South Bay Solidarity Mission to Israel

Julee Ogawa, Congregation Shir Hadash February 21, 2024, Jerusalem : With heavy hearts we bid farewell to the bereaved families and friends whose encampment in front of the Knesset has grown since the start of the war. Their pictures and stories brought to life the painful experiences of losing loved ones. It reminded me that their losses are our losses as well. Our group wandered down Kaplan Street to the new home of the National Library of Israel. This spectacular structure houses the National Collections Archives, the National Sound Archives, and two world-class research collections. The grand opening scheduled for the week of October 22, 2023 was interrupted due to the war; the event was scaled-back to a limited opening on October 29th. We entered an immense, circular space where portions of the collections and the people studying them could be viewed. In a designated area, a long, illuminated wall of individual victims’ names and their faces were displayed. It was a masterful use ...

By Susan Levin, Member of Congregation Shir Hadash and Congregation Sinai My reasons for joining this trip were completely emotional: I wanted to experience what Israeli Jews were living through first hand. I wanted to smell, feel, see, touch and hear what was going on with them. I didn’t want their truths to be mediated by reporters from the NYTimes or CNN. There are times in our lives when we are taught about the power of presence...We ALL stood at Sinai; We ALL were delivered from Egypt. I felt that this was one of these moments. As soon as I got off the plane, I felt “at home”. This was not a time when every expression of pain for what we were going through had to be countered by an expression of sympathy for Palestinians. It was enough to just take in the experiences of my people and to sit with what they were feeling. Blessings and gratitude for the organizers of the trip for trying to open us to the stories of people with divergent backgrounds and opinions. From my good friend w...

Red anemones at the site of the Nova Festival. Picture by Diane Fisher Visiting K'Far Aza - Darom Adom by Jessica Blitchok Translated Darom Adom means “Red South” and has been used by Israelis to refer to the blooming of the red anemones in the Southern part of Israel in January and February. Post October 7, Darom Adom has come to mean “blood everywhere” in a reference to the atrocities committed by Hamas against the communities in the Gaza envelope.  As we prepared to visit K’far Aza, one of the Kibbutzim heavily impacted by the October 7 terrorist attack, you could feel the new translation of Darom Adom hanging over us.  Prior to October 7, K’far Aza was a peaceful and vibrant community located just 3 miles east of Gaza. In fact, from the Kibbutz, you can see Gaza. It had 700 residents. When I visited there in March of 2023, I was struck by the vibrancy and close knit feeling of the community. We happened to arrive while parents picked their children up from school and saw y...