man named Yitzchak who has taken personal responsibility for all the residents of the shelter. Through tears Yitzchak described how his wife and baby daughter have left to the south while he remained because of his responsibility to provide food and basic services to the people in the shelter. He told us that the previous evening he had to take a teenage girl to the hospital. She had been overcome by the fear of being hit by a missile and became catatonic. After he described the needs of the people there I gave him the sheliach mitzva money* that some of you gave me on the last day to help provide extra items for the residents of his shelter.
Our next stop was in the community of Naharia. We drive through town which on a normal day would have been filled with people shopping or going about their daily business. Since the war started the streets have been empty with everyone staying in shelters or moving south. We met with the Mayor of the city who told us that the biggest problem was keeping up the morale of the children. He and others from the city thanked the OU profusely for sending up hundreds of boxes filled with activities and supplies for the kids in the shelters.
Finally we arrived in Tzefas. It was extremely sad to see the midrechov (main street) completely empty. We were joined there by HaRav Eliezer Waldman, the Rosh HaYeshiva of the Yeshiva of Kiryat Arbah and Rav Shmuel Eliyahu (son of the sephardic chief rabbi), the Chief rabbi of Tzefas. Aharon Razel led a kumsitz with a group of children from the Ari school. We then met with Rav Eliyahu in his home and he told us some of the amazing miracles that have happened in Tzefas since the missile strikes began.
We completed our trip with mincha at the Kever of Rav Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron. After such an emotional day I can tell you that it was one of the most heartfelt shemona esreis that I have ever davened.
These are simply the facts of the trip. I am waiting for it all to sink in so that I can put it into some sort of overall perspective which I will share with you all soon.
In th meantime please know that there is no people like ours and that Israel and the Jewish people remain strong and united in this difficult time.
*There is a concept in Judaism, that one on their way to do a mitzvah, a good deed, will not be harmed. As such when undertaking a dangerous journey they are often given charity to distribute when they arrive at their destination, and back home, in the hopes that they will travel and return safely.
View Slideshow of Tuesday's Visit to the North
