40 | OCTOBER 3 • 2024 J
N

W

hile much of the world’s 
attention is focused 
on Israel’s response to 
the thousands of missiles fired by 
Hezbollah from Lebanon, some 67,500 
of Israel’s 100,000-plus internally 
displaced citizens are evacuees from 
28 communities along the Lebanese 
border, according to news reports. 
Some have defied orders to evacuate, 
yet other communities just a few miles 
south are fully populated and function-
ing mostly normally.
“There are some people who have 
left, but no one was evacuated,
” said 
Sim Zacks, a former 
Southfield resident who 
lives in Ma’alot.
“We’re on the second 
mountain range from the 
border, about 7 kilome-
ters or about a 15-minute 
drive,
” he said.
Claude Schochet of Yishuv Bar 
Yocha said, “There’s been no evacu-
ation, not in this area, Merom Galil, 
and not a lot has happened here, as 

compared to 29 little vil-
lages in the central part of 
the upper Galilee, some 
around (but not includ-
ing) Tzfat (Safed) and 
some further west, like 
Bar Yochai, which is near 
the village of Meron and 
the kever (tomb) of Rabbi 
Shimon bar Yochai. Those villages have 
pretty much been destroyed.
”

EVERYDAY LIFE NEAR 
THE BORDER
What is not normal about life for 
Schochet, Zacks and their neighbors?
“Currently, there are 
no schools since Sunday 
[Sept. 22], everywhere 
north of Haifa,
” Zacks 
said. 
Chaim Linden, who 
lives in Chisnim in the 
southeastern part of the 
Golan Heights, said, “My 
wife, Chava, teaches kin-
dergarten in a nearby vil-

lage, so she’s been home all week.
” 
According to Zacks, “
At the moment, 
no gatherings — social events — are 
allowed, and we’re told to stay close to 
bomb shelters. The supermarket and 
mall are open, but you always want to 
know where the shelter is and be with-
in range of it.
” 
On Sunday, Sept. 22, Israel’s 
Homefront Command raised the “alert 
level” along the Lebanese border and 
in Haifa, Tiveria (Tiberius), the Golan 
and Tzfat to Level 3, which calls for 
canceling all agricultural work in the 
area. Schools are closed until further 
notice, and workplaces can remain 
open where a protected space is no 
more than one minute away from staff. 
Indoor gatherings are limited to 10 
people and 100 in the open.
Schochet’s village was able to hear 
Hezbollah missiles landing in nearby 
Kadita. “This past Shabbat, there was a 
siren. Motzei (after) Shabbat, we found 
out that a house was hit in Kadita, 
and fires have occurred in the forests 
around us,
” he said.

PARTNERSHIP2GETHER REGION
Further south in Migdal HaEmek, Nof 
Haglil and Jezreel Valley in Detroit’s 
Partnership2Gether region, “We were 
targeted three times early Sunday 
morning, Sept. 22, and we went into 
safe rooms,
” said Einat 
Adir-Sapir of Detroit’s 
Partnership2Gether field 
staff. “We could hear the 
‘boom’ and waited for the 
‘all-clear’ to leave shelter.
”
Linden, 37, notes that 
Chisnim is not too far 
south from Katzrin, also in the Golan 
Heights, which has been hit by shells 
from Lebanon. “But in our area, we’re 
not getting many attacks from the 
north, but from the east in Iraq.
”
He recalls, “
At the beginning of 
the war, we had quite a lot of sirens. 
During the first few weeks, we shel-
tered regularly for at least an hour each 
time. People didn’t know what was 
going on, what was happening, what 
to do.
”
To the west in the central Galilee, 
Schochet, a visiting professor of math-
ematics at the Technion University in 
Haifa and retired from Wayne State 
University, noted, “We’ve had about 20 
sirens since Oct. 7 in our community. 
We do hear sirens around us, proba-
bly because the missiles go over other 
villages on their way to their destina-
tions,
” he said.
“We do hear a lot of booms, missiles, 

interceptors and artillery. You feel 
them sometimes. You feel the windows 
shake. In fact, one time today [Sunday, 
Sept. 22], the boom was so strong, and 
there wasn’t a siren, but I went into the 
mamad (bomb shelter),
” he added.

LIVING WITH UNCERTAINTY
“You never know what’s going on. 
That’s what causes all the tension,
” 
Zacks said.
“
All around us, there are sirens reg-
ularly. But Ma’alot itself has been very 
lucky this time. Perhaps, they don’t 
find us a strategic target. But we hear 

Israelis still living near the northern border are diligent about being 
close to bomb shelters and stocking up on supplies.
Rockets’ Red Glare

NATHANIEL WARSHAY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ERETZ

PHOTO BY CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90

LEFT: A giant Israeli flag covers the 
hole left by a rocket that terrorists 
from Lebanon fired at Kiryat Bialik, 
Israel, on Sept. 22, 2024. 

Chaim 
Linden 
with his 
daughters 
Rinanah 
and Geula

Claude 
Schochet

Einat 
Adir-Sapir

Sim Zacks

