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