Friends- I can no longer keep you posted on the situation in Israel, as I returned late last night. Though I am physically home, my heart remains there. As I wrote yesterday, Elliot Karp, Marla Letizia and Rabbi Yocheved Mintz have arrived, representing the Las Vegas community and are sharing their experience while on an extremely important Mission in Israel - and so I share with you. Dateline: Israel The sun is beginning to set in the west over the hills of Jerusalem as I write this update...may it usher in a Shabbat of peace. This morning we awoke at 4:30am in order to call in to the community wide Rally for Israel at the Adelson Educational Campus [I was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, but I was with you in spirit] back home in Las Vegas where more than 350 members of our Jewish community and family came together to Stand With Israel. Marla Letizia, our 2015 Campaign Chair and Rabbi Yocheved Mintz, Chairwoman of our Jewish Community Foundation joined me in offering comments from Tel Aviv as the sun was beginning to rise. We spoke of how life was normal in Israel despite the hundreds of Hamas missiles launched against Israeli cities including Tel Aviv. For the last several days Hamas has targeted Tel Aviv around 8am. This morning as our group sat for breakfast and a program with speakers who addressed the social needs of Israelis displaced by the reign of terror from the sky we thought perhaps things were beginning to improve as the hour passed. However, sometime around 10:30am the air raid sirens started to sound as six missiles headed towards Tel Aviv. Thank God for the IDF and Iron Dome anti-missile system...each of the terror missiles was destroyed. And then life went on...our seminar continued, people went to the beach to swim, people shopped in the market for Shabbat. On our way to Jerusalem we stopped for lunch and were addressed by the father of Gilad Shaar, one of three Israeli teenage boys brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists three weeks ago. The parents, who literally got up from sitting Shiva for their son, Gilad, together with the parents of Eyal Frankel and Eyal Yifrach, showed amazing strength as they thanked us...yes, us...for our support during the search for the boys and since their funerals last week...and Gilads father thanked us for coming to Israel...and for standing with Israel at this time. Through our tears and broken hearts, listening to him speak, we heard him ask us to join him to insure that Gilads memory, and that of Eyal and Naftali, will help us to continue to do Tikkun Olam...the mitzvah of repairing our broken world. No words can summarize what I felt in my heart; but I know that I will take up his charge to continue to perform Mitzvot that will bring about Tikkun Olam. I urge you to do the same. Last night at our community rally we announced the special Israel Emergency Campaign, Stop The Sirens, to help our Israeli brothers and sisters during these tense and critical times. These funds, 100% of which will go directly to the Jewish Agency for Israel and the JDC to aid in services to families, children and the elderly affected and impacted by the daily barrage of missiles, are needed today. Please join me...contribute today to the Israel Emergency Campaign. You can contribute at our secure website by clicking here. Shabbat is approaching. As I walk with Marla and Rabbi Mintz to the Kotel to welcome in Shabbat...I will hold my family and each and every one of you in my prayers this Shabbat...and I will hold the brave soldiers of the IDF who are defending Israel in my prayers...and I will hold the parents, families and friends of Gilad, Eyal and Naftali in my prayers that they will be healed from all their pain and sorrow...and I will hold the entire Nation of Israel in my prayers...that this Shabbat will be one of Shalom...Peace...and that this Shabbat will usher in a truce and true peace...for Klal Israel...the people and nation of Israel and all Jews around the world. Shabbat Shalom. Elliot
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 14:13:30 +0000
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