• Friday, July 14, 2006

• Sunday, July 16, 2006
• Friday, July 21, 2006
  
• Tuesday, July 25, 2006
• Tuesday, August 15, 2006
• Pictures, August 16, 2006
  

Friday, July 14, 2006

Dear Friends,

Oy, Gevalt!

As you surely heard by now, the situation in Israel is extremely unstable these days. It is like a spark that grew bigger and bigger and is now a very dangerous fire.

I want to thank you for your support emails and phone calls and I am writing this email to all of you before I answer you personal emails. Your support is truly valuable and it is of great help during these times of uncertainty.

It all started two days ago, when without any warning Hizbala started sending Katyusha rockets to Israel, causing people who live in the North to spend the night in their bomb shelters, fearing the worst. The reports also stated that two soldiers were kidnapped and that 4 more soldiers were killed in an attempt to bring the kidnapped soldiers back home. Analysts here say that Iran and Syria are helping the Hamas and Hizbala.

This situation for most Israeli citizens meant only one thing: the beginning of battles that could lead to war.

The escalation continued as Katyusha rockets hit cities in the North. According to television and newspaper reports, 110 rockets have already landed in Israel in 30 cities in Israel, leaving several dead and dozens wounded. Zahal reacted by starting a military operation in Lebanon.

Yesterday trains were full of people who gathered their belongings and fled from the North, staying with their family in the Southern regions of Israel.  The irony is that many people came to Haifa, a city that was considered safe from Hizbala threat, until yesterday evening, as a missile with a head of 100 kg hit Haifa, and brought people to believe in the unthinkable.

Many of our friends were out running errands, but when hearing about Haifa being in the line of fire, people hurried home to prepare for a possible attack, getting ready to possibly stay in their bomb shelters for the night.  Luckily, there were no unusual occurrences during the night , but people are still afraid.

Only 10 out of 72 children arrived to our preschools today, while most children left the city during the weekend. Most of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah families, are thinking of canceling the event this weekend, since their relatives from the Tel Aviv area told them they will not be coming.

As every Friday, we are preparing for Kabalat Shabbat, but is seems that many people are afraid of arriving this evening, and prefer the safety of their homes. We might have to hold the Kabalat Shabbat in our Or Hadash bomb shelter.

The situation is depressing. We worked very hard in the past few years to have a vibrant Friday night with an average of 150 people arriving, but in light of recent events, it seems that we may have a minyan of 4 Bar Mitzvah families and myself in the bomb shelter.

I hope that this whole situation will be over as soon as possible with minimum casualties of innocent people on both sides and that the diplomatic efforts will be efficient.

Sending you a Shabbat, lets pray of Shalom, from Haifa, Israel.
Rabbi Dr. Edgar Nof

Sunday, July 16, 2006
Dear Friends,

In the name of Or Hadash families, members and staff, we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support. We just received over 150 emails and a few dozen phone calls. I’m writing this letter to all of you since I am not able to address each one of you personally. In this miserable situation, one of the few good things is knowing that Or Hadash has so many friends and people that care for us overseas.

When the sirens warned all the Haifa residents to go to their bomb shelters, Deborah, the children and myself ran early this morning to Or Hadash. Since our community shelter is a very good one, most of the children in our preschool came this morning (the rest fled the city with their parents).

The media reported that in the last 4 days 700 Katyusha rockets and another 600 bombs were sent to over 30 cities in Israel. 12 soldiers are already dead and the number of casualties among citizens is even greater.

About 2 hours ago a series of bombs landed in Haifa, killing residents who were near the train station. One of our members (the brother of a very popular Israeli singer) was on the road, near the location the Katyusha rockets landed and his car was shaking the whole way here. Except for that, we don’t have any casualties to report.

Friday night was a big surprise for me, since our sanctuary was almost full for the Kabalat Shabbat service. But, yesterday was a lousy Shabbat. It could be a very nice one, since we had 4 Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, but the truth is most of the guests did not arrive. We usually have 60-100 people attending each ceremony. Yesterday we barely had 15-20 (the parents, grandparents and some uncles and cousins). Even though I tried to do the best I could, the three boys and the girl (Bar/Bat Mitzvah), felt that nobody came to their joyous occasion and they will never have another Bar/Bat Mitzvah in their life. I assume that only 20%-25% of the people who were invited actually came. I don’t remember such a Shabbat since the terrible days of the second intifada.

Yesterday was a very confusing day, since no rockets fell in Haifa, but the citizens were very stressed as a result of the situation. Today it was clear that the relatively quiet Saturday we had was nothing but an illusion, as a series of bombs, without any warning hit Haifa. We heard them loud and clear and immediately went to the bomb shelter. Today we brought an amplifying system to our bomb shelter and the children are currently in the bomb shelter.

As you probably gather, our morning was not an ordinary one. I had the pleasure to take my guitar and tried to play songs to calm the little children of the preschool, but it wasn’t so easy since many parents were listening to the news on the radio, and you could feel the tension in a room filled with almost 100 people. Even though we made some renovations in our shelter and now it looks much nicer, still we were not prepared and it wasn’t very comfortable to feed the children, change their dippers, go to the restroom, over the past 6 long hours in the shelter. It was also not a pleasant experience to see all of the staff members running with the children to the shelter as we heard the first bombings. And even now as I am writing to you, I can hear the noises of helicopters and planes flying over Haifa and over Or Hadash.

I apologize if you tried to reach me on my cell phone since many times their were problems with the network and it was hard to get in touch with us.

Thank you again for your support and your prayers, and I sincerely hope that next time I write you, will be to tell you that the war is over.

B’Shalom (at least B’Tikvat Shalom),

Rabbi Dr. Edgar Nof

Friday, July 21, 2006

Dear Friends,
 
Thank you all so much for your beautiful emails, your prayers and your support. I truly appreciate it.

A few days have gone by since I had a chance to address you all. I am sure you have been receiving updates about the situation in Israel. I sincerely thank each and every one of you for your thoughtfulness during these times and for your great concern for our safety. I just cannot answer 345 emails, so I am writing this letter.

My family and I are fine, all of our members are fine as well. Most of them left the city. I am the “captain” so I will remain here. Only two of the 30 Or Hadash workers are working now. I will try to tell you in more detail about the events that took place in this past week.

As you can imagine, we have had the most tense week, with a great deal of confusion, prayers, fear and some hope. After the first Katyushas landed in Haifa on Sunday, the 20 staff members of Or Hadash went home and have not returned to work yet, with Katyushas hitting Haifa all week long. Since all of the July Bar/Bat Mitzvah families wanted to cancel the ceremony ( and most of them did eventually cancel), my family and I went to Jerusalem for a Bar Mitzvah I performed at the Kotel (for a family afraid of having the Bar Mitzvah in Haifa).

We returned to Haifa yesterday night, and were ”greeted” by an unpleasant bundle of Katyushas which hit Haifa. Unlike the Bar Mitzvah I performed in Jerusalem, many Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies that were planned to take place at Or Hadash in July were cancelled, and as sad as it is, it is not a great surprise. The Or Hadash preschools are also closed until further notice and we don’t think the children will return to the preschools any time soon. The same goes for our first-year camp (25 children attend it), which is also closed.

Some the parents already asked (politely, I confess) that we return the money they paid for the children’s summer camp. On the other hand, we had signed contracts with the workers in these projects, and mean to pay their salaries as we agreed beforehand. We have already ordered food for 95 children (preschool+ camp), it is a disaster in so many ways. We make most of our income from Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremonies and other life cycle events. All guests who were supposed to visit Israel from abroad, cancelled their trip, and we usually receive donations from these groups. 10 days from now, we will have to pay our staff their salaries, and it will not be easy to do that.

As I am writing this letter, I performed a rehearsal for two Bar Mitzvahs at Or Hadash. Some very brave people decided to have the rehearsal at Or Hadash as scheduled. There were about 20 people, all dressed up nicely for the event. A few minutes after we started, the sirens went on, and everyone went downstairs to the bomb shelter. We continued the ceremony from the bomb shelter. After returning to the synagogue, the sirens went on again. Try to imagine to yourselves such an important event, disrupted by alarms, and the whole family going downstairs (of course by foot) to the bomb shelter.

In half an hour Kabalat Shabbat is supposed to begin as every Friday at Or Hadash, only this Friday for the first time, I am praying for a minyan, a minyan is all that I need, but I am doubtful whether we will have a minyan tonight.
 
Residents of Haifa have stayed indoors throughout the week, many of them fleeing town. When arriving to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, it is almost certain you will encounter what we refer to as “refugees” from the North of Israel, who were trying to get away from the alarms and enjoy summer, as they would have liked to in Haifa. People with young children try to find amusement for their children during summer, and there is almost no choice for them except leaving town.

I think all of us became very good listeners. We got to know many new sounds in the past week and categorize them as positive or negative. Numerous times each day we hear the sounds of helicopters and of planes making their way to the North. The sound is quite scary, but it is categorized as positive, since they take care of our safety. On the other hand, we hear the sound of sirens about 4 times each day. It is a disturbing and aversive sound, one which creates fear even in the most relaxed person. And then there are of course the sounds of Katyushas hitting this area. Some are much louder than others, and you can determine how close a Katyusha has landed by how loud the sound was. We have all become “experts” in Katyusha landings.

In the midst of all this chaos there is a positive side, as families have a chance to reunite and the unfortunate circumstances bring out the best in people, who are most willing to host family members and friends from the North.

As much as we appreciate the concern, we still want to live a normal life without constantly fearing being hurt. People cannot stay at their friend’s or family’s homes forever and many do not have the means to go to other places (the elderly, people with disabilities, the poor etc.). We are extremely concerned about these people, who are not always being heard, because of all the confusion around us. There are people who have been staying in their bomb shelters for over a week and live with no basic sanitary conditions, as well as the extreme heat of the Israeli summer, and of course it is not an environment which fosters people’s well being.

I want to finish this letter with a general appeal. Some of you offered to help. We need this help now. I don’t remember any other time since I was appointed Rabbi of Or Hadash 6 years ago that we were in need of your financial support more than at this time.

If you can, please send your support directly to Or Hadash at:

Congregation Or Hadash
P.O. Box 3711
Haifa Israel 31036
 
Or through the World Union for Progressive Judaism at:
 
WUPJ
633 Third Ave.
New York, NY 10017-6778
 
Wishing you Shabbat Shalom, from Or Hadash.
 
Rabbi Dr. Edgar Nof

Tuesday, July 25

Shalom!
 
The Israeli television just reported that since the beginning of the war 14 days ago, more than 2700 katyushas fell in Israel (hitting more than 30 cities in the North). The number of dead among soldiers and citizens is more than 20, and hundreds are wounded.
 
Yesterday was, relatively speaking quiet, but since this morning 16 katyushas landed in Haifa, with 25 wounded, resulting in a man dying from a heart attack and 2 people seriously wounded.
We ran to the Or Hadash shelter. One siren went on when I was about to take a shower and another went on while eating breakfast (at that point you have to decide very quickly what to do with the food in your mouth- to swallow fast while running down to the shelter or to spend a few valuable seconds spitting the food to the sink. Not an easy decision, believe me!). Another siren caught me an Ariel while we were grocery shopping in the supermarket. These are hard times in Haifa.
 
As you probably know, many bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies this summer are cancelled, as well as weddings and baby namings being moved to the center of the country. There are no 'chugim' (classes, folk dancing and painting), so we don't receive rent from them, either. Preschool and camp families want their tuition refunded. On the other hand, we need to pay salaries of the 30 employees of Or Hadash. Today we had to throw away a week's worth of food for the 100 children who would normally be at Or Hadash daily. We couldn't give it away, since nobody came to work, as it is dangerous to be on the streets, or even in a car. Those who are weak suffer the most. Today I was informed that the father of a boy scheduled to have his bar mitzva in September committed suicide. He suffered from depression all his life, and I'm sure that the current situation didn't help. The 84 year old holocaust survivor whom Or Hadash supports called me in distress. Another bar mitzva boy's father is dying of cancer, and the family prays the war will end so that friends and family will be able to attend his funeral. Even a memorial for the son of one of our bereaved mothers was postponed, for fear that no one would come to the cemetery. The 5 Gaberu orphans (from Ethiopia), that we adopted are in Ashdod, at summer camp, so at least I have one less responsibility for them.
 
My daughter Yael, finished her summer camp with the Progressive Movement in Ashkelon, but didn’t return home like the rest of the teens. Instead we all preferred that she will spend some extra time with her friends in Jerusalem, even though we all miss her.
 
Our Preschool Coordinator, Hila, , who lives in Kiryat Biyalik (a suburb of Haifa) was lucky. She was working at Or Hadash when a missile hit her street, about one block away from her apartment. Fortunately, there was no damage to her building.
Media reports at least another week of fighting.
 
For me, the sooner this ends, the better. I hope to write you with news about a cease-fire next time,
Shalom,
Edgar

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Dear Friends,
 
Finally, finally war is over.

Many people asked me if the ceasefire resolution is good? I think it is marvelous. We couldn’t stand this war any longer. We were exhausted, nervous, afraid and tired.

Slowly we are returning to our daily routine at Or Hadash. Most of the children (80%) returned to our three preschools and to the first ever summer camp for 2nd graders. The children were relieved that they didn’t have to go to the shelter today and they might even go to the pool later this week (we are still cautious). The preschool teachers were so relieved to see some of the children they haven’t seen in a month (at age 2, children really change in a month). Only 3 families left Haifa or Israel permanently, the rest returned or will return in the next few days. After holding their activities for the past 35 days in the bomb shelter (for safety reasons), the children returned to the top floor at Or Hadash.

These are wonderful signs symbolizing change for the better. Another sign is a very long traffic jam near the entrance to Haifa, at 10 pm. Many people who left the city during the war returned, suddenly the city is full again. There is a lot of traffic on the streets and no sounds of planes or helicopters. It is now 30 hours since the ceasefire came into effect, and we cannot begin to tell you what a relief it is not to hear sirens and news reports about soldiers being killed and wounded in battle. Not everything is alright though. Many children are showing symptoms of anger, anxiety and other suppressed feelings. We will need the help of an Educational Psychologist.

In Israel and in Lebanon people ask who won the war? I am convinced that all of us lost. Olmert and the Hizballa claim the victory. We, the people of Israel and the people of Lebanon only suffered from this war. The grim statistics teach us that 3,970 katyushas fell in Israel, 150 soldiers and civilians were killed (Jews, Christians, Moslems and Druze), 4,262 civilians were hospitalized (33 critically wounded and 68 seriously wounded). During this war, the sirens went on more than 200 times in Haifa. 217 katyusha rockets landed in Haifa and its suburbs (Krayot in Hebrew).

What was not mentioned in the statistics were many citizens like our board member, Roxana Reichman’s mother, Tamara Luka, dying of a heart attack as a direct result of the katyusha attacks. Yesterday I was informed that a senior member of our congregation, Marcel Graceheimer, passed away yesterday at the age of 103, after suffering from anxiety during the war.

More than 1,000,000 Israeli citizens became refugees or lived in fear for 35 long days. Seeing children and women running downstairs to the shelter in panic with fear in their eyes and feeling so helpless was humiliating. It would have been much easier to serve in a unit of the IDF. At least there you could feel that you can fight and that your destiny is in your own hands more or less.

Or Hadash was open almost every day during the war (33 out of 35 days). I believe that we functioned so well during the war thanks to the letters, the conversations, the contributions , the support and the visits of our friends from abroad. There are no words to fully express how greatful we are for all of your support. On behalf of all the staff and members at Or Hadash, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It was very important to us to send you emails and tell you what we are going through. That way you had our perspective about the events, and what we actually went through, which is different than what you read in the news.
 
I am finishing this letter by sending some pictures and a big hug and kisses from Haifa, peaceful once again.
 
B’Shalom,
Rabbi Dr. Edgar Nof

Wednesday, August 16, 2006