Thursday, Day 6

 I have been trying to be strong and resilient like the Israelis, but today my resolve was shattered. We drove an hour to the shiva for Yoav Malayev, the 19-year-old nephew of our Berkeley rabbi, Yonatan Cohen.  Yoav was a young soldier on duty in Zikim, a small kibbutz whose main crops are mango and avocado. When the terrorists stormed the gate, Yoav fought bravely but fell in the battle on the first day, Saturday. Yoav's grandparents, Rabbi Cohen's parents were spending Sukkot in Berkeley. With the help of the amazing Berkeley community and the Israeli Consulate, they were able to get back to Israel in time for the funeral. Over the seventeen years Rabbi Cohen has been in Berkeley, we have met many members of his extended family. When we entered the shiva, Yoav's safta, his grieving grandmother, hugged me so tightly, her grief so intense, the need to transmit even a small semblance of it to me was overwhelming. Rabbi Cohen arrived yesterday to be with his family, his grief was shared too.

All day I was aware of how deeply I am being affected. I went into a gift shop to purchase a klaf, the scroll which is inserted into the mezuzah on the door. The English-speaking shopkeeper showed me a flower that a German tourist brought her, saying that she looked like she needed a flower today. I went into another shop to return something, and when the shopkeeper handed me my refund, we wished each other well, and I was choked up. I don't live here, and I do know many soldiers personally, but these people do live here and this is their home, they will not leave. 

The plight of Hersh Goldberg-Polin continues to be in the news. We know his family from the time they lived in Berkeley. Today the NY Times published an op-ed by his mother, Rachel Goldberg. (Here is the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/opinion/israel-hamas-hostage.html) The family is asking Americans to write to their senators and members of Congress to urge them to take action to support the safe return of their beloved son who is currently being held hostage in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas.

One bright spot was a zoom we did with our 8-year old granddaughter who is in the north, about 2-1/2 hour drive from us in Jerusalem. She is now doing school on zoom, and later in the day we zoomed with her. Noah read her a chapter from The Wind in the Willows, and I told her funny jokes and she taught me how to change backgrounds and even add silly faces.  We were laughing and that felt good. 

Jerusalem was quiet again today, but rockets continue to pound other parts of the country. The death and injury toll continues to rise. Antony Blinken is here, and Benny Gantz in the new emergency unity government projects a much stronger and determined attitude than Netanyahu. I don't think Bibi is going to politically survive after this.

I have been hearing from many people from all different parts of my life, past and present, and I thank you all for reaching out. Please continue to pray for Israel. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday, Day 4

Jerusalem was quiet today. Our neighborhood is called German Colony, or Moshava Germanit in Hebrew. It was established in the mid 1800's as a German Templer Colony, on land purchased from the nearby Arab village. The Templers were Christians who broke away from the Protestant church and encouraged their members to settle in the Holy Land to prepare for the Messiah. The British Mandatory government deported the German Templers during WWII fearing they were Nazi sympathizers. The Christian Arabs who also lived in the neighborhood fled when Israel became a state in 1948. At first these vacant homes were used to house new Jewish immigrants, and it has gradually become a vibrant enclave, filled with many English-speaking residents. There are many shops and restaurants on the main street, Emek Refaim which is one block away from our apartment. Today there were few people on the street, everyone is laying low.   It was not quiet in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and many of...
Read more

Sunday, October 15, Day 9

At 5 pm yesterday, Saturday, I received an email from the US Dept of State stating that there would be flights departing on a rolling basis throughout the night and morning. If we wished to depart, we should proceed to Ben Gurion airport and look for the flag. Flights would be going to Athens or Frankfurt.  Noah and Rob had gone out to walk to the Tayelet, or the Haas Promenade (yes, those Haas of the Levi-Strauss family). This is a series of terraced walkways with panoramic views of Jerusalem, including the Old City, Hebrew University, and the tower of the Jerusalem YMCA. It is about a 25-minute walk from our apartment.  We had backup reservations on El Al leaving on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I knew we should get on the US charter flights. In the hour before Noah and Rob returned, I threw in a wash, packed my things, and put away the kitchen items we used over the past few days. When the guys returned, I announced to their stunned faces that we were leaving tonight. Shabbat ...
Read more

Monday, Day 3

 Noah and our upstairs neighbor went biking this morning. There is a beautiful bike path that circles Jerusalem and passes several neighborhoods, and the zoo and the aquarium. I did not think this was a good idea, but Noah is very stubborn and believes that one should continue to do normal things while the war is going on.  My friend E came over with her 2-year-old granddaughter. Her daughter is 8 months pregnant, her husband has been called up, and they are now living with my friend. Things were calm overnight and we were sitting in our living room discussing the situation while the toddler played. E showed me pictures from a zoom she had done that morning with one of her sons who was called up and several of her grandkids. Crazy to think a soldier fighting a war can spend a few minutes on  a zoom call, and I'm sure it was reassuring to his wife and mother.  Noah went out to deliver some toiletries to a collection point in the neighborhood, which would then be sent ...
Read more