by Gil Hoffman
NJJN Israel Correspondent

January 15, 2009

When the war in the Gaza Strip broke out while Rabbi Clifford Kulwin was leading a synagogue family trip to Israel, he knew he had to do something to help the people of the missile-stricken South.

So when he arrived back in New Jersey, he called United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ and volunteered. Within a few days, the rabbi was back in Israel, along with seven members of his congregation, Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston.

But this was no ordinary solidarity mission. At Kulwin’s request, the participants were given no briefings about the war and steered clear of tourist spots.

Instead of posh hotels, they stayed with ordinary families in Ofakim, MetroWest’s sister city in the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program. And instead of just touring sites of rocket damage, they spent nearly every waking moment helping children and painting makeshift concrete structures that the IDF had placed in front of homes lacking reinforced shelters to protect them from missile attacks.

“I’m incredibly proud that on such short notice, members of the congregation were able to block out their schedules, secure the funds, and sign on,” Kulwin said. “Many of us came despite serious concerns from our families, but we have felt safe, and this is something we all felt we needed to do.”

Besides Kulwin and UJC MetroWest president Gary Aidekman, the group included MetroWest Community Relations Committee chair Merle Kalishman, Ken Bernstein, Linda Pack, Linda Reisberg, Jim Daniels, and David Mittman.

UJC MetroWest has been the only federation to organize such a trip to help its partner community in Israel. Besides Ofakim, mission members also helped people in Sderot and nearby Kibbutz Erez in the Sha’ar Hanegev Region.

Working together with volunteers from the Israeli organization Lev Ehad, mission participants painted murals on the concrete structures.

“I’m here to help and I will do whatever it takes,” said Kalishman, who painted an Israeli flag and flag-wavers. “We are extra hands at a time of emergency. It’s very comforting to know that you are giving time and energy to people who really need it. And we don’t mind getting dirty. We didn’t bring any fancy clothes.”

An Ofakim resident named Sima watched residents paint the structure and recalled that the night before, she and 12 neighbors, including a crying baby, were packed into it for two hours.

The problems in Ofakim were underscored in a meeting with the IDF officer in charge of the city, Major Danny Alyagon (Res.) of the HomeFront Command, who in civilian life is a lawyer who heads the Israeli bar association’s southern region. He said that due to Ofakim’s nonstop problems, he sleeps in his office and went home only once since the war began on Dec. 27.

“Ofakim was in a harder situation than every other town in the South because of the large number of people with special needs,” Alyagon said. “This war caught this town in an awkward place with no money to sustain itself and workers who didn’t know how to work. We stopped the floodgates.”
The first two 122-mm Grad missiles hit two days later at 11:13 p.m., one hitting a family home. Since then, eight have fallen in the city limits but none in any built-up area.

The IDF has worked to ensure that there would be enough shelters for Ofakim’s residents, who receive only a 45-second warning when a missile is fired from Gaza. In the first week of the war, the IDF refurbished 52 shelters.

‘Support and solidarity’

Residents have also been assisted by Lev Ehad, which maintains a flow of 500 volunteers to the stricken area, including 50 in Ofakim. Altogether, 3,000 people have volunteered, conducting activities to keep children busy in the shelters and, once the children have returned to school, helping out there.
UJC MetroWest is assisting Lev Ehad by providing its volunteers in Ofakim with three meals a day for 10 days, cooked by the Ofakim Women’s Ethnic Empowerment group.

“We appreciate having our logistics taken care of, because our budget is unfortunately low while our human resources are so high,” said Yehuda Elram, the group’s executive manager.

UJC MetroWest’s other partner communities have also been helping out. When the war broke out, Rishon Letzion adopted Ofakim. Rachel Eshel, head of the Rishon Letzion Educational Authority, came to gauge the city’s needs.

Since then, Rishon has helped with everything from garbage collection to upgrading the city’s water system, computerizing the emergency hotline, and refurbishing city-owned homes for residents who lose theirs in a missile strike. This Friday, if the war continues, hundreds of Ofakim children will go to Rishon for a fun weekend.

“When a city is in a difficult situation, someone has to help,” Eshel said.

Ofakim Mayor Zvi Greengold gave the mission participants a security briefing and explained Hamas’ connections to Iran. He said he was thankful to all the volunteers, especially those who came all the way from New Jersey.

“I don’t have enough words to thank MetroWest for their support in routine times — let alone times like these,” Greengold said. “I could not function without your support and solidarity.”

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Sidebar - Code Red — and restoration

Gary Aidekman, president of United Jewish Communities of Metro West NJ, was among a delegation of American-Jewish leaders on a solidarity mission to southern Israel earlier this week who, on Monday, were forced into a protected room during a “Code Red” alert. He describes the scene at the Ashkelon Welfare Administration Building, where the delegation heard a briefing in a crowded conference room:

THE FIRST ORDER of business was instructions about what to do if a warning siren sounded. We were told to file out of the room, head for the stairwell, and go down to the basement. The stairwell provides the structural strength to protect against a rocket blast.

About 10 minutes into the briefing, the siren sounded. My first lesson in emergency response was that American Jews are not great in following instructions. Although there was no panic, the room was not evacuated in the manner contemplated. In any event, we all got out and went down to the basement.

On the way, we heard the boom, more like a loud thud. We stayed in the stairwell for a few minutes, and then finished the briefing.

Afterward, the group drove to the home of an elderly couple to see how the situation is affecting this population, among whom cases of depression are rising.

Amir Shacham, UJC MetroWest’s Israel representative, called me out of the session with the elderly couple. He had learned where the rocket that caused us to go down into the stairwell at the Welfare Department had landed. We drove to the site to see the impact for ourselves.

The rocket hit the second floor of a single-family house. It entered through the side and blew a hole about 20 square feet. Shrapnel and ball bearings (Hamas adds them to make the rockets even more deadly) had been sprayed a couple of hundred feet from the impact site. A car on the street had holes in the windows and hood.

Later, in a meeting at city hall, we learned that the family narrowly escaped injury. The mother was in her car about to leave the neighborhood when the siren sounded. She went back to the house and into the safe room. Three children were on the second floor and just made it downstairs and into the safe room when the rocket hit. The rocket went through the second floor and into the kitchen. Without the safe room, there undoubtedly would have been deaths and injury.

At the explosion site, Amir pointed out that a restoration crew was already there. As soon as the army and police finished their examination of the building, the crew was set to begin the repairs necessary to get the family back into their home within a few days. I remember during the Intifada that these crews made immediate repairs to cafes and restaurants after suicide attacks. It’s the Israeli way: Go back to normal life (or what passes for normal life) as soon as possible. Don’t let the terrorists win.

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