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Am Yisrael Chai---The People of Israel Live

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Saturday, February 24, 2024 Our day started at noon with a meeting with an educator named Scott Copland.   He spent an hour with us putting the founding of the State of Israel in historical perspective and discussing the relationship of diaspora Jewry with the people of Israel.   It was a very worthwhile discussion. In the mid-afternoon we traveled to Tel Aviv, and began with a visit to a neighborhood called Florentine after Solomon Florentin, a Greek Jew, who purchased much of the land in the 1920s.   It’s an eclectic neighborhood with lots of cafes and artists’ workshops, but the reason for our visit is that it has become a center for graffiti art, and the art has been especially powerful since the Hamas invasion of October 7.   The first piece we saw was this powerful sarcastic protest against the inept response of the IDF to the attacks: We have an anguished Superman and the title, “Don’t Panic…the IDF protects us.” This artist has lost three, and then fo...
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The Sadness of Young Death and the Joy of Shabbat

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  Friday, February 23, 2024 The sadness of young death and the joy of Shabbat.   Another remarkable day of contrasts. Rochester has a very close connection with its sister city, Modi’in.   The city is located about halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and we spent most of the day there, celebrating the connection and mourning with its residents. We met a delegation of Modi’in officials, including the mayor.   Modi’in is a very young city, totally pre-planned and built on vacant land.   It has grown rapidly, from nothing in the mid-1990s to well over 100,000 people today.   The location is the same as the Hasmonian Dynasty city of the same name, which ruled Judea in the Hellenistic period.   The leaders of the city and Meredith Dragon, the CEO of the Rochester Jewish Federation and the leader of our delegation, spoke.   We were introduced to two couples, both of whom lost a child in the IDF on October 7.   The Goutin family spoke of...
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We Visit the Gaza Envelope

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  Thursday, February 22, 2024 First, we are fine.   There was a terrorist attack this morning with the murder of one and the wounding of eight just outside of Jerusalem at a check point on a road to the occupied territories.   We were not impacted. Each morning at breakfast, there is a table with sandwich makings where parents of school-aged children living in the hotel can make their lunches.   The selection of sandwich contents seemed quite limited: We had a highly emotional day today with a visit to the Gaza envelope.   But before that visit, for our volunteer activity, we traveled into the agricultural heartland of Israel.   Spring is in full bloom, but substantial numbers of agricultural work isn’t being done, as there are no Palestinian workers.   They used to cross from Gaza into Israel and did the bulk of the work on the farms.   No longer.   We traveled south, past vast chickpea fields just planted: Our destination was Mosh...
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Jerusalem, Day Three

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 Wednesday, February 21, 2024 Another busy day had us with four activities, starting at 8:15 after breakfast.   Our first stop was at the Israel Trauma Coalition where we had a talk from a truly remarkable woman named Talia, the director.   The coalition was founded in 2001, during the second intifada to coordinate all the NGOs and other agencies providing mental health care to those in need.   It has expanded, with a focus on preparation for the emotional and psychological traumas of mass casualties and became an essential resource during Covid and the increasing terrorist attacks around that time.   They work on anxiety and grief, support caregivers, fight compassion fatigue, and teach coping skills.   They run 13 “resilience centers” around the country and work with local governmental agencies to prepare for disaster trauma.   Prior to October 7 they had 5000 people matched with therapists, and after October 7 they were responsible for taking ment...
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