Day 3-Wednesday morning
Poem for The Day
Y shared a poem by Lea Goldberg, one of the first female professors at Hebrew University.
Not officially in English, the poem was translated for our guide by his friend who also wrote this blog post about what is happening right now in Israel.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-golem-awake-the-golem-amok/
Poem: Towards Another Day
The green today is very green
And the gray today is very gray
Tinged with black without any white in the city
Distress today is very distressed
And the past today – is very past
With little future, and no present in the air.
And it is not easy to breathe
And it is not easy to think against the wind
And it’s difficult to wait
And the storm touches the eyelashes
And it seems as if every moment is splintered to bits
But the green today is very green.
Today is about seeing the green. The Hope. People who are building for the future.
Our schedule for the day:
- Pick vegetables
- Go to Market Ramle, shop and contribute to the local economy
- Meet the brother of someone currently being held hostage on Kibbutz Gezer
- Visit the Blood Bank of Mogen David (Israel’s Red Cross/Emergency Service)
- Meet with Dr. Oded Adomi Leshem who studies Hope
- Go to Hostage Square, where there might be a protest. Blinken arrives in the morning to discuss cease-fire. It will either be a celebration or a protest, but there might be activity. Hopes are up.
First things first. A run with Lisa. I super appreciate the community with one of my tour mates. And after a run…Breakfast buffet! Here are more photos. I ate waaaaay too much. It was delightful! Y reminded us that given the stress of the day (yesterday) eating is a good remedy to comfort us. I had lots of comfort this morning.
Stomach aching, I stumbled into the van.
Stop #1: Harvesting vegetables in solidarity
The project coordinating the harvesting volunteers is called Leket.
Years ago, their founder was a middle class man who participated in many family celebrations- weddings, brises, bar and bat mitzvahs, and noticed a lot of food was left over and untouched in the kitchen. He started rescuing the food and delivering it to families, food banks and communities around the country.
Now, the organization has grown into an entity that works with farms to harvest their surplus produce to deliver to the food insecure. They’ve rescued 2.3 million catered meals, and now they’re feeding 330,000 people a week. [PER WEEK!]
Since the war started, many of those same farmers were at risk of bankruptcy. Leket wanted to give back to those farmers who had donated so much surplus in the past. So they are now coordinating volunteers to help the farmers harvest their crops so they will not go bankrupt because of the thousands of international workers who have left the country. Consistently maintaining the vision of keeping food from going to waste.
We didn’t know what we would be harvesting. We didn’t know who we would be volunteering with.
We were joined by a family from New Rochelle, New York. And a family from Toronto who were joining their daughter who had moved here a year ago. And a young man from a town near Tel Aviv who was excused from military service for medical reasons but chose to do a volunteer year in agriculture I told him about AJEEC and Shared Space. He said he wanted to be involved with something like that. At his school there were Arabic students but the faculty didn’t like joint projects like that.
We picked Kohlrabi!
And ate it raw. (although I still couldn’t eat a bite. O that breakfast).
Aside: All day in the background is Blinken’s visit, and if Hamas will agree to the ceasefire. Hostage families want a ceasefire and a return of the hostages. There is concern that Netanyahu won’t agree. Concern that Hamas won’t agree. Very tense waiting.
Market Ramle
Brad from our group was the only other one who didn’t change his clothes-until we got to the market. He had to buy a shirt since his clothes were rank and he couldn’t take it any more. Sorry, Y!
I still couldn’t eat lunch! Oh that breakfast. Many photos from the lovely local market Ramle.
Stop # 2, Kibbutz Carrot
Before introducing us to the brother of one of the hostages, we met with the Rabbi of the kibbutz, Steve Burnstein.
He mentioned there had just been a win in the Supreme Court to secure more funding for Reform Congregations.
(Aside: Reform-Conservative-Orthodox, the three main strains of Judaism. From most to least progressive. Although the reform are also kind of like Protestants, wanting the prayers to be understood in the common language, but not necessarily less religious or observant, just more accessible)
And another interesting case about ultra-Orthodox and military service
Rabbi Burnstein began to explain to us what October 7th meant for his congregation.
They are doing what they can to bring the hostages home.
He gave an example: they had two Bar Mitzvah students whose fathers were tank commanders in Gaza. Their families didn’t expect to see them at the ceremony, but at the last minute they showed up in their uniforms straight from the war.
Another family had a grandmother who was killed and during the memorial the family asked the temple to take down the pictures of hostages. They didn’t need more reminders of what was happening outside.
Then we were introduced to Lee Siegel, brother of hostage Keith Siegel, and his wife Sheli.
They sat next to each other with a table between them, until Sheli wanted to move the table so they could be closer together. Super sweet.
Here is the story about his brother, his sister-in-law, and their journey.
Lee made Aliyah in 1976. He has 4 siblings. He is 72 years old. Keith, the hostage, made Aliyah in 1980. He and his wife Aviva were kidnapped on October 7th.
On October 7th, at 6:30am they heard a knock on the door and thought it was their neighbors. The sirens were going off, they had heard rocket warnings in the past, but this was much bigger.
They had added a “safe house” a few years ago; it was a tough decision because it was expensive, but it has been useful.
They were texting with Keith and Aviva, “we hope you are not at home because your house is on the front lines, they are the first in Hamas’s way”. They wrote back that they were in the safe room.
Then they heard nothing.
Hamas had kidnapped them and taken their phones.
Then they heard from the army.
Two days later.
The terrorists were still in the Kibbutz. The army had located their phone in Gaza.
What had happened to Keith and Aviva.
Hamas was breaching the safe room. Aviva said “we have to run away”. Keith said “we aren’t running away.”
Hamas found the keys to their car and asked where the car was. Keith didn’t remember the code to the car, but Aviva did.
Families were told to provide DNA samples to help determine if their remains were found in the rubble or if they might still be alive.
The Biden administration has been by their side. The Governor of NY came 10 days into the crisis.
And yet. After the hostages were kidnapped, the government was not being responsive to their plight. Families of the hostages formed a group Gilat Shalid with nongovernmental experts and hostage negotiators. The organization’s goal is to provide whatever the families need.
They still haven’t heard from their own government. They were told that 7 days ago they got a sign of life. That could be a photo or a video or an intercepted conversation mentioning a hostage. The Israeli government doesn’t say what, just that there was a sign.
Representative Lindsay Graham from North Carolina came on a delegation. They don’t care about political parties in the US, they are looking for support from any direction. Lindsay Graham has shown more support than their own government.
The only people in Israel who want to help are from the opposition to Netanyahu and have very little power.
Aviva was released after 7 weeks. Here is the story of her release:
The kids got a call that during the last prisoner exchange, Aviva was on the list. We heard at 9am she was supposed to be released. Aviva related that she and Keith were together. Someone from Hamas who had not been guarding them came in and said, “You, come with me”. She didn’t want to go without Keith. They told her, “You, Israel, him, next”, and weren’t going to let her say goodbye. SHe said goodbye.
They had no TV, no radio. They were told they were going to Europe or the U.S. because there is no more Israel.
The Red Cross drove them while people were banging on doors. The logistics were a puzzle because Hamas wanted to keep Israel from knowing where they were.
They had been moved 13 times in 51 days while they were being held hostage. But they were walked everywhere so they knew it wasn’t that far.
After she was released, Aviva had to stay in the hospital for two days. Keith had high blood pressure and got medicine from Hamas. Hamas gave the hostages anti-anxiety medicine to keep them pacified. Aviva had lost 25 pounds and was malnourished when she was released. Their main diet was pita bread and olives.
They didn’t know when their next meal was coming or whether water was coming. They were often given a bottle of water to share and they learned to get over their disgust and drink from the same bottle the terrorists drank from.
Keith was picky about sharing germs, but he learned to share a toothbrush with Aviva. She also knows he stopped brushing his teeth. In the last video his teeth show he does not have good dental health.
Hamas video of Keith and another hostage.
Ilan Siegl, their daughter, posted something this morning that went viral.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68913568
Keith’s son was in his Mahmod (safe house) with his dog for 8 hours only hearing gunshots and Arabic. Then he heard Hebrew. He figured there were Israeli soldiers and decided to call out. The soldiers came in and used his home as a base for 15 days.
Keith had always said we aren’t leaving. “This is where we are staying. Even though two houses down our neighbor was killed working in his garden by a mortar rocket.”
The Prime Minister only thinks of his tuchus (butt), not providing us with a horizon for a better future. A refrain we had heard before.
A better future 
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