FEBRUARY 29 • 2024 | 11
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organization that creates 
the “Bring Them Home 
Now” dog tags. We pack-
aged dog tags and other 
materials, which are sold 
to aid the families of the 
hostages, as well as help 
them share their stories. 
When we toured the 
site of the Nova Festival 
massacre in Re’im, a man 
saw us as he was getting 
into his car. He stopped 
and, hanging halfway out 
of the car, begged us to 
tell his story and the story 
of his 100+ friends who 
were murdered on Oct. 
7. “I cannot understand 
why no one believes us,
” he said. 
“Please just tell the world what 
happened. I don’t know why no 
one believes us.
” 
There is no way to sum up 
everything I learned during 
this eight-day return to Israel. 
The devastation in a place I 
love will stay with me, but I also 
witnessed something that gave 
me such hope for our future. 
When we were visiting the site 
of the Nova Festival massacre, 
we were walking through the 
memorial, weaving between the 
photographs of the fallen. Every 
few minutes we heard artillery 
fire coming from Northern 
Gaza. Because of our proximity 
to Gaza, we were outfitted with 
bulletproof vests and helmets, 
which felt like a physical 
representation of the weight on 
my soul seeing the devastation 
firsthand. But as I walked the 
site, I heard the words of the 
song “
Am Yisrael Chai.
” There 
was a group of men, religious 
and secular, in IDF uniform 
and in plain clothes, linked 
together and singing. Hearing 
their voices gave me hope. At 
a site where innocents were 
murdered, where they gathered 
to just enjoy music, there was 
music again. Music proclaiming 
“
Am Yisrael Chai” — the people 

of Israel live. It is fitting that 
the national anthem of Israel, 
“Hatikvah,
” translates to “The 
Hope” because that is what I 
came away with. 
Everywhere I looked in the 
country, people were going 
about their lives, but those 
lost were never forgotten. The 
names and faces of the killed 
and kidnapped were seen 
everywhere, on posters and 
graffiti, on stickers and shirts. 
The people I met on this trip, 
Israelis and American college 
students alike, give me hope 
that people care. That I am not 
as alone as I thought. 
I want to thank the college 
students that were on my 
trip, as well as Maccabee Task 
Force, the group that brought 
us all together. I do not think I 
could have gotten through this 
without their constant support, 
both on the trip and after. To 
MSU Hillel, thank you for being 
my community, the best one I 
could have asked for. @

Lela Weintraub is a senior at Michigan 

State University from Commerce 

Township. She is studying arts and 

humanities with a double minor in 

Jewish studies and bioethics. 

The house of the Itamary family 
from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The 
house was burned with a family 
inside. 

Who to

who to
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call.

when you
don’t know

During challenging times, the Detroit Jewish 

community is here to help. Managed by 

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