If you were not at our Musical Hug for Israel program last night...you missed out. This was a special and highly moving program. I won't speak for anyone else, but I was in tears several times during the program - and yet I left on an uplifting and reaffirming high... something so very critical and unexpected during these troubling times.

For just a taste, check out this video of Eden Golan singing October Rain - the original version of what was submitted by Israel for the Eurovision Song Contest.

I've spent and been spending a lot of time in Israel, including on October 7th. One of the things I've realized being back and forth a bit is that it is hard to put yourself in the other's shoes.  

It is just impossible for people here to know what Rachel and Jon Polin are going through, Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents. Hersh was kidnapped on October 7 and our Jewish Federation has been supportive of his parents’ and other hostage families’ efforts to keep the plight of those taken front and center.

Rachel and Jon, and friends in Israel, have taken to wearing a piece of tape with the number of days that the hostages have been missing.  Today is 287, by the way.  

Or, on Israel Remembrance Day, I remember seeing an interview on TV with someone who said that he used to watch the news with such anxiety because he feared to learn who was killed in fighting. He then said that was no longer the case…because his son was already killed in fighting Hamas in Gaza.

It is hard to really understand and grasp the reality of those living in Israel. And then you have a drone attack in the heart of Tel Aviv, right next door to friends of mine, last night. From Yemen no less - though Iran is the evil force driving much of this terror.

I was describing life in Israel recently to someone as a whole society dealing with PTSD and I was corrected; PTSD is what sets in after a trauma ends. This trauma is ongoing. I think that’s important to keep in mind as people living without the same ongoing anxiety half a world away.

We are taught that all Jews are responsible for one another.  We are one people. One extended family. And one of the ways we can show we care - besides contributing, which is very important, is to try and understand - to really get what people closest to this trauma are feeling.

That’s part of what we try and enable as a Jewish Federation and through presenting a program like a Musical Hug From Israel. I know this from my own experience in Israel - music provides a window into a place's and a people's psyche...to their soul. We can learn a lot about how people are dealing with trauma, grief, despair...but also hope and thoughts for the future. And we did last night.

This is also why our Jewish Federation has been so proactive with our Israel Emergency Campaigns and making meaningful grants to programs and people in need in Israel.

This crisis isn’t going away anytime soon. Who knows what additional needs will emerge - keep in mind there are another 75,000 evacuated from the north of Israel right now. We are about to make another round of grants in the weeks ahead - so please make an additional contribution today.

Bottom line - we stand stronger together. And we need connections and empathy more than ever.

Thank you for your ongoing support. And we look forward to bringing you more special programs like this in the future.

Shabbat shalom.

Keith Krivitzky

Managing Director

Keith@OCJF.org