My dear friends,

I, along with the rest of the Jewish people everywhere, am in shock and reeling in pain and grief over what has happened and what is happening in the Land of Israel. There really aren’t words to convey or describe the difficulty of the situation. Thank you to those who have contacted me and our family, wanting to know if we are safe and hoping we’re okay. The answer to that question is that we are relatively safe as we’re not physically in the parts of Israel that have been so tragically attacked. However, no place is very far away from another. And everybody knows people who have been killed or abducted or injured. This is when “Jewish Geography” is very painful. So, we’re not okay. 

That all being said, I want to describe to you the incredible outpouring of kindness that immediately began to flow as soon as we started to grasp what was happening. Six hundred of the survivors of the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri (including newly orphaned children) are now being housed in a hotel near the Dead Sea — which is close to where I now live. Word went out by WhatsApp to our community of Mitzpe Yericho and to some of the other surrounding communities that the evacuated people needed everything — toiletries, kids’ and adult clothing, diapers, baby and children’s supplies.  Within a few hours, bags and bags of donations arrived at the front yard of the woman who took it upon herself to organize the effort,  and the donated things were rushed down by individual cars to the hotel. We have all had the experience of donating needed things to worthy organizations. However, to be able to come with our contribution, watch it be loaded into a car, and whisked away, knowing that it would soon be in the hands of our brothers and sisters who experienced such loss, was both heartwrenching and heartwarming. There was even a collection of leftover snacks and candy bags from Simchas Torah to give to the children who had been evacuated. I hope the people who received the collected items could feel the love and concern of everyone who gave so generously and so immediately. 

Here in Mitzpe Yericho, the community has mobilized to help the women and families whose husbands, sons, brothers, and other family members have been called up to serve. Most of the men were called-away during services for Shemini Atzeret (also Simchas Torah in Israel). A sign-up form was made for those of us still here to offer practical help — watching children, meal preparation, laundry, light cleaning, snacks, hugs, and appreciation. The husbands of each of the three Israeli families who live in our building were called up, including our downstairs neighbor whose wife just had a baby boy during Sukkot.  The baby hasn’t even had his bris yet. I got to help one woman fold laundry, one of my favorite domestic tasks that also helped me stay calm. (Laundry isn’t done during the entire holiday of Sukkot, so families had a lot of laundry to do when the holiday was over.) Teenage girls are knocking on doors and saying, “Hi! I came to help with your kids.” And there was a separate sign-up to help families take down their sukkahs. If there was a Chesed/Kindness game show, the Jewish people would be winning. Literally within seconds of someone posting asking if anyone has something that they need, someone posts, “I do!”

Today we ventured out to the grocery store in the mall in Maale Adumim. It was a little scary being out as we were supposed to stay within 90 seconds of a bomb shelter. The grocery store closer to us was basically out of everything, so we went a little further away. We were so inspired when we saw several tables set up outside of the grocery store staffed by volunteer teenage girls. They were collecting food and toiletries for the soldiers who are undersupplied. People were either coming to the collection table and giving their contributions, or more often coming out of the grocery store with supplies that they had just purchased specifically for the soldiers. If you would like to donate to a worthy cause (amongst many), I would suggest donating through Stand With Israel. Through their website at www.standwithisrael.co.il, you can find opportunities to contribute that include emergency response, medical assistance, and soldier support. This website does not retain any portion of the contributed funds; it only serves as a donation portal. 

What I hope to convey with just a few of these personal experiences and observations is that the horror of what’s going on in Israel is being counteracted by the beauty of seeing the Jewish people come together, helping each other, and realizing that we are at the core one people. It is my fervent prayer that the Almighty will see our unity and our caring for one another and will bring salvation to the Land of Israel, the People of Israel, and the entire world. 

With love,
Ellyn