Tag: Oct. 7

Reflections on April mission

JNF Canada, Har El and Beth Israel mission participants in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. (photo from Lorraine Katzin)

About 20 volunteers – from Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto – went on the JNF Canada Bearing Witness Mission to Israel April 1-8. Organized by Jewish National Fund Canada, Congregation Har El and Congregation Beth Israel, the trip was led by BI’s Rabbi David Bluman and JNF Edmonton executive director Jay Cairns. On his Facebook page, Cairns thanks JNF Pacific executive director Michael Sachs, BI Senior Rabbi Jonathan Infeld and Bluman “for spearheading this important mission.” Among the volunteers were Har El members Lorraine Katzin and Karen Shalansky, who shared some of what they experienced with the Jewish Independent.

Some first impressions
(Lorraine Katzin)

Stepping onto the El Al plane from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv reminded me of the olden days of flying – a blanket, pillow, headphones and a bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste and eye mask. Two meals were served and, during the flight, you could help yourself to snacks, sandwiches and drinks.

Walking through Ben Gurion International Airport, you see photos of the hostages still in captivity. When we went through the foreign passport area, it was chilling – we were literally the only people passing through passport control. There were no tourists. Our hotel was quiet as well.

Walking on the promenade in Tel Aviv to Jaffa on our arrival, it felt as if there were no war – people were out on the beach, swimming, playing beach bats, foot volleyball, and jogging.

Tuesday, April 2, was our first full day of touring. We started at Kibbutz Kissufim in the south. We heard stories of the murders and saw the devastation made by the Hamas terrorists. One of the stories that haunts me is that of the chief fireman whose only child, his daughter, and her husband were shot to death in their safe house, then their home was burnt down. Searchers only knew by finding a nose ring and bracelet in the ashes that the bodies had been burnt. 

We were very close to Gaza and could hear artillery every now and again, which was scary. At the site of the Nova music festival, there was a memorial of photographs: 364 people were killed there by Hamas, 44 hostages were taken.

On Wednesday, we toured Adi Negev-Nahalat Eran, which is a village for children with disabilities, which JNF supports. Karen and I volunteered at the therapeutic farm, cleaning the goat pen and washing the tortoises. That day we were also taken to the car cemetery, where you see two burnt ambulances, as well as burnt and bullet-holed cars numbering more than 1,000. In Sderot, we saw where the police station used to be – the building was taken over by Hamas terrorists and then an Israeli tank destroyed the building, killing the terrorists inside.

photo - A burnt-out Magen David Adom ambulance in the car cemetery near the Gazan border, where burnt and bullet-holed vehicles numbering more than 1,000 are being kept for further investigation
A burnt-out Magen David Adom ambulance in the car cemetery near the Gazan border, where burnt and bullet-holed vehicles numbering more than 1,000 are being kept for further investigation. (photo from Lorraine Katzin)

The first few days of the mission, I found it difficult to sleep, the images and stories kept going through my head.

On Thursday, we picked lemons and went to Rachashei Lev Israel Children Cancer Centre, another JNF project. We also visited Hostages Square.

Friday included a visit to Western Canada House, a No2Violence shelter for women and children fleeing domestic violence, the building of which was funded by JNF Canada supporters in Vancouver and Winnipeg. [For more on Western Canada House, see jewishindependent.ca/a-new-refuge-from-violence.] We also went to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People, which had on display models of different shuls in Europe and the United States, a replica of the Codex Sassoon and an Oct. 7 exhibit. After stopping at the Carmel Market, we went back to Hostages Square for Kabbalat Shabbat, which was very moving.

Saturday, we went to the beach in the morning and walked around Tel Aviv in the afternoon. That night, we had a survivor come speak to us and it happened to be Shalev Biton, who had come to speak at Har El and elsewhere in Vancouver a few weeks prior. Amazingly, he remembered me!

On another night, we heard from Jacqui and Yaron Vital, parents of Adi Vital-Kaploun, who was murdered on Oct. 7. Jacqui, who is a Canadian, was in Ottawa visiting family when the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks happened. Adi, her husband and two children lived on Kibbutz Holit in the south and Yaron had come to visit; he was put up in a room in a vacant house opposite his daughter’s. Adi texted her husband, who had gone on a hike, warning him not to return home. Adi was killed, and her two children and a neighbour were kidnapped but let go at the Gaza border, by some miracle. Yaron survived, as the terrorists had determined which homes had how many people and who had dogs, which were shot first, but the room Yaron was in was usually vacant, so went unchecked by the terrorists.

photo - Karen Shalansky, left, and Lorraine Katzin tree planting
Karen Shalansky, left, and Lorraine Katzin tree planting. (photo from Lorraine Katzin)

On Sunday, April 7, we went JNF tree planting. We visited the Black Arrow Memorial, where, from the lookout, you can see Gaza. There, we were given a briefing by retired colonel Kobi Marom, whose opinion was that the Palestinian Authority should be enlisted to run Gaza. We then traveled to the Israel Defence Forces base at Nahal Oz for lunch with the soldiers – these 19-, 20- and 21-year-olds going into Gaza are truly amazing! The soldier I sat with, his name was Daniel and he was from Eritrea. We were so close to Gaza that we could see convoys of food trucks going through the Rafah Border Crossing.

Monday, our last day, we went to Jerusalem to two places that JNF supports: the Jerusalem Hills Therapeutic Centres, which provides services for at-risk children, and the Glassman PTSD and health centre at Herzog Hospital. We then visited the market and went for a walk down Ben Yehuda Street, the Kotel and the tunnels, and had dinner at Piccolino restaurant before heading to the airport. We were joined by Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver executive director Ezra Shanken and Rabbi Jonathan Infeld from Congregation Beth Israel.

Israel trip highlights
(Karen Shalansky)

I went to Israel to show my support in its time of need, as well as to hear the views of Israelis and their feelings toward the war. Through our many experiences, I felt I accomplished my mission.

Listening to the diverse perspectives of our guide, the young soldiers and guards on our bus, my 31-year-old cousin who made aliyah right after high school and is now fighting in the reserves, Lorraine’s Israeli friends, a retired colonel and others, I heard varying opinions on many topics. For example, should Israel invade Rafah, should there be a ceasefire, should the release of the Israeli hostages be the No. 1 priority, should there be an election, who should oversee Gaza after the war? While there was always more than one answer to every question, there were consistent feelings among everyone we met of resilience, strength and perseverance – that this war is another of many, and that Israel will carry on. As well, everyone we met was both amazed that we came during war and so happy that we had made the effort. That happiness alone made Lorraine and I feel that this trip was worthwhile. 

Some highlights of the trip for me were:

1) Visiting Hostages Square in Tel Aviv for Kabbalat Shabbat. This is a square that has Shabbat tables set up for both the released hostages (with blue tablecloth and wine glasses) and for the hostages still being held (with dirty water and stale pita). There was a wonderful band playing, with a singer, and, at one point, there was a chance for people to stand up and say something. Lorraine was our spokesperson and announced that we were on a trip from Canada to support Israel. Several Israelis came up to us afterwards to shake our hands and welcome us. When the band sang Lecha Dodi, a few people got up to dance the hora, including Lorraine and me. 

2) Visit to Shlomit settlement in the southern Negev. This was a religious settlement that JNF helped build. As an aside, JNF has been very active in rebuilding bomb shelters and kibbutzim that were destroyed on Oct 7. At Shlomit, we heard from Dana, a mother of six children, about how her husband and four other men went to a neighbouring kibbutz to fight the terrorists. While the men were successful in killing all five terrorists, her husband, unfortunately, was shot dead. Dana said she wanted her children to remember her husband as a hero, and to foster a sense of hope, not hate. In this inspirational talk, she kept emphasizing that we can’t live with hate, only with love and hope. 

3) A talk from a trauma psychologist at the Glassman centre. While post-traumatic stress has risen substantially in Israel, this psychologist told us a story of an army unit that recently returned from a three-month stint in Gaza. Prior to going home, the unit visited one of the soldier’s grandmothers, who was a Holocaust survivor. The attacks by Hamas on southern Israel have been equated to a second holocaust, but, upon asking the grandmother’s views, she said “no,” the attacks were nothing like the Holocaust. We have a country and a people that will fight for us now, whereas in 1940 we had nobody, she said. She concluded: we are never alone again, as long as there is an Israel. 

Heroic survival at kibbutz

A photo Dekel Agami took Oct. 7, 2023, of Kibbutz Nir Oz in flames. (phot by Dekel Agami)

On Oct. 7, Kibbutz Magen, from which residents can see the Gazan city of Khan Yunis, was infiltrated by dozens of terrorists from Gaza. While two of the approximately 400 kibbutzniks were murdered and two seriously injured, a more horrific outcome was avoided, thanks to the heroic acts of a small squad of kibbutz civilian defenders, who held off the terrorists during a seven-hour gun battle.

A member of that response team was in Vancouver last week, sharing his story.

Kibbutz Magen is a kilometre away from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a village with a similar population, but which suffered exponentially more tragic outcomes that day – 46 Nir Oz residents were murdered and 71 taken hostage.

One reason for the less catastrophic death toll in Magen is that the terrorist infiltrators blew apart the perimeter fence a good distance from the kibbutz’s residential area. But the heroism and tireless response of Magen’s civilian emergency squad played a big role.

photo - Dekel Agami, left, and his partner Nufar Gal-Yam, share their Oct. 7 experiences with Vancouver audiences April 14. Itai Bavli, right, a University of British Columbia academic, grew up with Agami on Kibbutz Magen, near the Gaza border
Dekel Agami, left, and his partner Nufar Gal-Yam, share their Oct. 7 experiences with Vancouver audiences April 14. Itai Bavli, right, a University of British Columbia academic, grew up with Agami on Kibbutz Magen, near the Gaza border. (photo by Daphna Kedem)

Dekel Agami, who grew up on the kibbutz, and his partner, Nufar Gal-Yam, who grew up in Sde Boker, the kibbutz most noted as the home of David Ben-Gurion, had moved in together on Kibbutz Magen on Oct. 4.

Since both had grown up in southern Israel, close to Gaza, the red alerts on Oct. 7 did not disturb them unduly. Around 7 a.m., Agami, an Israel Defence Forces veteran who served in the special forces, headed out with his weapon to meet other members of the security squad, a group of civilians and off-duty soldiers ranging in age from 20 to 70. He quickly realized this was not a routine day.

As he walked to meet his colleagues, Agami saw figures near the kibbutz border. The first one he encountered was wearing an Israel Defence Forces uniform – as numerous terrorists were that day – and so he did not shoot.

He came across the head of his security team, Baruch Cohen, who had been shot in the leg. As Agami was delivering first aid, an anti-tank missile hit the vehicle they were next to. Agami does not know how they survived.

In the event of an emergency, civilian and off-duty military personnel on kibbutzim are expected to manage on their own for 20 to 30 minutes until the arrival of the IDF. On Oct. 7, the dozen emergency squad members in Kibbutz Magen battled 30 to 40 terrorists on their own from 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon.

The terrorists breached the fence at a location relatively remote from the residential area of the kibbutz, giving the defenders a small tactical advantage. Fighting soon moved to the terrorists’ targets, the kibbutz’s homes, and, after providing first aid to Cohen, Agami fought the terrorists from one of the houses. The kibbutzniks successfully flushed the infiltrators back to the fence, where some of them fled – maybe back to Gaza, possibly off to murder easier prey.

During the fighting, Agami took a photo of nearby Nir Oz, where multiple plumes of smoke were rising in an ominous foreshadowing of their potential fate. The photo went viral in Israel.

“When I took this picture, I thought we were next,” Agami said to an audience at Temple Sholom on the evening of April 14. He and Gal-Yam also spoke at the weekly rally earlier that day, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.

When the IDF finally made it to Kibbutz Magen, about 2 p.m., they killed the remaining terrorists. Then the larger trauma began to dawn on Agami and his fellow kibbutzniks.

Agami’s two daughters from a previous relationship were with their mother at a moshav a few kilometres away. During the battle, he didn’t worry about them – partly because, he said, he “couldn’t go there” but more because it never crossed his mind that the battle he was engaged in was part of a much larger crisis. When he finally did get in touch, he found out the three were safe.

The Magen fighters were too occupied keeping the terrorists at bay – Agami alone expended 15 magazines, about 450 bullets – to check their phones to see what was going on elsewhere. They did, though, have cellular connectivity, which was not the case in many kibbutzim. The terrorists were strategic, first targeting army bases and bringing down communications systems.

As the smoke cleared midafternoon on Oct. 7, several stunning realities came to light.

Three wounded residents – Cohen, Nadav Rot and Avi Fleisher – had been transported by the kibbutz doctor to a nearby community, from which they were helicoptered to hospital. Fleisher did not survive. Cohen would eventually have his leg amputated. No one – including those who made the journey – understand how they made it to safety. The terrorists had taken control of all the roads in the region, killing every Israeli they encountered. Even the military had not breached the area by the time the medical transport got through.

The exhausted kibbutz defenders soon discovered that what they had experienced was a comparatively small part of the worst terror attack in Israel’s history. In just a hint of the depths of preparation that went into the attacks, the fleeing terrorists left behind not only weapons, flashlights and food for an extended siege, but even supplies of blood for infusions.

Agami and Gal-Yam were brought to Vancouver by Itai Bavli, a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in public health at the University of British Columbia. He and Dekel grew up together in Magen.

The friends estimate that 60 alumni of their regional high school died on Oct. 7. Including those killed in the subsequent war, they estimate 100 of their circle of friends are dead, including Bavli’s stepbrother, Tamir Adar, who lived in Nir Oz.

Agami downplays his heroism, but Bavli is emphatic.

“He saved my family,” Bavli said.

Gal-Yam, who is expecting a baby in July, just completed a five-month call-up as a major in the IDF. She and Agami are now in temporary accommodations on her home kibbutz of Sde Boker. Agami spent five months relocated in Eilat.

“It’s like some area after a hurricane,” Gal-Yam said of the chaos at Kibbutz Magen, which was founded in 1949 and is one of the oldest communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

She has since returned to her day job, but everything has changed, she said.

“It seems unimportant to do again whatever it was I was doing before Oct. 7,” she said, noting that creating a normal routine is impossible. “Nothing is normal now. I’m not normal. I’m a completely different person. We are living completely different lives than before. Nothing is the same. Nothing at all.”

The Israeli visitors demurred from making predictions about the political or military ramifications of events.

“Some people are going to have to give answers after all this will be over,” Gal-Yam said.

The length of time the hostages have been in captivity – more than six months – is something that was unimaginable on that first, terrible day, she said. “Not a person in Israel thought it would take more than six months to bring them home,” she said. “This is a reality none of us expected.”

An audience member asked how they view residents of Gaza now.

Bavli reflected on how, before Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, workers from Gaza came to their kibbutz, even staying overnight.

“People from Gaza worked on our kibbutz and were treated as family,” he said. “We wanted to have them as neighbours, to find political solutions, to find a way to live together.

“We don’t have anything against people from Gaza,” he said. “What broke our hearts was, at Kibbutz Nir Oz, the first wave [of infiltrators on Oct. 7] was Hamas, but the second wave was just people who came to steal. But they also killed people. That’s what broke our hearts, confused us.”

For the future, Bavli sees the willingness of Gazans to live in peace as key.

“Hopefully,” he said, “there are enough good people there to find a way to live together.”

Don’t give up on the UN

A review released Monday about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the sprawling bureaucracy that for decades has played a central role in the lives of Palestinians, said Israel has not provided adequate evidence to demonstrate that UNRWA workers engaged in terrorism.

The review, headed by a former French foreign minister, dismissed Israel’s claims that UNRWA workers in Gaza were engaged in terrorist activities, including the Oct. 7 pogroms. It did, however, recommend several steps to ensure neutrality, transparency and third-party monitoring of UNRWA activities. 

Regardless of the specifics in this particular accusation, UNRWA is deeply problematic. Critics contend that its mission is to perpetuate Palestinian statelessness and discontent, rather than ameliorate these problems.

Many Jewish and pro-Israel voices have long pointed to UNRWA, as well as the annual procession of anti-Israel votes at the United Nations General Assembly, among other examples, as “proof” that the United Nations is hopelessly anti-Israel, if not antisemitic.

This may or may not be true. In any event, the answer is to fix the United Nations, not bury it.

Hyperbolic, disproportionate, often ludicrous attacks on Israel at the General Assembly and from countless UN bodies undeniably demonstrate a peculiar obsession with this one (Jewish) country to the detriment of other serious issues. However, this inappropriate and biased approach must not blind us to the irreplaceable value of the organization that was envisioned as a world parliament.

Coincidentally, a new poll of Canadians and Americans indicates massive dissatisfaction with the organization – and rightly so.

The Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute engaged the pollster Leger to survey North Americans on their opinions toward the United Nations. The poll was conducted about four months after the Oct. 7 attacks, and indicates that just over one-third of Canadians and just under one-third of Americans trust the UN.

Jack Jedwab, president and chief executive officer of both of the survey’s sponsoring organizations, noted a particular incongruity in the results. While only around one-third of respondents “trust” the United Nations, much higher numbers of people hold a “net positive opinion” of the body. In both countries, a majority – 58% of Canadians and 54% of Americans – view the organization as more positive than negative.

This is encouraging, because it suggests that, while people have issues with the UN in practical terms, we are not ready to give up on the potential of the UN or the ideals upon which it was founded.

There are many reasons to criticize the United Nations, but the clearly biased anti-Israel resolutions and reports that grab headlines obscure a panoply of crucial, often lifesaving programs and services delivered by UN organizations like the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, UNICEF and UNESCO.

To put this in a context that perhaps makes sense on a more localized level, giving up on the UN would be like eliminating the sewer systems, traffic lights and schools in your hometown because you can’t stand the mayor. 

If we cannot muster idealism, let’s just be practical. Don’t take it from us, take it from Danny Danon, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations. Danon has a long history as a right-wing Israeli politician. In his 2022 book, In the Lion’s Den: Israel and the World, he reflects on his five years as ambassador, from 2015 to 2020.

He arrived, he admits, as a hawk and a hardliner, not expecting to fit into the world of diplomacy. Over his time there, he came to see the value of the UN, despite all the disappointments and wasted resources.

Even in the lion’s den at the head of the sprawling body, the General Assembly, Danon said it is possible for a seemingly unwelcome individual like Israel’s ambassador to “build bridges, forge friendships and create a space for understanding.”

The idea, expressed by some pro-Israel people, that Israel should simply walk away from the world body, would be to cut off our nose to spite our face. Why would we abandon the one small voice we have in that forum, surrendering it to the haranguing of Israel’s enemies without contest?

Likewise, if Canadians feel our government is not representing our values and ideals at the United Nations, we need to take that up with our elected representatives here and ensure that they do so. Throwing up our hands in surrender helps no one.

Is there a problem with UNRWA? Undeniably. Fix it. Is there a problem with the International Court of Justice? Many observers would say so. Fix it. Do numerous United Nations agencies obsess over Israel while millions around the world suffer in obscurity? Undoubtedly. Fix that too.

Is the United Nations perfect? It’s a ridiculous question. Nothing in human activity is perfect. But what is the role of Jews in the world, an obligation we reminded ourselves during our seders this week? Our obligation as Jews and as humans is to strive to make the world better – and, in that context, fixing the UN is central to that objective.

Is there a long way to go in this work? Yes. Are we free to abandon it? No. 

A long day in multiple ways

The car graveyard at Moshav Tekuma. The vehicles – recovered from along Highway 232 and the site of the Nova music festival – are being kept for at least a year, for investigators to scour them for further evidence. (photo by Adina Horwich)

At the beginning of April, I had a very long day, which is rare for me. I rose at 5:45 a.m. to visit the Gaza Envelope with 30 others. At 7:35, the bus left Jerusalem. Our guide boarded at Latrun. We proceeded toward the Re’im Junction, also known as Masmia, then headed south to Sderot.

At Sderot, we went to the site of the destroyed police station, where many police and staffers were killed on Oct. 7. The town is slowly returning to normal function, as many evacuees have returned and schools have reopened. A new police station has been built.

Despite being the closest community to Gaza, under nearly constant fire from Hamas for nearly 20 years, Sderot has become an attractive place for young families, joining the stalwart old-timers. I was there several times a dozen years ago, when my son was a student at Sapir College, and have always enjoyed spending time there. New neighbourhoods, including high rises, have sprung up.

From a lookout on the outskirts of the city, atop Kobi’s Hill, we could see the entire length of the Gaza Strip. The lookout was consecrated in memory of four soldiers who died in Operation Protective Edge in 2014. It was impressive, if that is the word, to see Gaza  from so close. Mere kilometres.

We visited the up-and-coming city of Netivot, which is nearby. There, too, we saw much real estate, which has attracted a mostly, though not exclusively, religious sector, with Baba Sali’s gravesite and shrine a major calling card. He was a beloved rabbi and sage, particularly dear to Jews of Moroccan background. We went inside a well-tended sanctuary, to have a look and offer prayers. The place was hopping. As it was Monday, a Torah reading day, it was a suitable time to celebrate bar mitzvahs, and we caught a festive first haircutting of twin 3-year-old boys.

Afterwards, we headed to Moshav Tekuma. We did not expect to be allowed in, as there was heavy security and restricted access, but we were granted permission. Within the guarded gates, we saw what looked like a huge car junkyard – except that it is a graveyard. All the cars were recovered from along Highway 232 and the site of the Nova music festival at Re’im. They are being kept for at least a year, for investigators and forensic experts to scour them for further evidence. Many cars are smashed up, as if they had been in bad accidents, others are pockmarked, having been sprayed with bullets. Surrounding these is a huge pile of rusty scrap and charred rescue vehicles, as well as pickup trucks and motorcycles used by the terrorists to infiltrate the area.

photo - Memorial to those who were murdered at the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
Memorial to those who were murdered at the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. (photo by Adina Horwich)

We drove further along the road, past Kibbutz Sa’ad and Alumim, along Route 232, and stopped just outside Kibbut Be’eri (the public is not allowed in). We looked inside one of the roadside shelters, next to a bus stop, which normally accommodates roughly eight people. On Oct. 7, some 40 people stuffed themselves inside. It was into such structures that many fled from the Re’im festival, seeking refuge, but the terrorists hurled grenades inside. At one migunit, Aner Shapira managed to throw the grenades back at the terrorists, though, in the end, he was killed, along with other young people. Inside are memorial candles, stickers with the pictures and names of victims, letters and comforting wishes are written on the walls.

photo - Site of the Nova music festival
Site of the Nova music festival. (photo by Adina Horwich)

We traveled some more, reaching the city of Ofakim. That is where a very brave woman, Rachel Edri, appeased the five terrorists who barged into her home by offering them refreshments, including her now-famous cookies. She and her husband, David, both in their 60s, were able to manage the terrorists, engaging them in conversation, plying them with more food and singing songs, over 19 hours. Whenever she could, Rachel would go to the bathroom and signal from the window to the police outside, who had surrounded the house, gauging attempts to enter. The Edris’s son is in the police force and was instrumental in finally seizing back their home. Unfortunately, during the siege, the house suffered great damage and is a total wreck; only a shell remains. And, sadly, David Edri passed away about a month ago. Rachel has gone to live with her sister-in-law.

As we were looking around, another hero appeared in the small parking lot opposite. Shuki Yosef lives across the street with his wife. He invited us to come into their building’s shelter, where he recounted how he and some of the neighbours hid for several hours, all the while hearing gunshots and shouting outside. He secured a metal bicycle frame to keep the shelter’s door closed, holding it with his own hands for hours. Later, after the ordeal had ended, he designed and fashioned a wooden plank to better fit the door hinges, in the event of future need.

The bravery of these residents is remarkable. It is worth noting that their homes are not the closest ones to the highway – which one might think would have been attacked first – but the houses and people who took the brunt of the terrorist attack are tucked well within the city. The sheer gall and number of terrorists that infiltrated, going from house to house on a murderous rampage in Sderot, in Ofakim, in the kibbutzim, on the roadsides, gunning down so many, are mind-boggling. These communities all lie within minutes of each other in a pretty small area.

It was an unusually hot day for April 1, over 30 degrees Celsius. And it was an intense excursion. Visiting made the reality a lot more tangible, but still impossible to fully comprehend. It was moving to witness and I learned much. We left the Otef (Envelope/Wrapping), as it is called, and I arrived home just before 7 p.m.

More than six months have passed since Oct. 7 and we remain in the thick of things. It is taxing and draining, even on those of us who, fortunately, are not too closely involved. Everyone is touched by the terror attacks and the war. 

Adina Horwich was born in Israel to Canadian parents. In 1960, the family returned to Canada, first living in Halifax, then in a Montreal suburb. In 1975, at age 17, Horwich made aliyah, and has lived mostly in the Jerusalem area. She won a Rockower Award for journalistic excellence in covering Zionism, aliyah and Israel for her article “Immigration challenges” (jewishindependent.ca/immigration-challenges-2).

Thought-provoking speakers

Dr. Gil Murciano of Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, and Uri Weltmann of Standing Together, spoke April 17 at Temple Sholom. (photo by Pat Johnson)

For months, weekly rallies across Israel after Shabbat have demanded the return of the hostages from Gaza. These rallies have often coincided with separate protests, which have been going on much longer, against the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu generally and its proposed judicial reforms specifically. These two streams of protesters have coalesced in recent weeks, according to an Israeli activist leader who spoke in Vancouver last week, because, he said, many Israelis are convinced that Netanyahu is not advancing freedom for the hostages, but hindering it, for his own political advantage.

Uri Weltmann, field organizer of Standing Together, made the claim April 17 during an event at Temple Sholom organized by New Israel Fund Canada. 

“What happened three weeks ago is that it stopped being two different protest movements,” said Weltmann. “They are basically changing their strategy. They are calling for early elections and for [Netanyahu’s] government to be removed and replaced with a different government. [Activists are] pointing their finger at him as the obstruction, as the obstacle toward advancing to a ceasefire agreement.”

Weltmann argues that Netanyahu is concerned not only for his political survival, but for his freedom.

“For Netanyahu, the protraction of this war, the continuation of this war, is in his political interest,” said Weltmann. “He knows that a temporary ceasefire might lead to a permanent ceasefire. A permanent ceasefire would mean an end to the war. An end to this war would bring an end to this coalition government because the extremists he huddled with have already said publicly that, if they will end the war before total victory, they will topple the government.”

The end of the current government and the ousting of Netanyahu, he said, would have more than just political ramifications for the prime minister, who opinion polls suggest would be soundly routed if an election were held now.

“New elections mean him losing the majority and him losing the majority is not only Netanyahu the politician being ousted from office. It’s also Netanyahu facing corruption charges, having his trial resume, [and he] might lose his personal liberty. For him, it’s intimately linked to the continuation of the war.”

The consensus among these activists is that Netanyahu is seeking to prolong the war and the captivity of the hostages to protect his political and personal interests, said Weltmann.

“It’s an incredibly important political development within Israel that a broad movement around the families and friends of the hostages have made this link,” he said.

Weltmann’s group, Standing Together (known in Hebrew and Arabic as Omdim Beyachad-Naqif Ma’an), was founded in 2015 and is one of the on-the-ground groups New Israel Fund supports.

Among the goals of the group is to build a grassroots movement for peace and progressive politics in Israel, including in rural and peripheral areas of the country. Making such a movement successful beyond the activist hub in Tel Aviv is the only way to advance Standing Together’s goals, Weltmann said. Even a more centrist or progressive government, if elected tomorrow, would not necessarily advance meaningful steps to peace and coexistence if there is not a broad popular movement in support of such a policy shift, he said.

Without a national movement for peace, he said, a new prime minister, however well-intentioned, would not feel the pressure to abandon the status quo and take steps for a changed future. 

“We must, as a strategic starting point in our process of progressive transformation of Israeli society, be present in the Negev, be present in the Galilee, be present in those parts of Israeli society that for too long have been the playing ground of the right-wing with left-wing actors completely non-present,” he said. “We must be there organizing local communities.”

Jewish citizens cannot do it by themselves, said Weltmann, and neither can Arab citizens. 

“We must have Jewish-Palestinian unity and cooperation within Israel for this change to be effective,” he said. An example of this strategy was a slogan adopted by a joint Jewish-Arab slate in Haifa during the recent municipal elections. The far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party of Itamar Ben-Gvir ran slates across the country trying to solidify the party’s roots at the civic level. The joint slate in Haifa played off Otzma Yehudit’s xenophobia with the slogan “Jewish Arab Power.”

“We are at a crossroads,” said Weltmann. “Every Israeli should choose which side am I on: the side that leads to a continuation of the status quo, a continuation of the state of affairs in which the Palestinians live in the occupied territories under military rule devoid of citizenship, devoid of rights, a situation that can lead to Oct. 7 one after another unless we put an end to it, or the reality of an Israeli-Palestinian peace that will guarantee both people safety, security and an imaginable, livable future?”

Weltmann spoke alongside Dr. Gil Murciano, an Iran expert and chief executive officer of the think-tank Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, which one journalist has called “the diplomatic wing of the protest movement.”

Like Weltmann, Murciano longs for a “new majority” in Israel’s body politic. “A new majority that will allow us to advance toward a state where we live in peace, we live in dignity, we live in equality, without the occupation, without the injustices, throughout our society,” he said.

A fundamental shift in perspective is needed, argued Murciano.

“We used to speak about ‘wars of no choice’ in Israel,” he said. “We need to start thinking in terms of ‘peace of no choice.’”

On the one side, he said, the extreme right has a plan of annexation, with Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s minister of finance and head of the far-right National Religious Party, calling for the government to “encourage” migration from Gaza to Egypt. On the other side, he said, since Oct. 7, people on the left have been motivated to seek an alternative to the status quo.

Dr. Maayan Kreitzman, a local food systems researcher and activist who moderated the event, challenged Murciano on this point. Rather than progressive voices calling for more coexistence, she said, she has heard the opposite. People that are “quite dovish” have had second thoughts about their worldview and transformed into a more hawkish, securitized attitude, she suggested.

Murciano acknowledged that all Israelis share one overriding priority. “For Israelis, it’s pretty clear,” he said. “The first, second and third priority of Israelis right now is security.”

That is a prerequisite to any advancement, he said.

Murciano proposes something he acknowledges to be “a little bit symbolic,” an international peace conference to kick off a new process between moderate Israelis and moderate Palestinians. This could be a first step to breaking an impasse that has existed in recent years, he said.

“Some people have described the last decade as the lost decade of Israeli diplomacy,” he said, a period where “conflict management” has been the priority; effectively, a maintenance of the status quo.

“I think that’s the right description, actually. It’s a strategy of not having a strategy,” said Murciano. “Coming to terms with the fact that there is no political way out and basically every couple of years we’re going to have a bit of violence.”

This approach sees Israelis forfeiting the initiative to Hezbollah and Hamas, he said, “Basically setting yourself in a situation where you only respond to a reality that is forced upon you.”

Oct. 7, he said, destroyed this conceptual framing.

Part of any future needs to include a multilateral project to “rebuild life-sustaining systems” in Gaza, he said, not a “peace-keeping force” but a “multinational force” that will be an on-the-ground part of a larger process toward peace and coexistence.

Ben Murane, executive director of New Israel Fund Canada, spoke of the emotional impacts of recent months.

“If you’re like me, what has been excruciating the past six months has been not just holding my pain, our Jewish pain, the pain of my Israeli coworkers, my family, my friends there, the pain of the Israeli people, but also, in my heart, holding the pain of the Palestinian people too,” he said.

Since the earliest days of the current war, Murane said, there have been countless glimmers of hope in the form of cross-cultural dialogue.

“In the first few months, we were astounded to see, across Israel, dozens of gatherings, conferences, events with hundreds of Jews and Palestinians standing together holding up those now-iconic purple signs saying ‘Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies,’ ‘Jews and Arabs stand together’ or just simply ‘B’Yachad,’ together,” said Murane. “We were astounded to see Jewish citizens of Israel respond to the needs of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, Palestinian citizens of Israel making calls to families of the hostages, joint Jewish-Arab humanitarian aid missions to the south and to the north. As the war in Gaza accelerated, those Israeli voices also said, ‘We do have choices, even now. We have lots of choices with how we execute a just war justly.’”

Any long-term solution to the decades-long conflict must bring safety and dignity to both peoples, said Murane, “and anything else, anything short of fairness to both sides, will perpetuate this for another generation.”

New Israel Fund partners with and supports, according to its website, “organizations in Israel that fight for socioeconomic equality, religious freedom, civil and human rights, shared society and anti-racism, Palestinian citizens, and democracy itself.”

The April 17 event was hosted by Temple Sholom and co-sponsored by JSpaceCanada, which calls itself the advocacy voice of Liberal Zionism, Ameinu Canada, described as the voice of labour Zionism in Canada, and Canadian Friends of Peace Now, as well as the speakers’ organizations.

Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, senior rabbi at Temple Sholom, said he had received emails expressing concerns about hosting a perceived left-wing event. 

“I get the same emails when we host people to the right of centre,” he said. 

One of the purposes of a synagogue, he said, is to engage with ideas that “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

“You may find your truth by agreeing with what you here tonight,” he said. “You may find your truth by disagreeing with what you hear tonight. The important part is to engage with it.”

Vancouver activist David Berson promoted the opportunity to listen to the Israeli guests as a chance to gain a perspective apart from the most common refrain he hears on social media and WhatsApp threads. 

“There’s another way you can look at what’s going on,” he told the Independent after the event. “Come out and hear a different perspective. I invited people to come tonight and listen to a different narrative.”

The 200 to 300 people at the event was about double what organizers had earlier expected, he said. 

יוצאי איראן בטורונטו ארגנו כנס נגד אנטישמיות

גם יוצאי איראנים בוונקובר תומכים בקריאה לחמאס לשחרר את בני הערובה (רוני רחמני)

 המועצה של מוסלמים נגד אנטישמיות ארגנה במרכז טורונטו כנס מיוחד לאור העליה בגל האנטישמיות נגד יהודים. באירוע של הארגון הבינלאומי שמושבו בטורונטו השתתפו למעלה מארבע מאות איש. הארגון מחויב להיאבק בטרור בקיצוניות, כולל אנטישמיות נגד יהודים

המשתתפים הביעו את תמיכתם ביהודים במלחמה נגד תופעת האנטישמיות שהולכת ומתגברת בעת הזו, לאור המלחמה של צה”ל בעזה מול ארגון הטרור של החמאס. באירוע דנו בדרכים השונות להילחם באנטישמיות בתוך הקהילות השונות. בין המשתתפים היו חברת הפרלמנט מטעם המפלגה השמרנית של קנדה, מליסה לנצמן, הפרשן בנושאים הפוליטיים זוהדי ג’אסר, הסופר רהיל ראזה, חבר מועצת עיריית טורונטו גולדי ג’מארי ומנכ”לית המועצה של המוסלמים שריל סאפריה. מרבית הפעילים במועצה של המוסלמים נגד אנטישמיות הם יוצאי איראן שעזבו את המדינה עם עלייתו לשלטון של חומייני

חברי המועצה והאורחים בכינוס ציינו שיש לבצע תוכנית פעולה מהותית הכוללת שישה חלקים. ובהם: דרישה מהחמאס לשחרר את כל בני הערובה שהוא מחזיק בעזה מאז השבעה באוקטובר, להסיר את המימון של ממשלת קנדה לסוכנות הסעד של האו”ם – אונר”א. וכן להכריז על חייל משמרות המהפכה האסלאמית האיראנית כישות טרור. עוד הוזכר בכינוס כי יש להרים את הקול ולבקר את אלה המשבחים את האנטישמיות, הג’נוסייד של החאמס והזוועות המיניות שביצע ארגון הטרור בשבעה באוקטובר בישראל. אורחי הכנס הזכירו כי על המוסדות השונים ברחבי העולם ובהם האו”ם לנקוט עמדה חד משמעית נגד האלימות המינית הבלתי ניתנת לערעור שנעשתה לנשים, ילדים וגברים על ידי מחבלי החמאס – בשבעה באוקטובר. זו בעייה חמורה בחברה האנושית שלנו שיש הרואים בפעולות אלו של החאמס כהתנגדות לכיבוש. עוד הוזכר כי האשמה לאירועי השבעה באוקטובר מוטלת בעיקר על שלטון האייתולות באיראן ועל קהילות מוסלמיות במדינות שונות שמעודדות אנטישמיות ללא הפסק

ארגון מועצת המוסלמים נגד אנטישמיות מציין כי האנטישמיות היא תופעה ייחודית נפוצה, שינאה מתמשכת וקטלנית שנכנסה למסגרות תרבותיות, דתיות ופוליטיות שונות ומרובות בכל רחבי העולם. לפי סקרים אחרונים, רעיונות ותחושות אנטישמיות מאומצים כיום בדרגות שונות על ידי כרבע מאוכלוסיית העולם

ארגון מועצת המוסלמים מכיר באיום המיוחד הנשקף מן העליה המטאורית של האנטישמיות העולמית במאה העשרים ואחת. לעתים קרובות רצח או חיסול בכוונה תחילה או בביטוי, הוא מייצג שילוב חסר תקדים של הזנים המוכרים יותר של אנטישמיות המקודמים באידיאולוגיות ימין קיצוני, שמאל איסלאמיסטיות. האנטישמיות נחשבת על ידי מומחים לרעילה הרבה יותר מסך חלקיה, התפשטות האנטישמיות העכשווית הואצה על ידי הגלובליזציה והופעת הטכנולוגיות של המאה העשרים ואחת

ארגון מועצת המוסלמים תומך בהגדרה הבינלאומית לזכר השואה של האנטישמיות. הגדרה זו היא המקובלת ביותר בעולם לאנטישמיות והיא אומצה ואושרה על ידי ארבעים ושלוש מדינות כולל קנדה

מועצת המוסלמים מחויבת לפעול עם קבוצות דומות כדי לאתגר את האנטישמיות בכל מקום שבו היא עלולה להופיע. הארגון ימשיך ביוזמות חינוכיות, חקיקתיות, ומדיניות להשיג את המטרות שלו. כמוסלמים מכל הקשת המוסלמית והפוליטית, הארגון יהווה, יגייס ויזרז קול מוסלמי מובהק להתמודד עם האנטישמיות, שהשתרשה עמוקות ונותרה    אתגר קשה בעולם המוסלמי הרחב. הארגון יתמוך במאמצים של ארגונים מוסלמים במדינות בעלות רוב מוסלמי ובמקהלה הולכות וגוברת של מנהיגים, סופרים ותיאולוגים מוסלמים אשר נטלו על עצמם יוזמות להתעמת עם האנטישמיות, שהורשתה לחגוג בקהילות. אנו כמוסלמים נתעמת עם התופעה וקידום המערכתי של האנטישמיות על ידי קיצונים איסלאמיסטים מכל הסוגים, שעבורם הדמוניזציה ושנאת היהודים הם עמוד מרכזי באמונתם

The strength of community

Shai DeLuca and Alexandra Smith flew in Sunday from Toronto to address Vancouver’s weekly vigil for Israeli hostages on the six-month anniversary of the atrocities committed on Oct. 7. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Unity, defiance and determination were the overriding messages at the community rally Sunday, April 7, marking six months since the atrocities of Oct. 7.

“Our hearts are heavy with the weight of loss and sorrow,” said Michael Sachs, regional director of the Jewish National Fund of Canada. As Israelis were called up for service at the start of that war, another battle began in the diaspora, he said.

“Jews worldwide were drafted for a different, yet related, war,” said Sachs. “In the wake of Oct. 7, we witnessed a disturbing and radical rise in antisemitism and Jew-hatred right here in Canada.”

Canada today does not resemble the Canada of Oct. 6, he said, as anti-Jewish ideas and actions have “emerged from the alley and are now openly displayed on our streets and threatening the very fabric of our society.

“We should always draw strength from the resilience and courage of the survivors,” Sachs said. The souls of those murdered that day, he said, live on “in our commitment to build a world with compassion, justice, that will triumph over the cruelty and ignorance that we are seeing.

“The brave soldiers, of all faiths, who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defence of Israel – we mourn you and we will never forget you,” said Sachs.

The Jewish response to evil is goodness, he said.

“In the face of their darkness, let us shine our light on them by rejecting forces of division, and continue to embrace the power of the unity of our community and our amazing allies,” he said. “Let us stand together, hand in hand, to be the hope and strength to the families of those held hostage. Let us show the world that our Zionism – not the Zionism that they have created – our Zionism, our love of Israel, is stronger than any hate they can throw at us.”

Aron Csaplaros, BC regional manager of B’nai Brith Canada, recalled his own family’s history.

“For hundreds of years, we have overcome expulsions, pogroms, massacres,” he said. “During the Holocaust, my grandmother spent months hidden in a dark basement, constantly hearing the footsteps of Nazi officers walking above her head, knowing that she could be found and murdered at any minute. But she, like Jews have done throughout our history, survived. She is here today standing in the crowd and we, the Jewish people, are still here, stronger and more united in our resolve than ever.”

He reiterated the demand of the weekly events, that the hostages be released, and added that Hamas should accept its defeat and unconditionally surrender to facilitate a new era of peace between the Palestinian and Israeli people.

“We will never stop fighting those who wish to destroy us,” Csaplaros said. “And we will not stop fighting to defend our indigenous homeland, the land of Israel.”

Until the hostages are released, he said, “We will not stop rallying. We will not stop marching. We will not stop advocating and we will not stop calling on our elected leaders in government to act until every single one of our brothers and sisters held hostage is safely returned.”

photo - Calls for the return of the hostages being held by Hamas rang through the streets of Vancouver Sunday
Calls for the return of the hostages being held by Hamas rang through the streets of Vancouver Sunday. (photo by Pat Johnson)

Shai DeLuca, an interior designer who lives in Toronto and Israel, is a familiar face to audiences of Toronto’s CityTV and Global television. During the Hamas war in 2014, he pivoted to being a voice for Israel and has led battles against anti-Zionist campaigns in Toronto. He said he was nonchalant when he awoke to alerts on Oct. 7. But, as he and his husband took refuge in a shelter, he realized this was not routine.

“I have lived through enough attacks, hundreds upon hundreds of Hamas rocket attacks throughout my life, to know that this felt different,” said DeLuca.

Soon, Israeli phones were lighting up with push notifications, videos and images showing murder, rape and other atrocities. 

“It was from numbers we did not recognize,” he said. “Only later did we find out that these were targeted push notifications from Hamas.”

Last week, DeLuca was back in Israel and visited the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds were murdered. The site is about 15 minutes from his family home.

He spoke with Rotem, a young woman who had been a vocal advocate for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. She had spent 30 hours in a safe room with her children before the terrorists gave up and sought out easier prey.

That day, Rotem told DeLuca, was “the day that I realized they really don’t care who we are.”

“A Jew is a Jew,” she told him. “They want us all dead.”

Many of Israel’s most avid peace activists lived on the kibbutzim that were attacked.

“The belief that one day we would have peace with our neighbours wasn’t something she could foresee anymore and that was heartbreaking to see,” said DeLuca. “She had strived to work toward a better tomorrow for all and was met with the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust, on her community specifically…. A community that employed Gaza workers and worked daily to build bridges. That bridge no longer exists, she said, they torched it.”

Now, in the diaspora, Jews are faced with what DeLuca equates to the antisemitic marches of the 1930s and ’40s.

“We have never been able to depend on others,” he said. “Our history has proven that.… The difference today, unlike times past, is that we have our home to go to. While the hate marches we see repeatedly across cities and across countries call to deny the existence of the only indigenous home the Jewish people have ever known, they continue to prove why its existence is so very important.”

Alexandra Smith, director of End Jew Hatred Canada, came with DeLuca from Toronto on a delayed flight, arriving just in time for the event. 

“Today, we are called upon not only to demand the immediate and unconditional release of those unjustly held, but to reaffirm our commitment to each other as members of a shared community, a shared nation, a shared destiny and, indeed, a shared humanity,” said Smith.

“Starting on Oct. 8, for many in the Jewish community, the open, brazen, unashamed Jew-hatred exhibited on college campuses and on our streets came as a terrible shock and a deep sense of betrayal,” she said. “But, for those of us who have been working in this space for a length of time, it came as no surprise. Antisemitism has always been there, only hidden under wraps. It took a war in the Middle East for it to rear its ugly head. It’s not an exaggeration to call this a profound crisis. In moments of crisis, however, the strength of a community is seen not only in its leaders but in the spirit of its people. Unity is our beacon of hope. Shoulder to shoulder, regardless of backgrounds, beliefs and life experiences, we embody the resilience that has helped communities throughout history overcome adversity.”

Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt of Congregation Schara Tzedeck chanted El Moleh Rachamim, invoking the name of Elad Katzir, a hostage whose body was recovered by Israeli soldiers the day before the rally. Rabbi Susie Tendler of Beth Tikvah in Richmond said the prayer for the hostages. 

Dance as an act of solidarity

Iraqis in Pajamas’ new album is a tribute to the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre.

In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis…. And the celebrations that followed worldwide – glorifying the raping, burning and decapitating of my people…. 

And the subsequent mass destruction of posters raising awareness of Israeli hostages being tortured in captivity by Hamas…. 

And the simultaneous call for a violent uprising against Jews worldwide…. 

And the astronomical spike in hate crimes against Jews – among other things, leading to incessant harassment, assaults and death threats of students at my alma mater, Columbia University, and additionally leading to the murder of a kind Jewish man I knew in Los Angeles….

And the international mob chants of “From the river to the sea,” harkening back to the harrowing cries my father heard on Arabic radio stations as a child in Iraq, “We will throw the Jews into the sea.”…

And the palpable terror I then felt as a Jew, whose family had seen this before, had fled this before, in a pro-Nazi uprising in Baghdad, where a similar massacre had taken place during my father’s childhood….

And the deafening silence in the wake of all this – not even one word of care or kindness from the vast majority of non-Jewish people I had loved, had lived with, had broken bread with….

And I felt as if I had died.

I stopped journaling, stopped writing poetry, stopped writing music, stopped singing, stopped playing bass, stopped dancing. I got sick repeatedly and continuously over the course of two months, even ended up in the emergency room with symptoms of a possible stroke at 2 a.m. one night – this, after years and years of never getting sick, not once, not even when my ex got COVID and I nursed him back to health. 

I couldn’t sleep, had nightmares, woke up in the middle of the night, lying awake for hours, my mind circling around and around, imagining the horror and terror the hostages must be suffering through. I was haunted by the video image I accidentally had seen of a young Jewish woman who was naked and chained, publicly being dragged around by Hamas, as they filmed her – one of the many Jewish women they gang raped and mutilated that day, often next to the dead bodies of these women’s friends – filming that violence, too, in something akin to snuff porn. 

I could feel it in my body.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t move.

Despite the impact on me, I felt that, somehow, by energetically experiencing and, by extension, by physically experiencing the pain that my people were enduring, I was communicating a telepathic message to them: I will not forsake you, I will not forget you. 

No, I will not frolic on the beach beneath the misty grey soothing skies. No, I will not enjoy the quiet, peace and comfort of the vast rainforest just outside my door. No, I will not detach myself from something “happening on the other side of the world,” as a non-

Jewish acquaintance kindly advised, because there is no “other side of the world” when it comes to Jews. You are me, and I am you, and we are connected. I cannot control the world’s response, but I can control mine. I will face, see, hear and feel your pain, until it is gone.

But wait…. That’s exactly what Hamas wants, isn’t it? To demoralize and destroy Jews. To suffocate us, hijack our imagination. To strip us of our dignity, safety, peace and, perhaps most of all, joy.

So, to reclaim my joy is, in fact, a radical act of Jewish power and solidarity. To flip imagination on its head – instead of visualizing all the horrors and shrinking in my body, to instead expand in my body and visualize all the hostages, injured people and 

grieving families as resilient, grounded, surrounded by love, and the dead as soaring freely and peacefully, wrapping their loved ones in comfort.

Nothing is black and white, but this is an article, not a book, so I’m trying to keep it short and sweet. Suffice it to say, I actively and repeatedly attempted to turn the images around over the course of two months – to send white light, to bless the hostages, to emit some kind of protective energetic shield, but it kept seeming silly, foolish, without actual impact, perhaps just making myself feel better, like a hollow New Ager. My prayers would not stop a psychopathic Hamas gunman with absolute control over a hostage, I reasoned, because G-d gave humans both the gift and curse of free will. 

But then….

But then I went to a concert of Yemen Blues, which was more of a primal howl of freedom than a “performance,” and which featured an Israeli woman dancing with a defiant, raw ferocity that brought back to life the sanctity, dignity and power of the Jewish female body – and, with that, permission to dance.

And, after that, I started dancing again. And, after that, I started singing again. And, after that, I started frolicking with my beautiful dog beneath the misty grey, soothing skies on the beach, and through the vast rainforest just outside my door.

And I came back to life.

In this very difficult but transformative journey, I learned that life begets life begets life, and artistic self-expression is not an indulgence, but rather, a superpower. 

As I danced on the beach with my dog over a couple of days, a vision emerged – a global movement of Jews and our allies taking videos of ourselves dancing joyfully, and sending those videos to the people wounded in the Oct. 7 massacre, the families of those who died, the families of those taken hostage, and the young women and men on the frontlines defending Israel from further attack – turning “we will dance again” into “we will dance for you until you can dance again” – sharing whatever strength, freedom and joy we have to uplift those who are in the thick of it, struggling and suffering.

Having snapped out of an emotional coma of sorts, I then picked up my bass, and out poured both the melody and lyrics of a new song, “’Til You Can Dance Again.” That same day, I finally finished the song I had started a few weeks after Oct. 7, “Dear Hostages.” Not having touched my bass for the better part of three months, I played until my fingers were blistered and almost bleeding. Over the next 24 hours, I wrote two additional songs, and then worked with my band on developing a full album, ’Til You Can Dance Again, offering both my journey and my joy as a catalyst for healing and transformation.

It is through song, dance, story, prayer and food that Jews historically have not only overcome tragedy, but have taken that very experience and transmuted it into an vehicle for joy – the ultimate “f*** you” to those who have tried to destroy us. For this reason, my band released our new album on March 23, at the start of Purim, a holiday marking one of many historical traumas that the Jewish people have turned on its head and morphed into a cause for celebration. My heartfelt prayer for this album is that, as broken as we may feel right now, we shall once again rise up, sing and dance ourselves back to wholeness, and honour the victims of Oct. 7 not only through our grief and pain, but also through our fierce and irrepressible Jewish joy – emerging, once again, like that unstoppable phoenix, soaring up and out from the ashes. 

Loolwa Khazzoom (khazzoom.com) is the frontwoman for the band Iraqis in Pajamas and editor of The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage (theflyingcamelbook.com). She has been a pioneering Jewish multicultural educator since 1990, and her writing has been featured in the Washington Post, Marie Claire, Rolling Stone and other top media worldwide. This article was originally published in the Times of Israel.

More about the album

On March 23, Iraqis in Pajamas released the album ‘Til You Can Dance Again, as a tribute to the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre.

Its creation served as a vehicle for Khazzoom’s processing and healing, and the tone of the songs evolved as Khazzoom herself evolved from feeling despair to outrage to core power.

“Dear Hostages” is a love song to those held in captivity, in which Khazzoom pledges, I will not forsake you, I will not forget you, as she explores what it means to act in solidarity from afar. 

“’Til You Can Dance Again” is a spin on the Israeli promise, “We will dance again” – vowing to spread the life energy of dance, to help uplift the spirits of those who were shattered by the massacre. 

“Bataween” draws from a conversation with an Iraqi Muslim friend, exemplifying the healing imperative of Arab Muslims recognizing and caring about the history of indigenous Middle Eastern Jews, including the experience of Arab Muslim oppression. 

“Kids from the Sandbox” builds on that imperative, holding out a vision for Arabs and Jews to embrace the complexity of shared history, using art to express love and hate in healthy ways, effectively co-creating a new reality. 

“I’m a F***-You Jew” fuses ancient and contemporary stories of Jewish defiance and soul power in an unabashed expression of Jewish pride and strength amid an onslaught of global accusation and condemnation. 

“These Boots” is a campy spin on “never again,” calling out the left’s hypocrisy and betrayal in the wake of Oct. 7, and refusing to contribute Jewish energy and resources to those who do not offer the same in turn. 

“Bloody Cross” is a scathing critique of the Red Cross’s racism and hypocrisy in its failure and refusal to properly care for the Israeli hostages in Gaza.

For the full press release, and to listen to the recordings, visit khazzoom.com/blog and click on ’Til You Can Dance Again – New Album Release.

– Courtesy Iraqis in Pajamas

Mitzvah to return lost items

During the winter and spring in Winnipeg, sometimes one sees a child’s toy or a colourful mitten attached to a tree or hedge along a sidewalk. These are lost items. The neighbourly thing to do when you see something in a snowbank or on the packed snowy sidewalk is to pick it up and prop it up at adult eye level. It helps others. Maybe it will stop toddlers’ tears. 

Our household found somebody’s bike lock key last fall. This was harder to post. We took a piece of paper and wrote “Is this your key?” on it in large capital letters. Using clear tape, we attached the key and the sign to a powerline pole. A long time passed. One day, someone finally found their key. Relieved, we took down the sign.

I’ve been studying the Babylonian talmudic tractate of Baba Metzia, which covers civil law, including the rules around how to deal with lost items. It examines details that I often ponder. For instance, if a person finds an inanimate object, it has different obligations attached than if one finds an animal. We must return lost animals. If we don’t know how to return them, the finder must care for the animal, including feeding and watering the animal. If the animal’s upkeep is a burden, provisions exist for selling the animal and keeping the money to compensate the person who lost their animal. The particulars can be complex.

I became interested in a category that isn’t easy to describe – an object that isn’t alive or animate but still needs care. Things like books, which, in the days of the Talmud, were scrolls made of parchment made from animals. The finder had to rotate the scrolls occasionally to maintain them until they could return them. The finder couldn’t use the scrolls for study in a way that might cause undue wear on these hand-scribed texts. 

Another thing in this category, in Bava Metzia 29b, says: “If one found a garment, he shakes it once in thirty days and he spreads it out for its sake, to ventilate it, but he may not use it as a decoration for his own prestige.” As someone who makes and cares for natural fibre textiles (handspun and knit sweaters, for instance), I understood this immediately. Clothing wasn’t mass produced then. There were no factories. Everyone used spindles and spun and wove clothing. It wasn’t fast fashion. Clothes took skill and a lot of time to make. So, if someone found a garment, he knew its value. It wasn’t disposable. He must keep it well-aired, to be sure it was clean and cared for, and not attracting destructive pests like moths. Since he didn’t own or make it, he also couldn’t use the garment himself. 

Bava Metzia also explores when someone loses a garment and “despairs” of its return. That is, when one gives up entirely on getting it back.

For anyone who has seen images of the destroyed cars, homes and belongings left after Oct. 7 on the kibbutzim in southern Israel or from the Nova festival, these details hit hard. Some Israelis from these areas escaped with their lives but have “despaired” of ever getting back what they lost, they don’t want to return and try to reclaim things. Others asked for help or sifted through the remains of their homes to find precious items. Still others have managed to return home to their belongings and restart their lives.

This despair and reclamation reminded me of my in-laws and their stories of displacement after the Second World War. Their possessions, buried or left behind years earlier in Poland, were impossible to claim. Non-Jews had moved into their homes and taken their things. After four years in five different displaced persons’ camps, my father-in-law, his sisters and parents moved to the United States. Decades later, my husband’s grandmother would describe her family’s bakery in Mezritch and what they lost. Even in her despair, there was an acknowledgement that she worked daily to let go of that loss, and be grateful for a new, rich life for her family. 

This family refugee story, of loss and rebuilding, contrasts sharply with the UNRWA concept of intergenerational Palestinian refugee status. As Jewish communities have been forced to move over thousands of years, we have, perhaps, been lucky to have these talmudic guidelines, now 1,500 to 2,000 years old, on how we can claim lost items and how we can accept loss and move on. As we tell the Passover story, we remind ourselves of the many times our people have had to leave everything behind and start again. 

Teaching how to navigate lost items starts young. A PJ Library book sent to our children, called Sara Finds a Mitzva, helped us with this. Sara, the protagonist, follows through with the mitzvah (commandment) to return lost items when she finds a toy duck. She tours her Orthodox New York City neighbourhood to find the duck’s owner. My kids loved this book and its beautiful illustrations, which offered glimpses of my mother’s childhood, as well as taught a valuable lesson.

We also work with our children to help them understand that sometimes things go missing, and how to move on. After all, we say, it’s just a thing. People matter more than things. With war on our minds, we must focus on what counts most. I am praying for the safe return of the Israeli hostages. We cannot fall prey to despair – our tradition teaches that, when we despair, we have given up hope of an eventual return. Further, we must make sense of a situation where thousands of Israelis have lost their physical belongings but must now make a new life for themselves. Across the border, there are civilians in Gaza who must also rebuild their homes and lives after the war.

It’s one thing to study the rabbis’ ancient debates as an intellectual exercise. It’s another thing altogether to return pets and livestock, find belongings, and make new households amid this destruction. We have a history of past loss that offers guidance, as those affected by war are physically finding their way through this difficult experience. 

We must work together to find new paths after loss. Even if it’s familiar territory, as Jews, it doesn’t mean it’s easy. Perhaps each of us, like Sara in the children’s book, can be lucky and find something – whether it’s physical or intangible. Then we, too, can do the mitzvah of returning lost things, and observe Passover, too. Creating a joyful holiday after trauma also offers a third mitzvah, that of tikkun olam, or “repairing the world” – bringing a bit of joy back to someone who needs it. 

Joanne Seiff has written regularly for the Winnipeg Free Press and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.

Selina Robinson’s full speech – rally for Israeli hostages March 17/24

My friends,

I am sorry that I could not join you in person for safety reasons, but I thank the organizers for sharing a few words on my behalf.

My heart has been with all of you these past five months. I join you in seeking release of the hostages now. I join you in seeking peace – peace for the Palestinians – peace for Israelis – peace for us all.

I am told the theme for this week is resilience and so I have spent the last few days reflecting on my own resilience – as the lone voice in government speaking up for the Jewish community and how difficult it had become while others remained silent. I also focused on how much more difficult it became after I was forced to resign, feeling punished for speaking up about Jew-hatred.

I reflected on where the strength, the koach came from to persist, when it would have been so much easier to be silent, to fade into the background, to go along with the others and to pretend that everything was okay.

So, from where do I draw the strength?

It comes from different places:

  • A husband outraged that his wife is poorly treated by her colleagues, forced from a role she loves and who now keeps a baseball bat in the bedroom because others are threatening her life.
  • A son who stopped going to his gym shortly after the massacre on Oct. 7 because the Port Moody gym owner and city councillor decided that putting up a large Palestinian flag in her gym demonstrating to the world that she suddenly cares so deeply about a complex geopolitical conflict thousands of miles away is more important than the hurt this causes friends, colleagues, and customers.
  • A daughter who now must find significant financial resources to make sure the Jewish children in her care are safe this summer.

My strength has also come from:

  • The two Jewish professional women who, as a requirement of their jobs, came to hear the Throne Speech at the Legislature in February. They were forced to find a safe route into the building as there were dozens of protesters aggressively calling for a unilateral ceasefire and the destruction of Jews.
  • The physicians who refuse to train Jew-hating UBC medical students.
  • The teachers who organize to push back on the Jew-hatred we are seeing in the [BC Teachers’ Federation].
  • The people working in the public service who are telling their stories of intimidation like being told that their Jewish star necklace is a symbol of genocide.

Resilience for me comes from the countless stories from people who talk about being fearful at work, from Holocaust survivors who say, “It’s happening again.”

Resilience comes from Jewish community leaders and volunteers who are doing everything they can to keep programs running, to push government to do the right thing, to care for their congregants who are scared and worried, and who lead by example.

Resilience comes from the emails and letters from hundreds of people, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, who remind me that even though I felt alone in my caucus and in government, I was not alone. I am not alone. We are not alone. Many were seeing what I was seeing, what we are seeing and are prepared to stand up to Jew-hatred.

Resilience comes from reaching out to others who are hurting too and finding out that they want to help heal our wounds together.

Resilience comes from seeing the Oct. 7 survivors of rape and torture pick up the pieces of their lives. It comes from seeing Israelis gather once again to protest their government. It comes from so many of you who have reached out with words of support, encouragement, and love.

Resilience comes from us gathering our collective strength as we lift each other up and remind ourselves that we are not alone – that together we will find the strength – the strength to bring peace.