Rabbis And Congregants Travel To Israel, Return With Hope

For 4 months, the media has covered the aftermath of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.

But news reports can convey only so much.

Earlier this month 21 Westporters — led by Rabbis Jeremy Wiederhorn of TCS, and Michael Friedman and Zach Plesent — headed there, to see for themselves.

It was a brief trip: just 4 days. But as they traveled around the country, met soldiers who fought Hamas that day, and families that hid in safe rooms; volunteered at an agricultural center, and visited the site of the music festival massacre, they felt a welter of emotions.

Horror, anger, inspiration, pride — all those and more remained, when they returned to Westport last week.

The rabbis and their congregants began with a visit to Danny’s Farm. The “oasis of calm” assists soldiers suffering from PTSD.

They headed south to the Gaza Envelope, less than 5 miles from the Gaza Strip. The Westporters volunteered with the New Guard, which organizes help in the fields and orchards previously tended by foreign workers, and Gazans with security clearances.

Rabbi Jeremy Wiederhorn picks fruit.

They visited a brigade that transports troops and supplies in and out of Gaza, and heard from a major in the paratroops reserves who was involved in the fighting on October 7.

The Westport group, with IDF troops. The poster was created by young Temple Israel students.

At Kibbutz Nirim — a community severely impacted by the Hamas terrorists — the Westport group met a woman whose family hid in their safe room for hours that day.

Aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack. 

The rabbis and their congregants visited the site of the Nova Music Festival. It is now a memorial, and a gathering spot for families, visitors and soldiers. As they paid their respects, artillery boomed nearby.

Music festival memorial. 

The group also met with the father of an October 7 hero, first responders, and an expert on the Israel-Arab community; visited graves of fallen soldiers; sorted clothes for evacuees, and went to the Kotel, where Rabbi Friedman placed notes written by 3rd and 4th grade students.

Young Westporters’ notes in Kotel wall.

“Our itinerary sounds macabre,” Rabbi Friedman wrote midway through his trip to Temple Israel members back home.

“Although it was unquestionably sad, there was also a clear sense of pride, purpose, unity, mutual support, and that most powerful of Jewish senses: memory. Even in the presence of death, one feels the essential vitality of the Jewish people.”

Later, he quoted a congregant, who said, “This was oxygen for my soul and stitched up my broken heart.”

Rabbi Friedman concluded: “As much as this trip gave us, so many of the Israelis we met gave us the gift of expressing their appreciation to us for being there.

“I knew I needed to be here, but I didn’t realize just how much. I needed to mourn at Har Herzl, witness the Nova Festival memorial, and feel terror as I entered the replica Hamas tunnel in Hostage Square. I also needed to experience the vitality of Machane Yehuda, pick bushels of lemons in an orchard, and bask in the sun for a moment in Herzilya.

“We came home knowing that every single Israeli Jew is fighting the war. Some are risking their lives, but everyone is fighting — for their children’s future, to hold their community together, to provide for neighbors and strangers, to simply do what needs to be done at an impossibly difficult time.

“On several occasions, we joined groups singing HaTikvah together, outdoors, in public. It was an expression of our commitment to embody the words of the prophet Zechariah, who calls us ‘prisoners of hope.’

“Despite everything, our shared fate, shared vision for the future, and shared destiny as Am Yisrael points us in the direction of hope.”