Community at Temple Israel
Rabbi’s Message – February 8, 2024
We woke up this morning to the devastating news that 21 soldiers were killed last night. I believe they are now saying it was actually 24 soldiers. Hamas operatives apparently fired an RPG at an Israeli tank guarding soldiers who were preparing a “cleared” building for demolition. The hit caused the building to collapse on the soldiers, killing them. This was the single deadliest day of the war for the IDF thus far, with 10% of the casualties. Sadness was palpable in every place we visited, especially the first stop we made in Rahat, a Bedouin village, that was home to one of the soldiers who had been killed, Sgt. First Class Ahmad Abu Latif. It turns out that he had been a former English student of the woman we would be meeting with in Rahat.
Before we move on, I want to share a quick word about our hotel. We intentionally stayed at the Dan Panorama in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, because both were housing long-term refugees. Though usually packed with tour groups, these hotels mostly were filled with displaced Israeli families. In addition to all of the communities in the south that were destroyed or continue to be bombarded with rockets, there have also been 80,000 displaced from the north because of Hezbollah at the border. Many of those who have been relocated are single families dealing with many types of challenges. In addition to the trauma they may have experienced, they are far from their homes, jobs, families, support systems, and schools. There were 35,000 children out of school following October 7.
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