Day 3: A Helping of Helping
01/30/2024 06:25:39 PM
Jan30
Today’s part of the #Atlantaprofessionaljourney was a day of listening, with a healthy helping of helping. We spent much of the day in the Yokenam Megiddo area. They are Atlanta’s Jewish federation partners with this region. We met the mayor and other local leaders, and learned about the struggles to get bomb shelters, especially those in older buildings inhabited by economically disadvantaged residents, back into usable condition, which is important as many feel that war with Hizbollah, based in Lebanon, may be next If you wanted to know what it looks like when 9 rabbis try color by numbers, now you know.
We had a chance to hear from a representatives two of Kibbutzim, Mishmar HaEmek which is located in the region and Nahal Oz, along the Gaza border. By the morning of October 8th, Mishmar HaEmek absorbed all of the members of Nahal Oz. Nahal Oz residents had relocated there in previous times of conflict, but this time they showed up with literally nothing, having witnessed the murder of friends and loved ones.
We had lunch with some local leaders. One of my lunch partners was my old friend, Zachi Aizik, one of the leaders of Ohel Menasheh, our sister congregation in Yokneam. He talked about how his community used the funds that we sent to help soldiers heading north and refugees heading in all directions, and how seriously the attacks have affected their community. Even though Yokneam is nowhere near Gaza, four of their young residents were murdered at the Nova festival and another six have fallen in battle.
Later in the day, we got to visit the headquarters of Achim Laneshek. What had been an organization devoted to challenging policies of the current government quickly pivoted to take on logistical tasks that the government could not handle. Bolstered by the support of leaders and workers of dozens of tech firm, they helped evacuate refugees and obtain supplies for refugees and military units, and rally thousands of volunteers. Cybersecurity experts created technology to scan videos from 10/7, from the internet, Hamas communications channels, and even the dark web, and perform advanced facial recognition, and use them to determine where Israelis had been last seen alive. Their logistical work is winding down, but there is still a lot to do to support the over 100,00 refugees who are away from their homes.
The most striking conversation of the day was with Mohamud Darawshe. He is an Arab Israeli Citizen, and director of the Givat Haviva Center for Shared Society which helps build bridges between Jewish and Arab segments of the population. Darawshe spoke of the complex situation his community faced, caught between conflicting political and ethnic identities. The dilemma can be encapsulated in two stories. His nephew, Awad, was a paramedic, who had been stationed at the site of the Nova festival. He was wounded early on in the day. His team was ordered to evacuate, but he remained behind to tend the wounded, figuring that since he was an Arab, the attackers would not harm him. His bravery and devotion cost him his life. 20,000 Israelis, Jews and Arabs, gathered at his funeral. Just a a few weeks ago, his daughter was arrested for displaying an item with a map of all Israel, with the words “and I love you” in Arabic. Police thought that it was a symbol of support for Palestinians, even though if the same words had been displayed in Hebrew, there would have been no issue. Our conversation went far beyond the appointed time as he talked about the challenges that Israel faces in bringing these two populations together. Israeli Arabs have a much higher poverty rate than other Israeli citizens, but all represent a very high proportion of medical professionals and are a rapidly growing share of Israel’s high tech workers. He talked about how his organization creates links between two communities that have almost no contact with each other, by having Jewish teachers do visiting stints in Arab schools and vice versa, and by finding common ground for dialogue.
Solutions for how to live with their cousins on the other side of the fence are far off. Today alone, I’ve heard Israelis express a wide range of views. Some feel that the Middle East does not function by Western rules, and only a total crushing of Gaza, of the kind displayed by the US to Germany in Japan in WWII, will be sufficient to bring about a change of attitude. Others feel that Hamas is too deeply entrenched to be destroyed, and that there is common ground for a negotiated settlement. They battle over priorities- how much is too much to sacrifice to bring back the hostages? How much does the opinion of the outside world matter?
The day ended (for me) with a Scotch flight at the famous Whiskey Museum and dinner with our own Cantor Yoav.
Tomorrow will be a challenging day of witness.
Thu, May 9 2024 1 Iyyar 5784