Discovering Israel’s Soul a Year After October 7th

Our packed El Al flight erupted in applause as we touched down at Ben Gurion during Sukkot.  I planned to observe Simchat Torah in Jerusalem where I was last year on October 7th,  head South to rebuild the Gaza border communities, and continue to Tel Aviv and the North to see family and friends.   I wondered what was the mood of the Israeli people?  How secure did they feel?  What mattered most to Israelis today?  My ten-day quest began to discover for myself Israel’s soul one year after October 7th. 

I recalled how our family’s Zionist souls were recharged during a transformative synagogue trip to Israel in 2003 and during each trip that followed.  In 2018, my wife Karen and I became Israeli-American dual-citizens with our older daughter who was studying in Jerusalem towards her Teaching Certificate in Jewish Studies from Pardes.  Our Aliyah residence was in the old city of Zefat (Safed) in the Galil (Northern Israel).  My mothers’ great grandparents came to Zefat over 150 years ago, blessing us today with a very large and diverse Israeli family.  

I recalled last October 6th dancing with the Torah in Jerusalem and awakening early Shabbat and Simchat Torah morning to air raid sirens.  From a public bomb shelter, I heard the Iron Dome intercept a Hamas rocket and watched TV images of the terror unfolding in the South.  I have returned four times since  October 7th (with my wife and older daughter Jess twice)  to try to understand what happened and to help heal and rebuild our beloved Jewish homeland. 

Our dear cousin Alex met me at Ben Gurion with my car and much good advice. He said most of Israel was safe except the Northern border with Lebanon, and warned me not to travel as planned to Zefat, the first time he ever said that.  He reviewed the latest instructions for incoming rockets and drones on my Homefront Command and Red Alert mobile apps.   I drove towards Jerusalem, with a first stop to volunteer at Ruca’s Farm, a place for IDF soldiers with severe PTSD  to discover a moment of peace through farming and harvesting the land while receiving much needed therapy.  A few years ago, Ruca’s Farm was just a field of dreams.  Today, I volunteered in fields brimming with vegetables and some 50 IDF soldiers in active treatment. 

Part 1: Simchat Torah in Jerusalem and the West Bank

 In Jerusalem I arrived at the Harmony Hotel on Ben Yehuda Street.  In my 30 trips, this bustling outdoor mall near Mahane Yehuda market and the Old City was never more crowded, noisy, joyous and full of life!  It was my first sign of Israelis’ inspiring spirit and resilience after one difficult year of war.

 My diverse secular and orthodox cousins living in Jerusalem and the West Bank, the biblical lands of Judea and Shomron,  represent the rich tapestry of Jewish religious and cultural Israel today.  They live in our biblical lands along the mountainous ‘spine of Israel’ along the North-South Route 60, known as the  Road of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. My cousins described how Iran’s proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad – attempted all year to smuggle in deadly armament and incite a violent West Bank invasion of Jerusalem – without success.   

So, how would Israel observe Simchat Torah one year after October 7th?  Last year, members of Kehilat Tzion, a diverse Jerusalem congregation led by its founding Rabbi Tamar Elad-Applebaum,  danced ecstatically with their Torahs during each of the seven special thematic hakafot (torah processions).  This year, the first five hakafot somberly recalled October 7.  We remembered the hostages in captivity, the people who died, the soldiers killed and injured, the communities destroyed, and the residents still displaced from their homes in the North and South.  The sixth hakafah was for the children. The mood changed to joy.  Rabbi Applebaum gathered the hundreds of children together and we danced ecstatically with our Torahs just like last year.  We continued dancing for the 7th Hakafah.  It was for “Tikvah” – hope.   Rabbi Applebaum ended Simchat Torah by asking us to remember that the Jewish people have faced much adversity in our history.  We grieve loss, choose life, teach our children, build our dreams, and look to the future with hope.

 Part 2:   Otef Aza – The Epicenter

 My next destination was Otef Aza – the Gaza Envelope communities along Route 232, the epicenter of the October 7th pogram.   Today, we know that on October 7th at 6:30 AM, 3,800 Hamas terrorists and 2,200 Gazan civilians began to breach the border at 119 different points, supported by 1,000 Hamas terrorists within Gaza who launched over 4,300 rockets.  The terrorists surprised and overwhelmed the central Sderot Police Station and the very small contingent of soldiers the IDF chose to deploy at Agdat Aza (the main Gaza army base).  Armed with detailed maps provided by some of the 15,000 Gazans who worked daily in our communities, Hamas terrorist cells went immediately to the centralized weapons depot in each Kibbutz and Moshav, often arriving before the community defense unit.  They targeted the 3000 young innocents dancing all night at the Nova Festival along the Gaza border.  During five horrific hours, Hamas slaughtered 1200 men, women, children and babies, including 40 Americans and people from 30 countries, and kidnapped 251 hostages into Gaza. During this tragic morning, so many ordinary Israeli heroes saved countless lives.

After my third visit to Otef Aza with an amazing Israeli organization to volunteer and to bear witness, I understood what happened during this horrific pogram and where to begin to feel Israel’s soul.  First stop – Shuva Junction, where the IDF began to deploy soldiers from helicopters to battle Hamas and evacuate the dead and injured.  Three brothers from nearby Kibbutz Shuva brought some portable tables with water, food and supplies to the soldiers.  A year later, Shuva Junction has grown into a large volunteer center for soldiers to gather, eat and resupply for free.  Shuva is a powerful symbol of Israel’s amazing ‘civil society’ – everyone coming together spontaneously to do Tikkun Olam.  Dror, one of the three brothers, gave me a huge welcome hug and immediately put me to work.  All day, we busily received donations, and provided food, supplies and love to our Israeli soldiers.  

The next day I began volunteering again with the professional workers of an amazing organization called Livnot U’Lehibanot (“To Build and be Rebuilt”), who were building a Senior Center in Kibbutz Yachini.  Established in 1980 in Zefat by its founder and Executive Director Aharon Botzer, Livnot workers and thousands of young adult volunteers built bomb shelters in Kiryat Shmona and the North, and housed and fed soldiers during the 2006-8 Lebanon War.  More than 25,000 Jewish youth in the Diaspora on Birthright trips, and short- and longer-term stays have experienced Zefat through Livnot.   While these young adults build our Jewish homeland, they connect with their heritage and faith,  and strengthen their Jewish identity and love for the people, land and state of Israel.

Post October 7, Livnot housed women IDF soldiers on their Zefat campus and refurbished 100 old bomb shelters in the city.   Then they pivoted to rebuild the South, with their long history of IDF cooperation and community trust. In January 2024,  Livnot became the first organization  to rebuild in the devastated communities of Otef Aza.  Livnot was the only program accepting volunteers from the Diaspora to work and learn together from a group home in Sderot  and Kibbutz Alumim.  This was my third time with Livnot this year, assisting their professionals to rebuild communities destroyed by Hamas terrorists,  so the residents may return home. 

After each morning of rebuilding, Livnot   took us each afternoon to bear witness to the sites and stories of October 7th, including the Sderot Police Station, Women Intelligence Officers Memorial, Nova Festival,  Burnt Cars’ Memorial,  and  Shuva Junction.  We hugged, loved and helped those we met to heal the deep wounds. Our presence was so deeply appreciated.    They were all Israeli heroes who survived this pogram,  lost loved ones and hostages, and who bravely defended their communities from the Hamas terrorist killing fields along Route 232 on that fateful day. 

I returned to Kibbutz Alumim, my July group home for Livnot volunteers. On October 7th, 19 Thai and Nepalese workers at  Kibbutz Alumim were slaughtered and five workers were taken hostage. The entire Kibbutz was evacuated for nine months.  In July, the elders had just returned.   Now,  the sights and sounds of families and hundreds of children playing filled the previously empty gardens. Life had returned to Alumim.  So too in Sderot, the largest city along the Gaza border.  

One year later, the South once again felt full of life.  The Hamas terrorists and their rockets were largely silenced.  The majority of the 80,000 displaced residents from October 7th have returned to their homes. The vast Otef Aza fields that produced 75% of Israel’s vegetables and 33% of her fruits alongside the Otef Aza communities were abandoned immediately after October 7t.   Today, farmers welcomed hundreds of daily volunteers completing the bountiful fall harvests.

Yet, the next morning brought a more realistic assessment of the situation in the South from the IDF Women Observers’ Memorial. On October 7th, Hamas killed 15 unarmed Israeli IDF women intelligence officers and took seven hostages, who were reporting for months of unusual Hamas border preparations. One gazes down from the Memorial to their lookout site at Kibbutz Nahal Oz which literally rests on a modest border fence the Hamas terrorists from Gaza City easily penetrated.  In July, I was Rebuilding Nahal Oz with Livnot professional workers while we were guarded by IDF soldiers.  The residents of Nahal Oz have not begun to return.   

From their Hilltop Memorial, I looked down route 232 from Sderot in the North to the Egyptian Border where the massacre unfolded.  Rebuilding was underway, but too slowly.   The South was quiet one year later, at a human toll of 800 IDF soldiers and 68 police officers killed and over 5,000 soldiers wounded.  The deep unresolved pain of October 7th lingers. As long as the 101 hostages remain in Gaza – now for over 400 days – it seems difficult to heal.  Time stands still for the most devastated communities. IDF soldiers protect the periphery, while Livnot and its volunteers rebuild for their future.  The occasional sounds of war are from the IDF military creating a larger buffer zone to accompany an elusive political solution so that our hostages come home and Hamas will never again attack the Israelis of Otef Aza.  

Part 3:  Tel Aviv and the Center

 From Otef Aza, I drove to Tel Aviv to check into the Hotel Maxim on the beach.  Tel Aviv was still pulsing with life!   Post October 7th, the world-famous Facebook site for Israel volunteers, Swords of Iron, dubbed the Maxim Tel Aviv’s “Volunteers Hotel”.  They offer generous discount prices and a central hub for those who come from around the world to help harvest fruits and vegetables, prepare and distribute meals, fill gaps in Israel’s economy, and help rebuild communities.  The Maxim is our family’s  “go-to” place in Tel Aviv. 

From the Maxim, I drove North to Yokneam Illit, the high tech hub and gateway to Haifa and Northern Israel.  Over coffee at Roladin, Leora Perertz,  Livnot’s Director of Partnerships, shared that Livnot was starting in two Otef Aza Kibbutzim – Nachal Oz and Nirim – to restore 120 houses so that the residents may return to their homes. We strategized how Livnot may publicize and recruit young Jewish adults from North America to aid in this holy work. 

  Part 4: Looking Northward

Near Yokneam lies Tel Megiddo, the extraordinary archaeological site made famous by James Michener in “The Source”.  For 10,000 years, Megiddo’s ruins told the story of powerful nations battling for control of its strategic trade route along the Fertile Crescent from ancient Egypt’s River Nile basin to the Tigris and Euphrates River basin in ancient Babylon.     From Tel Megiddo, I looked North towards our beloved aliyah home in the mystical mountain town of Zefat in the Galil (Northern Israel).  

The Galil’s topography, history, and cultures make it one of the unique places of the world and a popular tourist destination. The African Rift Valley, fed by snow-capped Mount Hermon flowing down the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee, provides sustenance to millions of migrating birds. The Galilee’s hills and mountains provide a comfortable climate with majestic views, waterfalls, nature reserves and hiking trails.

Most American Jews and the world do not realize that the Galil today is home to one of the world’s most diverse populations. The biblical cities of Safed and Tiberias are Jewish communities continuously inhabited for over 2,000 years and home to the great Rabbis of the Talmud, Kabbalah and other holy texts.   Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee are home to Jesus, Mary and Christianity’s birthplace.   Nazareth and numerous communities in the Galil are home to Israel’s largest population of Muslim, Druze and Christian Arab citizens.  Adding to this rich human tapestry are the beautiful Galil communities of Ethiopian, Russian, Circassian, North African and Indian immigrants.  Despite a year of war from Hezbollah and Iran’s proxies along its borders, the Arabs and Jews of the Galil, living together in roughly equal numbers, all co-exist peacefully.  There is no other example of such peaceful coexistence of Arabs and Jews in the entire Middle East.   

Most American Jews and the world did not realize that, on October 7th, the security situation was even more dangerous on Israel’s Northern border with Lebanon and Syria. A year ago, as I approached Zefat by car, I was shocked to see enormous army caravans filled with Israeli soldiers along with thousands of their abandoned personal cars parked along the highways.  I did not realize at the time that Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, had constructed over decades a massive system of underground tunnels stretching South to the Israel border.  Some 3,000 terrorists from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit were ready to conduct a massive invasion into Israel’s Northern border that would have dwarfed the human carnage of Otef Aza. 

A year ago on October 8th, I watched from my Aliyah residence in Zefat as Israel urgently began sending thousands of soldiers, tanks and artillery to the Lebanese border, while proactively evacuating 60,000 Israelis from its border communities.  That was enough to deter Hezbollah’s invasion. Yet, every day during this year-long war, an average of 75 and more Hezbollah rockets rained down on the border towns.  One year into the war, Northern Israel’s 60,000 refugees have yet to return.  

The Government waited almost a year to declare that a major IDF war goal was to return its citizens along its Northern periphery to their homes by moving Hezbollah away from the Southern Lebanese border. When they finally took the offensive, the IDF achieved remarkable success decimating Hezbollah’s capabilities.  Yet in the short term, Hezbollah doubled its daily rocket fire and expanded its civilian ‘death zone targets’ South to include Haifa’s 1 million residents and the entire Galil’s 1.5 million residents, around 25% of Israel’s total population.   My dear friends and family all advised against returning to Zefat, since residents spend each day largely at home by their bomb Shelters, public spaces are deserted, and roads between cities may be unprotected by the Iron Dome.   My visit to Bar Ilan University’s Medical School in Zefat to continue our decade long support to improve health care in the North would have to be put on hold. 

Yet, those of us from Zefat and towns further from the evacuated border communities still live in our intact homes.  Not so the residents of Menara, a scenic mountain plateau of now deserted communities that stretch to the Lebanese border, and their beautiful, forested trails we loved to hike.  When Karen and I would look from Menara into the Lebanese border villages, we knew that Hezbollah terrorists were peering right back at us.  Now they directed daily mortar and anti-tank fire here.  Here in Menara there was no time to run to a bomb shelter.  The Mayor of Menara reports that 80% of his community’s homes have been destroyed. The Mayor of nearby Kiryat Shmona, the largest border city, similarly reported half of its buildings sustained some damage. Further North, the beautiful mountain towns of Metulla directly on the Lebanese border reported 60% of its city structures were damaged or destroyed.  As I gazed towards the magnificent peaks of Mt Hermon straddling the Lebanese and Syrian borders,   I wondered about the fate of Menara, where we often hiked, and of Metulla’s magnificent Canadian-built Ice Skating arena to which I took our daughter Jess on several occasions.  They say it will take many years to rebuild these Northern border communities.  Livnot is already planning to help rebuild the North.  

Part 5: Questions Answered

From my El Al seat as we prepared to depart for Miami, I glanced at a Times of Israel photo of a vertical white Houthi Terrorist banner with its slogan in red and green letters:  “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam”.   It is the mission statement of Revolutionary Iran and its proxies.   Today, the stakes seemed much greater and clearer than last October 7th.    The answers to my questions began flooding inward. 

At this one-year anniversary of October 7th, I witnessed the proud, fierce, and resilient Israeli people. I recalled with gratitude our Temple Beth Sholom schlicha (Jewish emissary). After her IDF service as a tank instructor, Amit lived in Miami Beach to serve our synagogue for two years.  She then devoted her 20s working for several Israeli advocacy organizations.   We were blessed to see Amit briefly before her third tour of duty this year in the reserves.  She is a hero.  That is the Israeli people. When I thanked Amit and other Israelis for protecting our Jewish homeland, many shrugged their shoulders and respond, “We have no other country”.

 I witnessed the agonizing price that this war brings to our Jewish homeland.  Israelis are in a continuous shiva of grief for those who die and are injured each day and for the 101 hostages still in captivity.  It is estimated that  a half a million Israelis are at risk for post-traumatic-stress disorder.    

I witnessed an Israeli people united in its determination to eliminate once and for all the existential threat posed by Iran and its proxies.  Since the Shah’s overthrow  in 1979, Khomeini’s Islamic Extremist regime in Iran and its six proxy front in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, the West Bank, Iraq, and Yemen steadily built a regional jihad against Israel and an international jihad against the United States, Western Democracies and Judeo-Christian Civilization.   Yet, Israelis thought the Homefront was fundamentally safe and secure.  October 7th and its aftermath shook Israelis to the core.  Never again.  B’yachad N’natzeah – together we will win – is the most popular slogan.   

I witnessed our Jewish homeland fighting largely alone on the world stage against Iran except for her most powerful partner in the world today – the United States of America.   The fact that Iran’s missiles failed to kill large numbers of Israelis is fortunate but irrelevant. Iran and its proxies are terrorizing our sole Jewish nation, disrupting global commerce and fomenting unrest in the West.  Israelis see liberal democracies throughout the world undermined by Islamic extremists on the ground while their leaders appease Iran’s terrorist proxies.  They see the world blaming Israel for Hamas atrocities perpetrated on innocent Israelis and Palestinians alike.  They see the world blaming Israel for the absence of peace in the region. 

Israelis remember the generous peace proposals rejected and followed by the intifadas. They remember Gazans bulldozing Israeli settlements and farms which Israel left behind for their benefit.  They remember the billions of dollars of “incentives” to Iran, Hezbollah, Gaza, and the West Bank to improve the status of the Palestinian people being diverted to weapons of war.  The United Nations and most of the world ignored Hamas’ horrific crimes against humanity, and has turned its back on Israel and world Jewry,

Yet, to recoil from driving Hezbollah from our Northern border is to lose the North and, ultimately, to lose the country. To refrain from retaliating against Iran is to condemn Israelis to live perpetually under a palpable existential threat.   Israelis will go it alone if necessary . 

While our Zionist dream may seem in danger,  this trip revealed to me the seeds of Zionism’s rebirth and renewal;    The meluim – מילואים –  Israel’s reserves – 360,000 former soldiers,  fathers and mothers, workers and executives, many returning from abroad to fight for our country – tens of thousands more than the government even called for duty;    Israel’s civil society – ordinary citizens from across the political, ethnic and religious spectrum who volunteered to donate blood, deliver food, clothing, housing and supplies to evacuees, injured and the army; created WhatsApp groups to inform the public of needs to pick fruits and vegetables, repair, paint and reopen bomb shelters, schools; who fill the gaps in essential services that the government failed to provide; Israel’s high tech and start-up nation’s industries, which provide a lifeline to Israel’s economy and a deep moat against the global anti-Israel movement – after all how can your divest from Israeli investment when Microsoft, Meta, IBM, Apple, GOOGL and Nvidia are all here;  Finally, Israel’s bridge builders – like“Taglit” (Birthright), Livnot U’Lehibanot, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and the Hartman Institute.  These amazing inclusive organizations offer immersive Israeli experiences that educate and light the spark of Zionism in North American youth, adults and families.  They strengthen Jewish identity, our Jewish people’s historical narrative, and the bonds between the Jews of North America and the diaspora with the people, land and state of Israel.  These strong bonds are essential to Israel and our Jewish Diaspora’s future. 

Part 6: Voices of the Past that Guide me

As our El Al flight to Miami began to taxi to take off, the words of Sir Winston Churchill came to mind as he spoke on behalf of his Island nation standing alone against Nazi Germany,  Churchill said, “ We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime.  From this nothing will turn us.  Nothing.  We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender” .

I recalled the words of Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sachs echoing Churchill when he said.   “What we grew up with, ‘Never Again’ is now ‘Ever Again’.  And at the heart of it is hostility towards Israel.   Anti-Zionism is the new antisemitism.  Because make no mistake, this will be the defining battle of the 21st century.  Which will prevail, the will to power with its violence, terror, missiles and bombs, or the will to life, with its hospitals, schools, freedoms and rights ?  Every time I visit Israel, I find among Israelis an absolute dedication to Moseh Rabeinu’s great command, “uvachara bachayim’, Choose Life”.  We have to stand up and fight and we have to stand up and win.   Judaism is the defeat of probability by the power of possibility, and nowhere will you see the power of possibility than Israel today.  Israel has taken a barren land and made it bloom again.  Israel has taken an ancient language, the language of the Bible, and made it speak again.  Israel has taken the West’s oldest faith and made it young again.  Israel has taken a shattered nation and made it live again.  Let us not rest until Israel’s light shines throughout the world, the world’s great symbol of life and hope”.

Never in our history have the Jewish people had such a powerful intelligence, cybersecurity, and military infrastructure to defend our tiny nation.  As one year of war ends, we have been systematically destroying decades of Iranian financed rockets, missiles, drones, tunnels, and weapons of war dedicated to our elimination.   The world watched in awe as Israel and the United States deflected Iran’s first direct attacks on our Jewish homeland in April with 350 Iranian rockets, drones and ballistic missiles, and another 200 in October. In September, Israel disrupted Iranian – Hezbollah communication by remotely exploding thousands of their phones, pagers and walkie-talkies, followed by the surgical elimination of the leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah and its elite Radwan Terrorist Unit.  Then the Israeli air force projected its power thousands of miles away in precision strikes that destroyed much of the Houthi terrorist economic infrastructure in Yemen, and Iran’s air defenses and one of their key nuclear facilities.  These magnificent operations will be studied in Military Institutions of higher learning for decades.

Today, the IDF has its sights firmly on the head of the Iranian Octopus and its terrorist tentacles in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Iraq, and Yemen.    My spirits were lifted as I read that the IDF had eliminated Lebanese Hezbollah sites with a direct view of our communities. The IDF may soon give Israelis in the North the signal to return to their homes along the Lebanese border, and Zefat will once again be quiet, magical and full of visitors.

During our Jewish New Year 5785, the Jewish Agency announced that Israel exceeded 10 million citizens.  Aliyah surged with 31,000 new immigrants arriving from 100 countries during the war.   Nearly half of the global Jewish population, 7.3 million, live in Israel.  An additional 6.3 million Jews reside in the United States.  The entire world’s population of Jewry stands at 15.8 million.  Quite a responsibility for such a small nation and people to keep the Middle East and the Western world safe and secure.   

As my thoughts wandered to the Diaspora, a very different kind of battle for the survival of Jews in America and the world is taking place. It requires a similar objective self-assessment and the courage and determination to move forward.  The steps to take are vastly different.  

I believe fundamentally that Israelis and Jewish Americans share a common dream for peace, security, coexistence, and to be a “light unto the nations”.   While our reality on the ground and paths forward are so very different, we must journey together to achieve our common dream.  I believe we will, as we have in our long history. 

The words of Theodore Hertzl came to mind,  אם תרצו אין זו אגדה״ ” if you will it, it is no dream”.  I prayed that these words I recalled of Winston Churchill, Rabbi Jonathan Sach’s and Theodore Hertzl’s  would recharge and inspire me, my beloved family, my two beloved Homelands, and all of us in this sacred life journey ahead.