"November 26, 2012
Jerusalem
Dear Friends,
As daily life slowly
returns to its normal course (such as it is) here in Israel, I can't
help but reflect about the dramatic events of the past week.
1.
First It makes the feeling of collective responsibility real when within hours an impressive group of
JFNA leaders led by its brand new chairman, Michael Siegal, landed in Israel, and when the ever energetic
Keren Hayesod Chairwoman, Johanna Arbib, flew to the embattled South directly from Zurich and addressed a rally in Toronto from Sderot together with
Julie Koschitzky.
I
would like to dedicate a few words of thanks to our partners all over
the world, who were at the very forefront of our collective response to
the events in Israel’s South. The
Jewish Federations of North America, joined by Keren Hayesod-UIA
targeted three areas of activity during the crisis – providing for
victims of the attacks through our Fund for Victims of Terror,
guaranteeing the welfare of our olim and program
participants in southern Israel, and taking children from the embattled
regions on day trips out of harm’s way.
Keren Hayesod made a special contribution to the home front through its support of shelters. The
World Zionist Organization also played a significant role in
providing the children of the region with rest and respite out of rocket
range, while the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews helped
ensure that the residents of the region had
adequate shelter and that local governments had the emergency equipment
they needed. I am tremendously proud of all our joint efforts, a real
time manifestation of our implacable and shared commitment to
K’lal Yisra’el.
2.
The outbreak of violence caught me in upstate New York at the Jewish Agency’s
kenes shlichim, a gathering of some 250 shlichim based all
throughout North America. As the attacks escalated in southern Israel
and as the anti-Israel groups quickly mobilized their virulent anti
Israel campaigns, there was hardly a single expression
of hostility that went unanswered by our shlichim dispersed on 57
campuses around the country. In the past, after the Second Intifada, on
a tour visiting North American college campuses, I was taken aback by
the waves of hostility and described the campuses
as “occupied territories”. I want to remind all of us that it was in
response to that experience that the Israel Fellows program was born,
and today, there are 57 young Israelis posted on dozens of campuses,
leading the efforts together with thousands of
Birthright and MASA alumnis which make the picture this time very
different.
The
online effort during the crisis was unprecedented—the IDF
Spokesperson’s Unit and other government agencies used social media in a
concerted and relentless manner, broadcasting
materials that influenced mainstream media as well. Our Masa Israel
Journey participants also joined the effort, creating the
"WeAreHereIsrael" campaign (link) and sharing their experiences
in Israel in real time with the world. We can all be very proud indeed.
3.
In
a stroke of fortuitous timing, this past weekend saw more than 200
Russian-speaking Jewish young people from across Europe converge on the
Dutch city of Maastricht for a
conference on the use of social media to combat the delegitimization of
Israel. The conference, which the Jewish Agency organized in
cooperation with the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs,
provided participants with the tools necessary to
engage in the online battle for Israel, while also creating a cadre of
young Jewish leaders from across Europe.
At
a time when hundreds of thousands of European Jews live outside of
Jewish communal frameworks, we were heartened to bring so many of
20-to-30-year-olds together for such an important
cause, and we look forward to further strengthening this core
leadership group .
4.
As
the violence raged last week, I joined a delegation of leaders from the
Jewish Federations of North America in visiting our renewed Ibim
immigrant absorption center, located
just north of rocket-battered Sderot. During our last Board of
Governors meeting, we had the unique privilege of welcoming home the
first planeload of olim from Operation Dove’s Wings—the final wave of
Ethiopian Aliyah. The olim we greeted have since been
joined by hundreds of others, all residing in Ibim. I remember being
asked why we were putting such a vulnerable population in such a
volatile area.
During
our visit last week, we saw how, in fact, Ibim is one of the safest
places in Israel—the site is covered with bomb shelters and every
residential unit has been provided with
a safe room, so that no resident is ever more than a couple of steps
away from shelter at any given time. I was struck by the new olim’s
resilience—the atmosphere was almost serene, with adults playing board
games under the trees and children playing good-naturedly
on the lawns. When an incoming rocket alert sounded, they all walked
calmly to the bomb shelters, emerging shortly thereafter with the same
equanimity. It is certainly a credit to our devoted staff at Ibim that
the olim have been able to find an oasis of
calm within the chaos, as have thousands of olim at all eight of our
absorption centers in southern Israel.
On Friday, we shared
with you a summary of our activities during the crisis. What is
somewhat more difficult to convey, however, is the sheer magnitude of
those activities, and the extent to which they were
carried out without a hitch. Our effort to bring nearly 30,000
children and teenagers from southern Israel on day trips out of harm’s
way was a massive and complex logistical operation, involving many
hundreds of buses in areas in which residents are expected
to be within 15 seconds of a bomb shelter at any given time.
Plans changed from
day to day and from minute to minute, in line with constantly amended
IDF situation assessments. At various points, we even ran out of buses,
as the IDF itself requisitioned the buses to
shuttle troops to the front. Still, there was not a single complaint
from any of the children or from any of the nearly 30,000 sets of
parents—only gratitude, as our professionals worked with clockwork
precision to provide the region’s youth with some rest
and respite out of rocket range. This seamless operation could not
have happened without the daily coordination by our
Deputy Chairman, Rani Trainin who tirelessly managed all our on the ground communication with local municipalities.
.
During operation
Pillar of Defense in the South, the Fund for Emergency Assistance to
Jewish Communities continued to allocate special funds to communities
for their security needs.
Allocations of one million dollars were made to communities in Europe and South America.
Finally, I would
like to note the outpouring of support we have witnessed through our
Partnership2Gether peoplehood platform. From Sydney to Cleveland and
from Mexico City to New Orleans, partnership communities
have held rallies, engaged in communal prayer, sent countless messages
of support, and expressed their solidarity with the people of southern
Israel in a variety of other ways. Please see a partial list of
accounts from P2G communities’ activities during
the crisis here.
All our partners’ financial support and our staff’s dedication made all this possible.
A heartfelt
thank you again to each and every one of you.
Natan"
So wrote Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency last week. And who would know better the impacts a united Jewish world community can have than this hero? He...he...understands the core concept of "collective responsibility." He has called us out in the name of Jewish unity time and time again. We have constantly demonstrated that at times of crisis for our People we pull together as a global Jewish community with all of the strength embodied in the concept of collective responsibility. An it is a beautiful thing to watch, an even more beautiful thing to be a part of.
Now is the time for us to determine whether we can also pull together in the more quiet times -- the times in which our federations are challenged as never before. Let us do so reflecting on the past days in which we once again came together as a People as we go forward.
Rwexler
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