My Machberes
By: Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum The Dov Hikind Mission To North Israel
Havdalla on Motzaei Shabbos Devorim, Saturday night, July 29, was the signal for a mad rush to Newark Airport, from where El Al flight 26 was leaving to Israel. After arriving at Ben Gurion Airport Sunday afternoon, after a series of national and international media press conferences and interviews with Assemblyman Dov Hikind, we boarded a bus that took us directly to Hotel Nof Haifa in embattled Haifa. We arrived there early evening. More than one third of Haifa’s population was gone, and virtually all of its businesses were closed. Traffic in Israel’s third largest city was almost non existent.
Siren Instructions
Our instructions were very clear. If we heard a siren, we would get into a bomb shelter as fast as possible. One has less than a minute after a siren is sounded to get into a bomb shelter. In the hotels, we were placed in protected areas. Every step and every moment of our trip was fraught with danger.
Throughout our trip, wherever we went and whoever we met, we were showered with thanks and blessings for coming to share in the danger and give encouragement. Other than the members of our group, no tourists were at the almost empty hotel. That evening, we received a military briefing from Israeli Defense Forces representatives. They stressed their commitment to destroying the Hizbullah threat.
Bullet-Proof Vests And Helmets
On Monday morning, we were visited by Zaka volunteers who came to thank us and especially to show their deep appreciation to Assemblyman Dov Hikind for his efforts in raising the funds for 50 sets of much needed, costly bullet-proof vests and helmets. Zaka volunteers respond to Katyusha rocket hits in spite of the danger of additional rocket hits. Several Zaka volunteers were seriously hurt and, hopefully, the helmets and vests will minimize future injuries. A formal ceremony was held with the participation of Haifa’s chief of police. I, among others, I was privileged to address that important event.
We proceeded to Rambam Hospital in Haifa. Katyusha rockets had fallen uncomfortably close to its facilities, and almost all of the casualties of the Katyusha rockets in Haifa and its surroundings were brought and treated there. The hospital’s trauma center is generally the very first destination for wounded soldiers. Outside, two dozen empty stretchers were lined up to receive the wounded. Outdoor showers had been installed for use in case of biological attacks. Inside we met with the hospital’s director who described the center’s readiness as well as its deficiencies. We met with several soldiers who were wounded on the battlefront in Lebanon and are undergoing treatment and rehabilitation. Dov Hikind extended an invitation for one of the wounded soldiers to come to the United States and speak to supporters whenever he would be ready.
We were later brought to an apartment house that received a direct hit. The building was in partial collapse. We could see a table and chairs set for a meal on the edge of a smashed floor with outer walls missing. The surrounding buildings were perforated by thousands of the deadly pellets that the evil enemy mixes into their missiles. A shul across the street had its windows blown out. Miraculously, that Katyusha hit with its resulting extensive damage resulted in no serious injuries.
Meeting With Mayors In Bomb Shelters
The group then proceeded to the city of Nahariya and met with the mayor and his staff in the government shelter several stories bellow city hall. With more than half of Nahariya’s residents at friends or relatives in southern “safe” cities in Israel, virtually all of its businesses were closed. The remaining residents, most of whom were without alternatives, were in or very close by to bomb shelters. Unable to go to a supermarket or local grocery store, the residents were completely dependent on daily volunteer food distributions.
From the mayor’s bunker office, we went directly to a food distribution center. Ordinarily, it is Nahariya’s schools supply center, but was converted into an emergency food receiving and processing area, completely staffed by volunteers. The volunteers consisted of a cross section of the population – men and women, young and old, religious and not-yet religious. Some came from safe cities to do whatever they could to help. Others were from Nahariya and environs. Most amazing were the soldiers from the battlefront, who on their day off, volunteered to unload trucks and load vehicles that would deliver food directly to individual bomb shelters. We helped unload a truck that arrived just then.
The shelters are all too small for their intended use. Most do not have adequate ventilation; all are dark and without enough bathrooms. The shelters are not a fun place for any extended period. The children, some too young to grasp the enormity of the danger that threatens them, are beyond their breaking points.
(L-R) Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum and Rabbi David Algaze at Kever Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. (Photo by Yoel Schmidt)
The city of Maalot is sadly associated with the massacre that took place there in 1974. Twenty-six Israelis were murdered, including 21 children. We met with its mayor and were shown a children’s play center that was hit by a Katyusha rocket. Usually, as many as 300 children are there daily. The implications are unspeakable.
At the city’s highest geographical point, we met with representatives of the soldiers who are stationed there. Mr. & Mrs. David Landau, residents of Arad, drove to concentrations of soldiers and distribute much appreciated cold soda and snacks from their mobile food dispensary. Each soldier is given a card telling how much he/she is appreciated.
Socks And Underwear
Dov Hikind had contacted David Landau before the mission left and inquired as to any special needs the soldiers might have. “Socks and underwear” was the response. The soldiers who are at the front are under the burning sun, sweating. There was not enough time nor space to bring extra socks and underwear, nor is there the time or opportunity to do laundry. Socks and underwear that abraise the skin are more than a nuisance in a military setting. They are a hindrance and a real danger. Dov Hikind, on behalf of supporters, presented more than 5,000 sets of quality socks and underwear. The gift was more meaningful and more appreciated than is imaginable.
An Open Pizza Shop
Near Maalot’s city hall we found a pizza shop that was open. Its lights were out and its tables; and chairs, ordinarily outside in front of the store, were piled inside by military order. Sadly, the shopkeeper had hardly made a sale that day, nor since the war had begun. We had our lunch meal there, treating every soldier we saw to pizza and soda. Then Dov Hikind had a brilliant idea. He asked that all the pizza pies in the shop be warmed and packed in boxes. The pies were then carried by mission members down to Maalot’s city hall bomb shelter and given to all the workers and volunteers who were there.
We stopped at Pekiin and visited its ancient shul. There we recited Tehillim for everyone in danger. We met with the one Jewish resident in the Druze village, the 85-year-old caretaker of the shul and cemetery.
Arriving at the kever of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, we were gratified to find an handfuls of Jews praying for the deliverance of Klal Yisroel. We fervently conducted Mincha there. I walked outside to the nearby yeshiva and homes and found them dark and empty.
Monday night, July 31, found us at Hotel Ruth Rimonim in Tzefas (Safed). Its stores were closed and more than half of its population away. Those remaining were in bomb shelters. Again, we were the only guests at the hotel. During dinner, we heard from a resident of Tzefas, a young lady who has four young children, is pregnant, and refuses to leave the city. Together with her husband and all who know her, we were overawed by her courage, fortitude and resolve. We also received a report from Zaka of events that took place in Tzefas and immediate areas.
Eizer L’Shabbos
Rabbi Binyamin Rosenberg is the hands on director of Eizer L’Shabbos, the Shabbos food distribution organization to needy families in Tzefas. He met us at the hotel and formally expressed deep gratitude to Dov Hikind, who presented him with checks totaling almost $30,000. Rabbi Rosenberg described the efforts of his volunteer organization in expanding its work from Shabbos foods to food for every day of the week. Rabbi Rosenberg introduced the distribution of coupons to families, none of whom had access to cash, for the purchase of food at the local grocery store that was open for only an hour a day. Were it not for the coupons, the store would not have opened and the families would have gone hungry.
Early Tuesday morning, Yechiel Landau of Flatbush, Rabbi Chanina Sperlin of Crown Heights and I went to the mikveh of the Ari z”l (Rabbi Yitzchok Luria, 1534-1572). Known for its frigidity, we shivered through our immersions. Yechiel Landau and I then proceeded to the gravesite of the Ari z”l. Rabbi Sperlin, a kohen, returned to the hotel. We prayed at the gravesite and at the gravesites of many other tzaddikim buried there. In addition, coming from Maalot, we stopped and prayed at the gravesite of the 21 Tzefas children murdered in the massacre. The mikveh and the cemetery were virtually empty.
Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Inspiration
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Sanzer Beis Midrash in Tzefas, where my grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Tannenbaum, zt”l (1887-1980), served as rav. The Sanzer shtiebel was built in 1869 by Rabbi Boruch Dovid Kahane, zt”l, a well-to-do young businessman and scholar, who led the Sanzerchassidim there. The shtiebel was built in honor of the visit by Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam, zt”l (1811-1899), Shiniver Rav and author of Divrei Yechezkel, oldest son of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam (1793-1876), zt”l, Sanzer Rav and author of Divrei Chaim.
The shtiebel, in uninterrupted use since its inception, is in the shadow of the famous Ari shul just doors away. In the 1960’s, when Tzefas was undergoing demographic changes, my grandfatherpaid men to come and daven there to ensure a minyan on lean days. Today, it is one of Tzefas’ busiest shuls.
During a recent visit with Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Halberstam, Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe in Natanya, I was honored with the presentation of the newly re-published Chibas U’Birkas Ha’Aretz – Kol Bo L’Inyanei Eretz Yisroel by Rabbi Boruch Dovid Kahane, zt”l (1850-1925), first printed in 1897.
It is told that Rabbi Boruch Dovid Kahane was offered a large beachfront property on the Mediterranean Sea for a pittance but declined, because it was dry, sandy and desolate. Today that property is known as Haifa. A scion of that greatly respected Sanzer chassidishe family, was the late martyred Rabbi Meir Kahane, zt”l Hy”d (1932-1990), of the Jewish Defense League. We can plainly see the source of the great ahavas Yisroel of Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Mission members daven Mincha with soldiers (Photo by Sherine Levine)
The mission visited the Eizer L’Shabbos food distribution center in Tzefas. Together with news reporters from abroad and from Israel, we saw the hundreds and hundreds of cardboard boxes laid out to be filled with food products and delivered to the families in the bomb shelters. Volunteers stood ready to immediately do whatever was needed. Trucks pulled up, and their contents were unloaded, almost directly into the waiting cartons. This was the lifeline of the remaining Jews in Tzefas.
In Chatzor, we visited the Meir Panim food preparation center, where volunteers were assembling meals for those in bomb shelters. Words cannot describe the selfless dedication of the volunteers. In spite of the risk to their lives, they came to help their brothers and sisters in danger. The mission then participated in the distribution of meals at a bomb shelter that overflowed with children and families who were surprised to see American Jews delivering food under threat of Katyushas.
A Soldier’s Good-Bye
The mission traveled to Metullah, one of the most northernmost cities in Israel. The city was literally closed, almost all of its 600 families gone. We stopped to speak with soldiers at a staging area from where they left to the battlefront in Lebanon. We davened Mincha with them and distributed cookies and water. They were firm in their resolve to end the Hizbullah threat.
Running For Shelter
As our bus stopped near Kiryat Shemona’s city hall, we heard the thunder of explosions. We did not hear any sirens nor were we being given any instructions. As we felt the ground under our feet tremble, we rushed about, finally entering the city hall building. As we descended towards the bunker headquarters of the mayor, we wondered why the loud explosions elicited little concern. We were told that the sounds were of outgoing fire. If the city would be under attack, the siren would have sounded. What we heard and felt were the blasts of Israeli canon fire.
From Kiryat Shemona we traveled to Teverya (Tiberias) on Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). The city was virtually deserted. The summertime tourist resort was forsaken. Early in the morning, Yechiel Landau and I were saddened to find Kever Rabbi Meir Baal Haness literally locked up. We prayed at the old cemetery, burial site of some of the disciples of Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov, zt”l (1688-1760), founder of the Chassidic movement. We prayed at the gravesite of the Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (1135-1204), zt”l, preeminent Torah scholar of the Middle Ages. Sadly, we were totally alone during our visits to those holy sites.
Deployed for Maximum Effect
Our group met with the Teverya’s chief of police and its city council leader on Wednesday morning. We learned that the city had four observation posts, which carefully monitored everything in the city. Should a Katyusha rocket hit, fire and rescue squads would be immediately dispatched to the site, without waiting for confirmation of casualties. This way, help is brought to victims almost immediately, and lives are saved. All the emergency response teams (such as Zaka) ignore the real danger of additional Katyushas hitting and rush to give aid as fast as humanly possible.
We were given a tour of the Emek Medical Center in Afula. All of its facilities have been compromised by a Katyusha rocket that landed nearby. The two top floors are kept empty, since it would be impossible to evacuate patients within the few seconds warning of a siren.
Clouds Of Protection
When we left Teverya, Dov received a phone call inquiring about our safety. Moments after we left the Teverya police station, the city was hit by Katyusha rockets. The city of Afula, too, was hit shortly after we left. Our mission, bravely conceived and led by Assemblyman Dov Hikind, ignored the threat of Katyusha rockets, to bring encouragement and solidarity to our brothers and sisters who live in fear in northern Israel. We hope to return and sing and dance with them when true peace is achieved.
Mission members included: NYS Assemblyman Dov Hikind, NYC Councilman David Weprin, Rabbi David Algaze, Rabbi Chanina Sperlin, David Abramson, Esq., Tamara Abramson, Ann Finkel, Henry Jentes, Yechiel Landau, Sherine Levine, Abraham Levy, Paul Lindenblatt, Yoel Schmidt, Wolf Sender, Joseph Stamm, Sam Stober, and this writer.
