One of the real winners in the recent Gaza War was Israel’s Iron Dome Rocket Defense System which successfully knocked down 421 rockets launched from Gaza and bound for Israeli cities, an 84 percent success rate. The system limited Israeli casualties to six during the seven days of bombardment and as a result significantly decreased the pressure on Israeli decision makers to invade Gaza.

We just returned from a seven-day AIPAC mission along with 150 other AIPAC supporters from across the United States. One of the unique opportunities we had was a special briefing specific to our AIPAC group from Ari (last name purposely withheld), systems development engineer of Rafael Industries, which is the developer of the Iron Dome System. Ari’s presentation was fact-filled, showing footage of how the system worked and its tremendous capabilities and success. This briefing occurred seven days before the war began on Nov. 8.

It is important to know that the system was developed by the Israelis with financial aid from the United States. This process was not without its significant travails.

The Iron Dome system, although manned, is completely computerized. The system is able to identify the trajectory of the missile and within seconds identify which missiles are headed for population centers and which will fall in uninhabited areas. Within seconds the hostile missiles are destroyed and the non-hostile missiles are allowed to fall harmlessly.

One can only speculate what would have happened without the Iron Dome system in terms of Israeli casualties and the response that would have engendered.

The following is an email from Ari to our AIPAC group, sent Thursday, Nov. 29, at 8:47 a.m. with the subject line: A message of gratitude.

Now that the bullets have stopped flying, I wanted to pass this message to as many people as I know, but especially to those who dedicate their lives to the State of Israel. The message is from me, and me only. Please feel free to pass it to anyone pertinent.

Without a doubt, Operation Pillar of Defense would have looked very different had Iron Dome not been operational. The system intercepted hundreds of rockets that were headed straight into the heart of residential areas. Iron Dome saved lives, protected property, and gave people a sense of security, something that they had been missing for more than a decade. Iron Dome was the product of the hard work of unbelievably dedicated and talented people. On Thursday I came to work only to see some friends of mine run out of the building, telling me they were “off to set up a battery in Tel Aviv.” Turns out that they worked for 48 hours straight, into Shabbat, not pausing to change their clothing, shower, or even to eat, but they set up that battery. And three hours later, that battery shot down a Fajr-5 headed straight for Tel Aviv.

Since 2010, the people of the United States of America have given the State of Israel nearly $300 million for the procurement of Iron Dome. Another $600 million has been allocated. You people should know that Iron Dome batteries that were funded with American money played a critical part in the conflict. Your money, your help, saved lives. There are people walking around today who are eating falafel, learning Torah, or just playing with their children, who would not be here today if it were not for the United States of America. To this end, no words will ever suffice.

But let me try: Thank you.

And may G-d Almighty bless America

Cheers,

Ari”

AIPAC, whose sole mission is to keep the U.S.-Israel relationship strong and secure, is extremely proud to have been recognized by Ari for the role AIPAC has played in keeping Israel safe and secure. AIPAC Kansas, once again, thanks our congressmen and senators for their significant support for the Iron Dome System through its many design changes.

You should know, those of you who have so generously worked with and donated to AIPAC, that your trust is most appreciated and valued. Your work and effort has not only solidified the U.S.-Israel relationship but more important, it has saved lives.

Matt Siegel and Larry Nussbaum are members of the AIPAC Kansas Club.

AIPAC to host post-election event

The KC AIPAC Chapter will host Ed Miller, AIPAC’s deputy national political director, for a Club-level post-election event on Tuesday evening, Jan. 8. To learn more contact Brad Fahlgren, area director for Kansas and Missouri, at the AIPAC Chicago office, 312-253-8997 or email him at: .

According to its mission statement, “AIPAC empowers pro-Israel activists across all ages, religions and races to be politically engaged and build relationships with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle to promote the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

Although the event on Jan. 8 is not an AIPAC Shabbat, it’s that kind of information that members of the community will learn about during an AIPAC Shabbat, explained KC Council Chair Bonnie Siegel. “AIPAC Shabbat was started here five years ago,” she said. “And because  Kansas City is a model for other AIPAC regions, it has been replicated across the country.”

To host an AIPAC Shabbat — or receive an invitation to one — call AIPAC Special Projects Chair Brenda Rosenthal at 913-568-8105, or Siegel at 816-835-1251.

Registration is also open for the annual AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., March 3-5. The KC Chapter sent more than 90 members in 2012 and is looking to exceed 100 in 2013. To learn more, visit www.aipac.org.

Governor’s actions unacceptable

Kansas Gov. Brownback proclaimed Dec. 8, 2012, as a Day of Restoration in Kansas with the tagline: Ignite the Fire of Repentance and Unite the Body of Christ. There are many problems surrounding this egregious proclamation including the governor’s total disregard for the separation of church and state, and the resulting affront to anyone not deemed a “Christian,” e.g. Muslims, Jews, atheists and more.

Additionally, ReignDown, the organization promoting this event, is an extreme right-wing organization associating itself with people who are not even close to the mainstream when it comes to political issues. Among their articulated stands are the endorsement of prayer in school and opposition to abortion for any reason. Two of their “partners” are a congressman from Arizona, who said in 2010 that blacks were better off under slavery; and a “Christian prophet” named Cindy Jacobs.

Not only do I find the governor’s actions unacceptable, I fear his no-tax policy to encourage individuals and businesses to move to Kansas will surely be inhibited by his extremism, thus inflicting even more harm and cuts in social services sorely needed by many Kansas residents. Why was this proclamation not covered by the Kansas City Star?

Judy Sherry
Kansas City, Mo.

Fond farewell

Dan Henkin, whose obituary appeared in the Nov. 15 edition of The Chronicle, was a person who made a considerable mark in this life and who comes along rarely. I’d like to tell you a little more about him.

Dan was a musician. A member of the large and respected Chernikoff family, he received his first clarinet as a gift from an uncle. At the ripe age of 15, in 1945, as a member of the Kansas City Philharmonic, he became the youngest clarinet player in a major U.S. symphony.

As a freshman at the University of Missouri in 1947, Dan joined Alpha Epsilon Pi, a little known Jewish fraternity. He, along with other K.C. high school friends including Stan Bodker, helped build that fraternity become one of the largest and most successful fraternity chapters in the nation. He was honored by the MU chapter as “alumnus of the year” in 1974 for all of his efforts.

He joined The Eddie Sigaloff swing band in college and, at the same time, managed the bookings for other bands as well. There were spring weekends in which Dan had as many as four dance band engagements going at one time.

Following graduation in 1951, Dan entered the U.S. Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant. He organized a military dance band that played all over Japan and Korea. During his stay there, he met the person that he was destined to spend the rest of his life with, Mary Henkin. The couple was married in 1958.

After the military he served as advertising manager at C.G. Conn, a large band instrument producer in Elkhart, Ind. He next became a business owner, first purchasing K.G. Gemeinhardt, a producer of flutes in Elkhart, for $1.2 million. In the 1970s he sold that same company to CBS for $8.5 million. Eventually he owned another 13 instrument manufacturers, in Elkhart and other nearby cities.

Dan’s influence changed the music instrument business dramatically. His companies changed the way instruments were sold to young people, established programs to educate kids in music, and started band programs around the United States in support of this effort.

Henkin enjoyed friendships in the music industry all over the United States, even calling Doc Severinson, a jazz trumpeter known for leading the band of the “Johnny Carson” show, a personal friend. And, of course, he never forgot his friends in Kansas City. He will be missed.

M J Rosenbloom
Prairie Village, Kan.

Palestinian state a mistake

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas succeeded in his appeal at the U.N. General Assembly Thursday, Nov. 29, to upgrade the status of the PLO as an “observer state” at the U.N. All presentations that Abbas made to his people in the Arabic language made it clear that his concept of an “observer state” will include all of Palestine, “from the river to the sea,” in accordance with the PLO Covenant, which was never cancelled.

The Palestine Broadcasting Corporation Radio Station, the official voice of the Palestinian Authority, had this to say in a broadcast the day of the vote:

“Today the whole world recognizes the criminality of the occupation, the existence of a Palestinian State … Today is a proud day to be a Palestinian, and we must be united. Today we take the first step towards ending the occupation, and reclaiming our homeland, from Gaza, to Nablus, Jerusalem, Haifa, Afula, all of Palestine.

“We will use our newfound recognition to hold the occupation accountable for its crimes against humanity in the past two weeks.

“We are all one Palestine, and now more than ever we must be united because this is the beginning of the end of the occupation. Our brothers in Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Gaza, we now all speak with one voice.”

In response to this development, I believe it is up to U.S. citizens to write to every member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee, (members of both committees are listed on the internet) to demand a suspension of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority.

You can reach your representative by calling the Capitol switchboard number, 202-224-3121. The comment line for the White House is: 202-456-1111; the White House switchboard is 202-456-1414.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
President
Israel Advocacy Task Force

Thanks for the coverage

I appreciate, am pleased with and grateful to The Chronicle for the comprehensive report and review of my memoir. My inspiration for the book was a need to record a history of an exciting community period of communal growth. By letting it be known that the book is now available, The Chronicle contributed in informing members of the Jewish community that an opportunity exists to learn about what the community has and is still accomplishing.

I am not accepting royalties for this book, as all such payments are being directed to the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.

Sol Koenigsberg
Executive Director Emeritus
Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City

Help impoverished Israelis

It’s terrible to learn that many of our people in Israel are going hungry because their government always has to spend so much on defense.

We can’t ignore this. So in this country we must start sending money regularly so that many Israelis will not have to sit down to an empty dinner table. Please start doing this now.

You can send money to:

Yad Eliezer: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Israel
American Friends of Yad Eliezer
1102 E. 26th St.,
Brooklyn, NY 11210
YadEliezer.org

The Jewish Federations of North America has also set up the Israel Terror Relief Fund (not just for food)

Jewish Federations of North America
Wall Street Station — PO Box 157
New York, NY 10268
www.jewishfederations.org

(Editor’s note: The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City is also raising money that goes directly into this fund where all money will go toward humanitarian efforts. To learn more visit the website at www.jewishkansascity.org.)

Gloria Schlossenberg
Overland Park, Kan.

When we are facing health and healing challenges, community and tradition are two of the resources we call upon in Jewish life. I learned this lesson of community and tradition most profoundly from a colleague and mentor, Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, rabbinic director of the National Center for Jewish Healing. It forms the foundation of our Jewish Community Chaplaincy program in Kansas City, of which I have the privilege of serving as Kansas City’s Jewish Community Chaplain.

Both the keva (framework) and kavannah (intention) of the Chaplaincy program reflect these two tablets of the Jewish spiritual care “covenant.” When faced with a life crisis, like a healthcare challenge, many of us feel isolated and disconnected from the Jewish community and tradition. We might need spiritual counseling but may have no rabbi or congregation to call on for support. In particular, Jewish older adults, who make up the majority of Jewish people in hospitals and eldercare centers, feel isolated from the organized Jewish community.

The Chaplaincy program speaks to the spiritual needs of those in crisis. We are part of lives in moments of profound difficulty and transition, from guiding the adult child of middle aged-parents through the family dynamics around coping with serious illness to supporting a middle-aged woman through treatment for a life-threatening illness. And other situations include praying with an elderly man before he dies, chanting Kol Nidre at the bedside of a patient receiving home hospice care, comforting a parent whose middle-aged daughter died suddenly, counseling a young person who attempted suicide and providing support to that person’s family.

Our spiritual care volunteer program enables us to touch the lives of more than 1,700 individuals each year. Spiritual care volunteers are lay members of virtually all of the area congregations trained to visit Jews who are sick and isolated. These volunteers provide a range of Jewish spiritual care in the healthcare community that would otherwise simply not be possible.

I consult regularly with hospitals and eldercare centers about specific patients and their needs, and answer questions regarding how best to serve their Jewish patients and residents. The Chaplaincy Program has become a vital resource for area health care institutions, helping them be more culturally sensitive to Jewish concerns and providing spiritual comfort in dealing with disease and death. I also educate staff and patients at health care institutions around these issues, and we use a booklet entitled “Circle of Healing” that we leave with Jewish patients and residents to aid in the spiritual healing process.

In the traditional Jewish prayer for healing, we ask for a refuah shleima — refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf, a spiritual healing as well as a physical healing. We know that people are multi-dimensional, with all of the different dimensions of our humanity constantly interacting in a dynamic way — emotionally, physically, socially, psychologically and spiritually.

So in order to talk about a “complete healing,” we must relate to all of these dimensions, emphasizing the spiritual dimension as the realm where the meaning is created and developed. The Jewish Community Chaplaincy Program is a powerful expression of the commitment of the greater Kansas City Jewish community, under the auspices of Jewish Family Services, to do just that.

We are grateful for core funding of the program that comes from the Jewish community, through the support of the Menorah Legacy Foundation, the Jewish Community Foundation, the Jewish Heritage Foundation and the Jewish Federation. We are thankful for additional financial support from six major area healthcare institutions.

With blessings of peace and wholeness — shalom.

Rabbi Jonathan Rudnick, the Jewish Community Chaplain, can be reached at 913-915-7730 or at .

Communitywide Healing service
just around the corner

The Jewish Community Chaplaincy program of Jewish Family Services is hosting a healing service at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, at Village Shalom.

The service will be conducted by Linda Sweenie, music director at Congregation Beth Torah, Jewish Community Chaplain Rabbi Jonathan Rudnick and Rabbi David Glickman, senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom, who will be the special guest facilitator.

The healing service is free and open to the entire community, regardless of one’s level of observance. A light nosh will precede the service and sweets will be provided afterward. The healing service will feature both traditional liturgy and contemporary readings and music.

Reservations are requested for the healing service and should be made by calling JFS at 913-327-8250 or sending an email to .

Be proactive advocates

Israelis are on the front lines of an ongoing war. As American Jews, we can be soldiers in the media war against Israel. We can be effective advocates for Israel by being vigilante about biased reporting and fighting back. If a story on NPR, CNN or USA Today is skewed, call them on it. Become active in CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Reporting on the Middle East)

When American Muslims perceive a report or article as anti-Arab or Muslim, there is a huge outcry. Their leaders are proactive in getting their perspective across in the media, contacting political representatives, creating courses on Mideast studies at junior colleges and universities, giving educational workshops in churches, etc.

If Jewish leaders are not effective in advocating for Israel, replace them. If Jewish organizations are failing to live up to their mission statement to defend Israel, stop donating money and tell them why.

Jews are articulate, smart and fund many Jewish organizations. However, when it comes to the media war, the Muslims are beating us badly.

Anita Colman
Mission, Kan.

Opposing opinions don’t affect friendship

Despite our political differences, it was a privilege and an honor knowing Rabbi Morris Margolies for the last 30 years.

I first met Rabbi Margolies when I came to Kansas City in 1982 at the age of 23. I started teaching Hebrew at Congregation Beth Shalom’s religious school when Rabbi Margolies was the senior rabbi. Even though he was busy he found the time several times a year over the next four years to come to my class and observe my teaching. I will always remember him sitting at the back of the class for an hour listening with joy in his eyes. Afterwards we would speak in Hebrew and discuss issues such as Jewish education, history, and his beloved city of Jerusalem where he was born. He was encouraging and supportive of my teaching, acting both as a mentor and an educator.

In 1993 the Oslo Agreement was signed and I started writing in The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle against the agreement and the ongoing negotiations with Arafat, while Rabbi Margolies wrote in support of the agreement. Even though for the next 15 years, I wrote my opinions, which were opposite to his weekly columns in The Chronicle, every time Rabbi Margolies met me, he welcomed me warmly with a smile, a kiss and a hug. We never talked about our political opinions and our political differences never interfered with our respect and liking of each other. We used to discuss his other passions including Jewish education as the means to Jewish survival in the United States and the importance of the success of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.

Despite our differences, I never had doubt that his love for Israel, the Jewish people and Jerusalem was as strong as mine. He truly believed that talking to Israel’s enemies is the only way to bring peace to Israel and help Israel survive.

I will always appreciate Rabbi Margolies’ commitment and contribution to Jewish life in Kansas City. But I appreciate even more that he believed by example that despite our disagreements we are all parts of the same Jewish people and we must be respectful to and responsible for each other. His leadership and inspiration will be missed!

Shoula Romano Horing
Kansas City, Mo.

(Editor’s note: This message from Todd Stettner, executive vice president & CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, first appeared on the agency’s website and email blast Friday, Nov. 16.)

Imagine that terrorists have taken over the Kansas City Airport and have set up and are firing SAJR rockets (made in Iran) at downtown K.C., Prairie Village and Overland Park. (Yes, these missiles have that kind of range.)
What do you think our military and police would do?

Now, imagine you are a mother, driving your young child, who is strapped into a car seat. You hear the air raid siren, giving you only 15 seconds to seek shelter. This is what mothers in the southern (and now other parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem) are facing every day.

Sadly, Israel is at war again.

I was in Israel when the second Lebanese War started. I heard the boom of cannons and the roar of Israeli jets taking off from a nearby air base to attack Hezbollah. I saw children from the north sheltered in camps in Ramla to ensure their safety, and I met a doctor in Eilat who moved patients from a hospital in the Galilee so they would not be harmed by rockets. But this time things have changed: better, longer-range rockets have made the entire southern and central part of Israel unsafe and if, G-d forbid, Hezbollah joins this fight, all of Israel will be under attack.

As always in these times we are quick to react:

We have opened the Israel Terror Relief Fund locally.

$5 million dollars have been sent already by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) as an advance against community fundraising efforts.

The Reform and Conservative national movements have pledged to work with this campaign to raise as much money as needed. (Note: Orthodox and traditional congregations in Kansas City are also working with Jewish Federation to help.)

Most important, our partners, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) are already on the ground to help Israel’s beleaguered citizens.

JAFI is already moving more than 4,000 students, in grades one through 12, to safer, more secure locations. Special psychological counseling interventions for parents and children suffering from emotional trauma are being offered.

The JDC is preparing emergency kits for the elderly and the disabled, and is working with emergency case workers who provide psychological and physical support so that they can stay in their homes during the sirens (most Israeli homes in the area have a safe room).

The Israel Trauma Coalition is operating phone hot lines, workshops for children and parents and team training and support for emergency relief workers in the field in coordination with local community councils.

Ofer Lichtig, Kansas City’s representative in Israel, has informed me that all electioneering has stopped in Israel as all parties and candidates have united around the government to show support.

I’ll leave you with this thought: On my office window sill sits a stuffed dog doll with Velcro at the tips of his front paws and a sad look on his face. His name is Hibuki which means “huggy.” He is a therapy tool used with young Israeli children (typically victims of terror) to get them to talk about why they are sad. With the Velcro on his paws, Hibuki’s arms can be wrapped around a child and fastened to give them a hug. I acquired it after the last war with Lebanon, and I have used it over the years to bring smiles to young children who visit my office. I wish that it could be doing the same — bringing smiles to children in Israel right now — rather than be used for its intended therapeutic purpose.

I invite you to post your thoughts on my blog, keep checking our website (www.jewishkansascity.org), Facebook page, Twitter account, or Ophir Hacohen’s Israel Emissary Facebook page for updated information.

Sol Koenigsberg, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Kansas City from 1968 to 1989, has given us a memoir of his public career, a lively account of the movers and shakers in the Jewish community in the last half of the 20th century, and a guide through Jewish institutional and organizational life in Kansas City. It is an engaging memoir that will evoke nostalgia in the older generation, be a history lesson for the next generation, and serve as a primer and guidebook for future leaders and community members in Kansas City and elsewhere. In many ways it serves as a sequel to Joe Schultz’s edited 1982 “Mid-America’s Promise: A profile of Kansas City Jewry.” But if it also fills in the details and continues the story forward, it is a much richer, more nuanced story not only of Jewish institutions but also leaders and events. If Koenigsberg made Federation the central address of organized Jewish secular life during his tenure, he also played a major role in creating new institutions like the Jewish Community Foundation, the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy and the Jewish Community Campus.

“Challenge and Growth” is a memoir of Koenigsberg’s professional career as the leading Jewish civil servant in Kansas City; his personal life is mostly absent from the volume. So too are personal stories absent in the discussions and assessments of other professionals and volunteers with whom he worked during those years. He is generous in acknowledging the work of others, and while he is honest in his brief assessment of their contributions, we long for more behind the scenes stories if not gossip. Also absent are aspects of the Jewish community that did not involve Federation — religious life, synagogues, Jewish education other than Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, the Jewish Chronicle and other Jewish cultural activities, like the Jewish Museum Without Walls, founded by Sybil and Norman Kahn, or issues relating to kashrut and kosher butchers and groceries. He limits himself to what we might call the minhag (local custom) of Jewish Federation.

Koenigberg’s book gives brief biographies of his predecessors at Federation, This sets the stage for his arrival in Kansas City in 1968. A World War II sailor, he used the GI Bill to switch from music to social work. An internship at the University of Pennsylvania — assisting concentration camp survivors — then two years in Detroit helping Holocaust survivors, changed his life: he chose a career in Jewish communal service. When he came to Kansas City in 1968 he was a Zionist who believed in the centrality of Israel to Jewish identity, and found a community still influenced by a past anti-Zionist reputation.

Much of the book recounts for us momentous events and institutional changes in the Kansas City Jewish community during his years. While detailing Federation’s leadership in making Israel a priority in Kansas City, he also discusses the resettlement of Soviet Jews, assistance to North African Jews in Israel, and rescue of Beta Israel — Ethiopian Jews. At the same time he is occasionally critical of the inability of the Kansas City Jewish community to do more in these efforts.

But his memoirs are most important for what they tell us about the future of organized and institutional life in Kansas City. Kansas City played an innovative national role in creating an unaffiliated community day school and in bringing it within Federation; previously Jewish education had been left to synagogues or separate organizations. How that was achieved in Kansas City is still an untold story. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of Federation during Koenigsberg’s tenure was the building of the Jewish Community Campus, that “unifying entity” that brought together all the major Jewish institutions except what became Village Shalom. Koenigsberg tells the story through his own reminiscences as well as interviews with other active leaders and participants. The visionaries proved right; not only were the funds raised and the debt retired, but both individual agencies and the Campus itself benefitted from their mutual relationship and helped reshape Jewish life. The Jewish community came to concentrate mostly in the area around the campus.

Equally important to understanding Kansas City Jewry and national philanthropy is the rise in importance of the Jewish Community Foundation, the Menorah Legacy Foundation, and the Jewish Heritage Foundation. While Federation retains a central role in long-time community planning, the annual campaign and giving — with its concern over 12-month budgets — is slowly giving way to endowment funds and donor-directed giving. Koenigsberg’s discussion of Jewish Community Foundation and interviews with Foundation leaders provides an essential road map for understanding the changes occurring in Jewish institutional life and philanthropy today.

This book takes seriously Jewish community institutions and organizations in a world in which such structures are undergoing significant, if not radical, change. If you want to understand how institutional Jewish life outside of synagogues got where they are today in Kansas City, this is the book to read. If you want to grapple with the changing organizational structure and what it might mean, this is the best starting point. And for anyone seeking to understand what is happening nationally in Jewish institutional life, this is a good primer.

David Katzman is professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, and was affiliated with the History and African and African-American Studies departments as well as the Jewish Studies Program. He contributed a chapter on the origins of Federation to “Mid-America’s Promise.” He is currently researching 19th-century Midwestern German-speaking Jewish communities and is zayde to five grandchildren.

Losing a penetrating voice

Rabbi Morris B. Margolies attained what Heschel called “moral grandeur” not solely through brilliant sermons and teaching, though both were thrilling for those of us lucky enough to have been raised on his words. He understood that spiritual convictions could not be confined to the prayer book or the synagogue, but must be exercised in the world at large, through community action, social protest and political criticism fervent enough to rattle the old stained-glass windows on The Paseo.

He had the truth-telling impulses of both a scholar and a muckraking journalist, combining historical reverence with an almost prophetic willingness to arouse and disturb, if that’s what it took to shake off complacency in his congregation and his city. No guide was more important to my parents (the late Milton Firestone and Bea Firestone Flam, who once co-owned and published The Chronicle) as they shaped The Jewish Chronicle over two decades, and no voice penetrated as sharply as his in advocating a Zionism of compassion and understanding, in hundreds of columns in these pages. Intentionally or not, he turned out to be a born editorial writer.

Through words and deeds, he opened the eyes and formed the consciences of tens of thousands of Kansas Citians.

David Firestone
Brooklyn, N.Y.

I originally wrote the article below in January 2009 in response to the events surrounding Operation Cast Lead. Beginning in November 2008 Israel was faced with a barrage of hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza. After a month of attacks with devastating impact on Israelis living in the south, Israel responded with Operation Cast Lead including air and ground initiatives. This article was written in response to heated debate about Israel’s response. With more than 140 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel last weekend — and Israeli counterattacks — I sadly felt the need to re-post this article.

**************************

I’ve started writing a dozen letters — but haven’t finished or sent any. I have discovered I’m all too human. All too conflicted. All too emotional. And all too stressed.

I’m having heated mental arguments with practically every news report, op-ed, article and post. It doesn’t matter left, right or center — I just want to argue because there are no easy answers, everyone is wrong and I’m tired.

My office is just within range of Hamas rocket fire — I’ve felt it shake at the impact of Grad rockets. [Now I work in Jerusalem and am no longer within range.] I’m not worried for my safety as my office was once the armory of the village where we’re located and it is a “safe room.” But it is nonetheless unsettling. My office is one of the places people come if a siren goes off. I find myself staring at photos of my children more than usual while at work — and spending more time with them than usual when I’m home.

In their school today one of the projects is creating gift boxes for Israeli soldiers — brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends of the students. My 6- and 7-year-olds [now 10 and 11], Gabi and Micah, are scared for their cousin in the IDF who just got a field assignment. They asked why she has to go to the war.

During dinner they asked if there are rockets landing in Tel Aviv. (They heard me and my wife, Varda, talking about a meeting in Tel Aviv). I’m a left wing, peace-loving, card-carrying liberal. I don’t live in the West Bank — or even Sderot. This is not a conversation I want to be having with my children — but I don’t have a choice.

Every time I hear a news report of a rocket hitting I pray to hear “no damage” at the end of the report. However, this is profoundly misleading. Along with hundreds of thousands of other Israelis, I’ve now heard the air raid sirens, run to the shelter, and felt the ground shake. I understand the deep emotional, psychological and spiritual damage even when there is minimal physical damage or loss of life.

I am mentally and physically exhausted from the anxiety and stress. But most of all I’m sad.

Sad that I have to think about whether going to work is safe — and where to run when the sirens sound.

Sad over the death of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

Sad that my 6 and 7 year old children know stories of people hit by Hamas rocket fire.

Sad by what I sometimes perceive as a lack of sensitivity to the horrible suffering and anguish of so many Israeli families — especially the children — who have been living with the constant threat of rockets for years.

Sad at the conditions in which the Palestinians in Gaza have been living for so long — and Israel’s role along with Hamas in perpetuating this situation.

Sad to think that our children — young Israeli soldiers including kids from Gezer — are in the situation where they have to defend our people from those whose mission is our destruction — they and other innocents caught in the middle.

Sad at what this is doing to our souls.

Sad that thousands of Israeli children have been scarred for life — living in fear of rocket fire for more than eight years and for whom the “color red” means “take cover.”

Sad at the image portrayed of Israel throughout the world right now.

And sad that this is how I’m bringing in the New Year.

At Gezer there were some refugees from the south of Israel staying for a respite. Their childrens’ first question upon arrival was “where is the nearest bomb shelter?” They still couldn’t sleep at night.

What’s a parent to do? What’s a country to do?

I’m a rodef shalom — a pursuer of peace. I pray for a peaceful two-state solution. I pray for a quick end to the violence and for successful diplomatic intervention. I pray for true leaders — Palestinian, Israeli and international — with the hearts, souls, courage and strength to take bold steps toward peace. I pray that all Abraham’s children will be able to sleep soundly at night.

I pray for shalom.

Originally from Kansas City, Rabbi Steve Burnstein is director of the Saltz International Education Center of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (the international umbrella of the Reform Movement) in Jerusalem. He lives at Kibbutz Gezer with his wife, Varda Livney; their son, Micah; their daughter, Gavrielly; and Kitty-the-Dog.