29B_Israel At War: How Young Olim Are Making A Difference_Batsheva Moskowitz_Jewish Action

How ISRAEL AT WAR

Young Olim Are

Making a Difference As soon as the war began, communities of young olim across the country began volunteering and supporting Israel in remarkable ways. As we go to press at the end of October, we take a closer look at their initial response.

By Batsheva Moskowitz

Photo: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90 Winter 5784/2023 JEWISH ACTION

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Soldiers from the JLIC Mizrachi Herzliya community receive donations from their community.

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ost young Anglo olim expect that moving to a country without close family will be hard. They realize contending with Israel’s bureaucracy will be challenging.

But they likely do not anticipate having to scramble to a shelter in ninety seconds, watching dozens of their friends get called up suddenly for reserve duty, or being called up themselves.

“To think that the people we sit next to in shul, the people we take classes with, the people we work with, are suddenly not in those day-to-day situations but are now fighting for their lives and our lives—it’s unimaginable,” says Jordan Landes, a twenty-threeyear-old professional originally from Boca Raton, Florida, who has lived in Herzliya for the past few years.

Being far from family during a time of war presents its own challenges.

Batsheva Moskowitz is an associate editor at Jewish Action.

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“All our families are nervous about us. They don’t exactly know what it looks like here, and they’re scared,” says Landes. “What’s affecting me, and most people like me who are home and safe and have shelter [in Israel], is the thought of our friends who are out there fighting; we don’t know when we will see them again.”

As this issue goes to press in late October, the war is raging with no end in sight. “The biggest challenge right now is the uncertainty. There is no telling when this war will end. When there is a barrage of rockets, we don’t know if it’ll last for hours or for ten seconds. We’re scared. If you’ve been in Israel for a while, you unfortunately get used to things like this, although I will say that what’s going on right now is unparalleled by any other attack on Israel [in the past few decades],” says Landes, who remained in Israel after completing his gap year at Yeshivat Shaalvim. “This type of vicious attack— where terrorists openly came into the country and committed unspeakable

acts—has never happened before.”

Incredibly, despite the fear and anxiety, the war has only strengthened the commitment of many young North American olim. Right after Sukkot, even with limited access to flights back to Israel, “quite a few of these olim who went back home to the States for the chag were eager to come back,” says Rabbi Ilan Haber, OU chief strategy officer and former international director of the OU’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC). “I think [war] sometimes activates something in people’s neshamot . . . if anything, it will make more people want to make aliyah.”

Many young olim who are not serving in the IDF have responded to the war by volunteering and supporting Israel in remarkable ways. Pivoting from its typical programming and activities, JLIC communities in Israel, in five major hubs—Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Herzliya, Haifa and Givat Shmuel— shifted to focus on supporting the war effort. “We’re trying to give people a

sense that they’re not alone,” says Rabbi Jonathan Shulman, associate director of JLIC and director of JLIC Israel.

As soon as the war began, JLIC communities and young olim across the country began supporting soldiers as well as displaced families from the South. They delivered food and supplies to soldiers on dozens of bases across the country and set up children’s camps, offered free babysitting, ran clothing drives and cooked meals for displaced families. In a single day, JLIC Jerusalem packed 2,000 meals for families in Ashkelon, and Rabbi Shulman estimates that in the first week of the war, JLIC Tel Aviv (JLIC’s first community of young professionals) had at least 500 volunteers daily. During that first week, they received a request for sleeping bags for soldiers on a base near Jerusalem. The request was made one evening at 11:30 pm. By 1:30 am, thirty sleeping bags were delivered to the base.

One soldier from the Herzliya community, who was called up to serve in the Givati Brigade that protects Israel’s southern border, sent the following WhatsApp to his friends: “Herzliya—you guys are literally not normal. It’s normal to care about chayalim and daven for their safety. What’s not normal is that you guys make it your business to be thinking of us 24/7. . . . My unit is ecstatic right now; they can’t wrap their minds around the fact that not my family, but my community, came all the way here to make sure we are a bit more prepared and a bit happier. [I] cannot wait to thank each and every one of you in person!”

Young olim who have not been called up are being supported too.

Psychologists have come to JLIC communities to help students cope, and activities such as support groups, challah bakes and community dinners provide daily emotional support.

The request was made one evening at 11:30 pm. By 1:30 am, thirty sleeping bags were delivered to the base.

The Sound of Sirens

By Jordan Landes As told to Batsheva Moskowitz

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e woke to the sound of sirens at 6:30 am on Shabbat/Simchat Torah morning in Herzliya. In shul, everyone was talking about the sirens, but it wasn’t until people started being called up for miluim (reserve duty) that we knew something was up. Only after Shabbat did we realize the extent of what was going on and how serious it really was.

I said goodbye to my friends who were being called up, not knowing when I would see them again. I still don’t know. I might see them, b’ezrat Hashem, at the end of the week or I might not see them for three months. I really have no idea.

While our friends are fighting to defend our country, we are busy sending carloads of supplies every day to bases all around the North and South of Israel to make sure they have what they need.

Rabbi Noam and Shiffy Friedman, the rabbinic JLIC Mizrachi couple here in Herzliya, have done an unbelievable job assembling group chats and committees to work on different initiatives, from cooking food to going to stores around the country in search of very specific gear for soldiers—such as certain types of flashlights and headgear that they require. Everyone is pitching in.

Some people are buying supplies, others are organizing them. Still others drive to the bases to deliver the supplies to the soldiers.

Young olim, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, from North America, England, France and other parts of the world are dedicating their time, some working around the clock. At the same time, we are trying to uplift each other by helping out as well as by sending our support to the chayalim.

Passion is what gets you here, but it’s the love of where you are that keeps you here—loving the people in Israel and realizing that you’re a part of something that is much bigger than yourself.

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Many students have found volunteering therapeutic. “You need to get up with a purpose so you don’t fall into the oceanic abyss of the war,” says Rabbi Shulman. Which is, essentially, what these young olim are doing. There has been, in Rabbi Shulman’s words, a “total mobilization of these communities.”

“It’s an amazing time to be here.

It’s a scary time too, but I keep myself busy,” says Nili Fischer, originally from Denver, Colorado, who currently lives in Herzliya. “It helps me when my focus is our chayalim and the people in the South.”

While young olim are doing their best to cope with the challenges of war, their conviction to support and protect their nation seems stronger than ever. Many feel especially proud to be in Israel at a time where an inconceivable war is bringing a divided nation back together again.

“Now more than ever, I am proud to be a Herzliyan,” says Fischer.

Volunteers from JLIC’s community in Tel Aviv collect fruit and vegetables to bring to soldiers.

Courtesy of JLIC Tel Aviv

Volunteers from the JLIC community in Jerusalem run a camp for twenty displaced children from the South.

Seen here, children write letters of encouragement to IDF soldiers.

Courtesy of JLIC Jerusalem

About forty of the Reichman University Mobilizing for Chesed community’s students were called up

By Steve Lipman

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y the time they arrived in shul on Shabbat/Simchat Torah morning, Rabbi Noam and Shifra Friedman, the JLIC Mizrachi educators at Reichman University in Herzliya, knew something unusual was taking place.

First, there were the sirens.

Then there was the religious soldier who told Rabbi Friedman during davening that he would have to excuse himself from the prayer service to take part in a Zoom meeting to get call-up orders for his unit that was being mobilized.

Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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immediately; many of the reserves being called up were lone soldiers from overseas.

In the first days after the start of the war, the Friedmans took on a wide variety of new duties—determining the physical needs of soldiers, especially those with a connection to Reichman University, at bases throughout the country; locating, buying and delivering equipment, which required them and their cadre of volunteers to drive thousands of kilometers; opening their home to students and organizing several kumzitzes and Tehillim groups.

The fall semester at Reichman University, which was to start the week after the chagim were over, was indefinitely postponed, a recognition of the country’s suddenly highest priorities.

The students now had free time on their hands. “It wasn’t just us,” said Shifra in a telephone interview at the start of the war’s second week. Many of the young men and women offered their time. They drove their own cars, or borrowed friends’ cars, to transport soldiers, equipment and fresh meals or pizzas to the IDF bases.

One of the most noteworthy requests the couple received, from a soldier already at his base, was for seventy green waterresistant rain jackets, Shifra said. The weather was changing in early October and rain was in the air; the soldiers would be needing this article of clothing.

Where do you find so many green rain jackets on such short notice?

The Friedmans’ circle of volunteers knew. They drove to many stores, and found the required amount of jackets.

“By the next morning,” Shifra says, “the jackets were at the base.”