Wandering From Place to Place
August 09, 2006
Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb's visit to IsraelView photos from today's activities
Well, we are on the road. I started my day at Israel Center (henceforth IC) sitting in on the six classes and activities going on every day here. Not crisis related but what we do all the time. About 11 a.m. we boarded a van: Moshe and Joanne Bane, Norman Schmutter and his wife, Mitch Aeder, Yitzchok Fund (OU Board Members), Menachem Persoff (OU Israel Center Director of Programming). Menachem has been invaluable to me here, and I see what he does for us at the IC, just yesterday until 2 in the morning. Our first stop was Park Plaza hotel - right next to Renaissance. Full of displaced persons from the north. I met a family from Meron who left after the rockets started. A whole group of northerners of which they were a part escaped to Efrat. They had no words to describe what the Efrat community did for them. They took them into their homes for two weeks, did their laundry, gave them food and supplies, etc. The mother was pregnant and rushed to Shaarei Tzedek from Efrat to give birth to a baby girl, whom we saw - one week old - and whom they named...Efrat. We saw a number of families from Meron and Tzefat and heard their stories. Confined to shelters, wandering from place to place, not knowing where they will be this weekend, homes abandoned and often looted, children traumatized, on and on. We saw Aharon Razel, a musician whom we work with, entertaining a group of parents and kids and "working through" with them their fears and feelings through songs and stories. You may see a picture of me and his guitar, dressed up in an OU IC T-shirt and glasses (that's the guitar, not me - I am wearing my American office suit). We got full reports from two leaders of our volunteers. Story after story of the work we do - we watched a group of our young women take a batch of kids to the park, a small thing but a big mitzva because these kids have been confined to shelters or hotel rooms for days on end. And this way the parents get some relief. We are now en route to our Kehilot Yisrael facillity - Bayit Yehudi - in Ramot HaSharon. I will give you a report later, but you now have a brief taste of our emotional morning. As one of our group said, the hardest thing is seeing the people. When you see real people, who have active normal lives and who were living peacefully and are suddenly war refugees, it is hard to see. Hard to take. Only it doesn't seem real. As one person from Tzefat said, here it is Yerushalayim, in Tzefat it is Kosovo.
Later...
Arrived about 2 o'clock in Ramot HaSharon, a bastion of secularity. In the last election over 80% of this town voted for anti-religious parties -- the highest in the country. We have a facility there -- a bayit yehudi. This has become a center of outreach. We have six such centers here, and heard a tu b'av dvar torah and a report from Rav Ohad who heads our bayit yehudi in Tiberias. We also heard from Rav Eliyahu F., who heads the bayit yehudi in Ariel. There are nine missionary churches in Ariel and they are the competition there. He told of how our centers in places like Ariel and Tiberias have now become centers for volunteers to help with our crisis relief work. He told of how some Jewish families have thrown him out of their homes because they thought he was a missionary, having experienced Christian missionaries who were dressed like him with kipa and tzitzit and then gave them Church materials.
We had a most delicious and too plentiful lunch and heard a comprehensive description of the Kehilot Yisrael program from its “koach” (strength), Meir Schwartz. We also heard from a young religious psychiatrist who has just moved here with his family. Young dati (religious) families are moving here to establish a nucleus of Torah observance. We also heard from two “products” of this program who described their experiences to us. Meir Schwartz's dream is to have thirty such “centers” in the next few years. We learned about the course that Meir has developed to train people to do this outreach. The director of this bayit yehudi here, Netanel Simantov spoke to us. He came here over a year ago with 5 families that are now 15. A brief video showed us what happens here on the chagim (holidays) in the way of tefilot (prayers) and activities. This is adult kiruv at its finest.
That's it for now.
Later still...
We wrapped up in Ramot HaSharon, very impressive. But heard little about the war there. Now returning to Jerusalem we hear of a very difficult difficult battle and loss of more soldiers and continued rockets falling. From my vantage point the day was worthwhile for it enabled me to see the high quality of our staff and programs in Israel. Starting with Menachem Persoff and Meir Schwartz, the coordinators of the volunteers, the leaders of the Bayit Yehudi programs, Yisroel Goren, the IC office staff, etc. In Jerusalem we hope to meet soon with Rav Shmuel Eliyahu of Tzefat, and then we are through for the day.
Even later...
We returned to Jerusalem and the Israel Center. Rav Shmuel Eliyahu Rav of Tzefat met us here. We had some mezonot (crackers and cookies - mezonot being the blessing made on those foods) and a long talk. I told him how helpless we feel in America and how much we want to help. He had much to say but especially that our presence here and the chesed (kindness) we are trying to do does help. He spoke of his experiences in Tzefat over the past few weeks; of the pain that he feels with each rocket, with each burnt car, with each burned bush. He described what it feels like to hear the siren and to hear the apporach and landing of the rocket. It was his idea that we distribute a beatiful tehilim-book and matching kiddush-book to families in miklatim (bomb shelters). In each book is a little sticker with the words "lev echad poem bkulanu"=one hearts beats in us all. And a note which says if you have religious questions or just want to talk call this number. And we have a hotline to respond to those calls. Rav Eliyahu spoke of feeling great strength on the one hand but great fear on the other hand. He says he never saw such an outpouring of chesed. I too have seen tremendous chesed. I promised him to visit him in Tzefat and to bring a large group of Americans with me. He invited me to return with him to Tzefat today, assuring me that all will be well. I am ashamed that I turned down his offer, but repeated my commitment to visit him there as soon as I could.
After these few days, I have the following words for American Jews: Don't waste your time and energy discussing the political and military issues and listening to or offering advice or criticism. Spend your time raising money for causes that help people here. Be careful to give your money only to proven organizations. Give encouragement in any way you can. Letters or calls to Israel, appearance at rallies and demonstrations, are the way to go. And above all, tefila, prayer.
Meeting Rav Eliyahu was a great honor, seeing the tears in his eyes and listening to his quivering voice a great privilege, but hearing his courageous message was most uplifting and encouraging. He gets his strength, he told us, from knowing that all of us are in this together and feel connected to him.
We parted with expression of sadness mixed with hope.
View photos from today's activities
