Ofakim, Israel — See that beige duplex where a father sacrificed himself to terrorist gunfire and let his wife and children escape through a second-story window?
Across the street, on a rooftop, is where a lone Jewish teenager defeated a terrorist disguised as an IDF soldier and ended a grenade attack on his neighbors.
On this corner is Rachel Edley's house, which is riddled with bullets. Rachel Edley outsmarted five terrorists by baking them cookies and chatting for 15 hours until the SWAT team caught up with them.
Sophie Katz, 15, of Atlanta, Georgia, listened with a sense of awe and sadness as locals walked through the small Israeli town of Ofakim during winter vacation. Ofakim was besieged by Hamas terrorists on October 7, killing 56 people, most of them. For elderly people, it can take just a few hours.
“This could have been us. This could have been any of us,” Sophie said. On her first visit to Israel, Sophie was participating in the Ramah Israel Solidarity Mission. The mission is a four-day opportunity for North American Jews to volunteer as they mourn their Jewish homeland. Die and fight to live.
Ramah's mission is one of hundreds of organized trips that bring thousands of Jewish volunteers to Israel to meet the needs of a war-torn society.
Following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack that killed 1,200 people and abducted at least 240, Israel destroyed Hamas, removed the Iranian-backed terrorist organization from power in the Gaza Strip, and rescued hostages. They responded with military operations aimed at
To this end, 350,000 Israelis were immediately forced into service in the Israel Defense Forces, creating huge demands on the small country that could only be met by a volunteer army.
Sofie joined the ranks of Jews who came from all over the world to help Israel.
A New York financier is packing personal hygiene supplies for soldiers and reservists.
Canadian doctor makes sandwiches for displaced families.
Lawyers in California work as farm laborers.
These volunteer trips are not without risks, as rockets are fired daily from Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north.
The 24 Americans and Canadians on a llama trip were asked the same questions everywhere they went. “Why did you come?”
Each time a question was asked, participants ranging from middle-aged to 10 years old blinked and answered with tears in their eyes.
“Why didn't they come?” said Jade Grossman, 27, of Manhattan. “We are family.”
A united Jewish family.
At a time when Judaism is under attack everywhere.
Among the rubble found in Gaza was a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf translated into Arabic, with frantic underlining and writing in the margins.
American synagogues destroyed.
Jews are stabbed on the streets of Europe.
Israel represents the Jewish people's right to self-determination.
So for many foreign volunteers, this war zone, the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, is one of the few places on earth where they currently feel “safe.”
Dan Vogel, 46, a Riverdale mission participant, said, “I felt abandoned by America.'' “As an alumnus of Columbia University and Harvard University, I am perplexed and horrified to see the hostile environment forming for Jewish students and faculty on campus. As an executive at a large company who has served as a leader in the United States' efforts, I am disappointed in the deafening silence of my colleagues on the issue of anti-Semitism in America.”
As a virulent strain of anti-Semitism infects social media through shocking lies and misinformation, the pain of hatred is keenly felt among Jewish youth.
The modern interpretation of blood libel is repeated in newspaper records without evidence or question.
The TikTok video claims that Jews are colonialists in their homeland.
Crowds gather on American university campuses to proudly proclaim support for terrorists who have raped and mutilated Jewish women and girls.
Jew-hatred is having a “moment,” especially for young Americans.
“It's really scary that the younger generation believes Hamas's lies and propaganda,” Sophie said. “In the academic environment I'm aiming for, there are people who call for the destruction of Israel. But Israel is the Jewish people. They are interchangeable. Calling for the destruction of Israel is a violation of me, the Jewish people, and my It’s an attack on my family.”
Some of the young people who took part in the mission said they jumped at the chance to support Jewish families and tell the story of Israel's suffering and heroism to their peers back home.
“Coming to Israel was exactly what I needed to emphasize to myself that Jews are strong and resilient,” said Eliana Apter, 15, of Inglewood, New Jersey. Told. She said: “It has been an incredibly powerful journey, balancing listening to the stories of the people of October 7th, volunteering and doing our part to help Israelis who are suffering.”
Llama volunteers weeded strawberry fields, easing the burden on Grimm farmers whose labor force had decreased by 80% since the war began.
They painted schools in Ofakim to prepare for the return of students who have been out of school for more than two months.
They packed sandwiches and care packages for Israeli Defense Force soldiers who hadn't seen their families in months.
They cleaned out the barracks of an elite Israeli Defense Force brigade that had been abandoned since the attack, including half-eaten, maggot-infested food.
Eliana and her family arrived days before the start of a mission to organize an arts and crafts “carnival” for displaced children living in Jerusalem's Dan Panorama Hotel since the terrorist attacks. .
According to the Israel Hotels Association, half of the country's 56,000 hotel rooms are being used to house evacuees from several towns, including Sderot, as rockets continue to rain down on their homes. Almost all of the country's approximately 30,000 residents are refugees in their own country.
Each morning, Sderot's children at their Jerusalem hotel could be seen silently packing their lunches from the breakfast buffet before stuffing their belongings into donated backpacks and heading to the local schools that had absorbed them.
It is a suffocating, surreal existence.
At an arts and crafts fair, Eliana helped younger children get glitter tattoos on their arms. As a result of this, one Israeli girl confessed, “I was finally able to do something fun.''
“I had the opportunity to talk to them in broken Hebrew and learn about their lives in a very honest way,” Eliana said. “The whole trip was very similar to that carnival: hearing from people and trying to help them in any way we could.”
The need is so great that it's hard to imagine how a glittery tattoo or picking weeds in a strawberry field can actually help.
But as Sophie, Eliana, and the rest of the llama group were walking through Ofakim City, Mayor Yitzhak Danino spotted the group, stopped, and thanked them.
The mayor acknowledged that Jews outside of Israel need a strong homeland to ensure Jewish survival and security.
And Jews in Israel need the support of their fellow citizens abroad now more than ever.
“It doesn't matter if you're across the ocean or not,” Danino said. “This coexistence of ours is really beautiful. And for that I just want to say thank you.”
