We Stand with Israel

By Julia Loeb, WLCJ International President

This is not the Shabbat message I thought I would be writing this week. As we emerged feeling renewed after the introspection of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the celebration of Sukkot, I thought I would be writing about new beginnings—the possibilities that open to us as we begin the Torah again, take care of all the items on our to-do list that we said we would do “after the holidays,” and start our programming year in our affiliates and in Women’s League. Of course, that all changed after the brutal attacks this past weekend and the rockets that continue to rain down on the State of Israel.

I am sad. Today I heard that the death toll has reached 1200. 1200 mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, soldiers, and civilians who were killed by terrorists. My heart breaks for all the family members who are grieving or who are worried because they don’t know whether their loved ones are alive or not. Yesterday, I scrolled through Facebook and saw so many people posting about their missing friends and family. Now people are posting and sharing posts about loved ones who have been killed in these terrorist attacks. It is difficult and painful to see all these faces, but I feel compelled to look at each of them, to acknowledge their lives and remember their deaths. May their memory always be for a blessing.

I am mad. My anger grows with each news article or television report about the brutality of these killings.

I am glad. I feel hopeful that so many have come together to condemn the attacks. Countries around the globe are illuminating their landmarks with the colors of the Israeli Flag. The response to these attacks has crossed political, religious, and ideological lines here and in Israel. In a country of nine million people, 360,000 reservists have been called up, including a 95-year-old who fought against the British and the Arabs to create a Jewish Homeland. Many of these reservists were recently protesting the Israeli government but have now answered the call of their government to defend their country.

This is not the message about beginnings that I planned to write, but it is about beginnings. Unlike the Torah, though, this story in Israel is still being written. On Simchat Torah we finish reading the Torah and immediately begin again. We know that the first letter of the Torah is Bet, from Bereshit but less well known is that the last word of the Torah is Yisrael which ends in the letter Lamed. If

we put the two letters together to connect the ending and beginning of the Torah, we create the word, Lev which means heart. Am echad b’lev echad. One nation, one heart. When one Jew is hurt, all Jews feel their pain. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Israel in these difficult days.

Rabbi Ellen Wolintz-Fields has written a prayer for Israel that we have included in WL Week this week and is posted on the Women’s League website.

May peace come soon, speedily and in our days.

Julia Loeb
WLCJ International President
jloeb@wlcj.org