January 8, 2009

THIRTY-FIVE MEMBERS of Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston were in Israel on a 10-day family mission led by Rabbi Clifford Kulwin when the military action against the Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip was launched.

The group, arranged by Neimah Tractenberg of the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ missions department, included nine congregational families, with children ranging in age from nine to 26.

As the mission prepared to leave Israel on Dec. 30, the rabbi wrote an e-mail to his congregation, excerpts from which appear below.

IT IS 6 A.M., Jerusalem time, and I am sitting in the quiet lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel…and in a few hours, we will begin our final program.

It has been an amazing, perhaps even transformational experience.

Sharing this extraordinary experience created a bond that will unite us, giving us a special relationship with one another long after the formal end of this journey.

We have come here, of course, at a sad time. Though all of us have never felt anything but safe, we see evidence of the current actions all around us. We were to visit Kibbutz Erez (a MetroWest partner community) last week but the visit had to be canceled — Kassam missiles had been falling regularly, and it was not safe. The day after, we were to visit Israel’s main air base, near Mitzpeh Ramon, but could only enter the outer “town” where the airmen live with their families, because of the alert. (And to see all these young families living truly in the middle of nowhere gave us insight into the depth of their sacrifice.) And then on Saturday, of course, the air strikes began.

There are two things all of us cannot help but notice. First, Israel endured hundreds of missile attacks and plainly warned — with Prime Minister Olmert on Arabic television! — Hamas to stop or take the consequences.

Second, an enormous majority of Israelis — from across the political spectrum — are in agreement that this is the right thing to do, tragic, to be sure, but without alternative. Israel has shown over and over the lengths to which it will go with a partner that truly wants peace, but alas we do not have one here. I am sad about this particular military action, but I do not think it wrong….

I know each of us will return home with a sense of mission, enthusiastically to tell our family, our friends, our neighbors how wonderful it is to be here and how important it is that they come. Even, or especially, at a time like the present, our physical solidarity speaks volumes.

Sha’alu l’shalom Yerushalayim — say a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem, as our sages wrote. May peace, true peace, reign in our homeland. The Talmud teaches us that the avir ha’aretz, the air of the land of Israel, has magical, healing powers. May we, our children, and our children’s children ever be privileged to breathe the air of this land of wonder and miracles. For it is our land.

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