South Bay Solidarity Mission to Israel

  On February 20, 2024, our group ( SBSMI ) had the honor to meet with Dr. Yuli Tamir, President of Beit Berl College ,  (along with Yossi Levin, the Strategic Development Director   of the college). It was more quiet than usual when our delegation was on the Beit Berl campus, because it was the first week of an official break in the academic calendar. Israel’s educational institutions were deeply affected by the atrocities of October 7 th and their aftermath. Studies that should have started right after the fall holiday season (which ends with Sukkot and Simchat Torah – the day the attacks were perpetrated) were delayed in some cases by nearly three months, to the beginning of January 2024. A Career of Public Service Dr. Tamir is an academic and politician with an incredible resume. Between 1999 and 2010, she served in various governmental roles, including Member of the Knesset (MK) from the Labor Party ,  Minister of Immigrant Absorption, Minister of Edu...

Next year, I will, once again, sow wheat, for the coming year will be better ~ Yakovi Inon No Revenge On the morning of February 20, 2024, nineteen of us from Silicon Valley, calling ourselves the South Bay Solidarity Mission to Israel, walked to the Abraham Hostel at 21 Levontin Street in Tel Aviv, and descended the stairs from the lobby to a basement meeting room. There we met Maoz Inon , one of the bravest and most inspiring people I’ve ever met. Maoz started his story with tragedy. On October 7, 2023, his parents, Yakov and Bilha Inon, were murdered in their home, a wooden house in Netiv HaAsara, along with 18 of their neighbors (out of a total population of about 900 people). Yakov was 78. Bilha was just shy of her 76 th birthday. According to Maoz’s brother Magen’s account , “My siblings and I received a short message from my parents saying that they could hear gunshots. They said they were safe inside the house and had locked the doors. This was the last time we heard from...

By Rabbi Josh Berkenwald, Congregation Sinai Two weeks ago, on Friday afternoon of the South Bay Solidarity Mission to Israel, we went to  HaFundak shel Jack  – “Jack’s Inn,” a well known home style restaurant at the entrance to Moshav Beit Nehemia in Shoham. We were there to pack up 450 meals for IDF soldiers out in the field. After October 7, the owner of the restaurant, Meir, who was too old to be called up to the reserves, began providing daily hot food to families, soldiers, anyone in need.  He put out a call for volunteers. Within a short time, he had a list of 650 people who regularly come to cook, package, and deliver.  They rely on donations to pay for all of the supplies . After we finished packing everything up, I carried 250 meals out to the parking lot to load into a woman’s car. She had returned that morning from a trip to France, and now her job was to shuttle the meals to Kfar Saba, where another volunteer would pick them up and drive them to a b...

  The Secret Is Not To Fear   During a week of unintentional downtime following my return from the South Bay Leadership mission to Israel I have spent hours ruminating of the important issues that were highlighted during our war time visit to Israel.  During this time my mind continued to return to a well-known aphorism attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, albeit with a twist.  “The world,” the rabbi said, “is like a narrow bridge, and the main thing is to have no fear at all.”  The statement of the rabbi is easy to say, and even easier to sing, and yet it does not ring entirely true.  This seemingly simple phrase reminds me of the Bene Gesserit mantra found in  Dune , that “fear is a mind killer.”  Hebert, however, adds, “ Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone the...