10 | JULY 25 • 2024
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few days on a Birthright tour, experienc-
ing the highs and lows of what the coun-
try is enduring.
Along with journalists from the Atlanta
Jewish Times, the Jewish Journal of Los
Angeles, I toured the areas hardest hit by
Hamas. We witnessed how Israeli and dias-
pora Jews are coming together to forge rela-
tionships and work to slowly heal the coun-
try, confront antisemitism and console one
another through strength and resilience.
We learned the obvious: Israelis are fight-
ing an existential war along their borders.
They are also struggling to maintain some
normalcy in their family and work life,
which for nine months has been disrupted
by rockets and repeated calls to reserve
duty. No one in Israel has escaped loss. All
the while, we are all fighting antisemitism
and anti-Israelism on the global stage of
public opinion.
Through touring and volunteering,
Jewish college students in Israel this sum-
mer learned they are not alone. They
learned that their heritage, history, and con-
nection to the land and the people of Israel
will give them strength as they head back to
campus in the fall or go out into the world.

VISITING THE GAZA ENVELOPE
The first of two days on tour, journalists
joined the Birthright groups and a
busload of 40 donors on a tour of the
Gaza envelope.
Within two hours of our hotel in Yafo,
we arrived at Kibbutz Be’
eri. Just 5 kilome-
ters from the Gaza border, this beautiful
place brimming with green fields and
flower-lined walkways was one of the com-

munities most severely hit by the massacres.
Hamas and their conspirators killed over
100 here on Oct. 7. At press time, 30 remain
as hostages. Eleven hostages were freed,
four may still be alive, and the bodies of
seven remain in Gaza.
Eight months on, some kibbutz members
have returned to rebuild and reclaim their
lives there. In addition to our bus, a few cars
stopped by the security gate and entered
the area. Workers in the communal dining
hall were preparing lunch. Occasionally, jets
could be heard in the distance and a few
military drones flew overhead.
Our guide was Rami Gold, 54, who has
lived on the kibbutz with his family for 35
years. In better times, he runs a mountain
bike trail building business.
Hamas killed many of Gold’s friends.
They also killed his sister-in-law, a member
of a peace group of Palestinian and Israeli
women who developed a cooperative rela-
tionship over the years. Gold said women
on the kibbutz would give money on a
monthly basis to Gazans who did not qual-
ify for aid from the United Nations. It was
these same women who were taken outside
their homes and murdered, Gold said.
Gold showed us the location where he
and his wife witnessed Hamas and their
enablers breaking through the fence with
a bulldozer as they took an early morning
stroll. He told his wife to hide in a shelter
and then radioed the kibbutz SWAT team
to come in a golf cart with weapons and
medical supplies. There, he fought off
the terrorists for 12 hours before the IDF
arrived.
Gold wanted to make an important point

that for many years, many members of the
kibbutz were friends and helpers of the peo-
ple of Gaza.
“We have an expression in Hebrew which
I told my friends in Gaza,
” Gold explained.
“If you come to my family and home to me
in peace, my home is open to you as a field
and a prairie. But if you are coming to the
fence to harm us, I will be the first on the
fence to stop you. And, unfortunately, that’s
what happened. The looters and mem-
bers of Hamas were all people from Gaza.
Somebody raised them and taught them to
do this. There are no innocent people on
the other side. And they will never accept
our being here in Israel.
”
Yet, Gold remains hopeful as he works to
rebuild his community. He said it will take
time for members to recover and rebuild
not only their homes but the trust that
the Israeli government will protect them.
Ninety of the kibbutzniks had returned to
live on the kibbutz after six months. “Our
community is too important to us. We will
rebuild and come back.
”

MAKING AN IMPACT ON STUDENTS
Detroit native and Birthright donor Brina
Weinstein said it is important to give as
many Jewish college students as possible the
opportunity to visit and witness Israel for
themselves. Weinstein said the trip had a
profound positive impact on her grandson.
“For many students today, even if
their parents are Zionists, they may not
understand the importance for Israel
themselves until the come here,” Weinstein
said as we walked among the destruction.
“They come to Israel, and they go back to

continued from page 9

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

The new section of
Har Hertzl, created
after Oct. 7.

Women soldiers
at Har Hertzl

STACY GITTLEMAN