From the Bima Blog

Their Stories, My Stories: Reflections from Israel, January 2024

My heart is heavy tonight. Raw and broken. This is the place from which my words tonight are shared. Words that are not yet complete. Thoughts that drift along an uncertain line. But I need to share them. And I need you to hear them.

When the email invitation to join a solidarity mission to Israel in early January came into my inbox, the answer was an instant yes. It did not hurt that the invitation came from some amazing friends in the Boston Jewish community. Or that the trip was organized for women leaders by women leaders to focus on the voices of women who live in Israel and their courageous response of strength and resilience to October 7th and the ongoing war with Hamas. So, I moved my life around – with the support of my family, my amazing professional colleagues, and this awesome community – and went to Israel this week – for about 3 and half days.

I told myself I was going as a witness, to amplify the voices of those living the day-to-day. I told myself I was going to represent my community, to see with my own eyes so that I could directly share the stories social media sometimes fails to tell. I told myself that my steadfast belief in Am Yisrael, Jewish peoplehood, demanded I show up to support my friends and family. Being in Israel this week was a powerful, challenging and strangely comforting experience. It both clarified and complicated my understanding of the situation in Israel, the greater region, and the responsibility of the American Jewish community.

Tonight, I want to share with you just a few of the stories I heard. Some are stories I could never have imagined, even in my worst nightmares, ones my heart will now carry forever. Amazing stories of courage and resilience in the face of the impossible. Stories of horror and hate unbearably difficult to tell and hear. Stories from women whose strength and commitment does not simply inspire the listener, but demands you join them in action.

The remarkable story of Esther, a twenty-year-old survivor of the massacre in Re’im at the Nova Music Festival. She and her friend Shir woke early that morning to photograph the sunrise. Instead, they found themselves near the parking lot as the constant barrage of rockets from Gaza began flying over. She somehow told us the agonizing details of that day. When she realized what was happening and that they needed to run. The awful moment a fellow music festival lover, a beautiful boy named Ori, who offered to help them was murdered by terrorists. The hours she hid in her car, unable to move her legs, pretending to be dead before being rescued by the IDF soldiers. Tears found my eyes often as she spoke, even as I was amazed that she somehow only cried towards the end of our time together, when she shared how grateful she is to be alive.

The ongoing story of volunteerism led by Ayesha, Khitam and Racheli who live in the development town of Rahat, a Bedouin city in the south. They work to sustain a shared situation room, created in the aftermath of the attack and ongoing war, that serves Arab and Israeli citizens in need with clothing, necessities, and emotional support. They shared from their hearts, about how we must help one another as it is the only way to keep despair at bay. Racheli’s words especially touched my heart. “The only way to fight this level of darkness is to turn on some lights.” This light of women working together, despite their differences, while in the midst of unspeakable trauma, is a keen reminder that there is a better way forward. The story that we, the Arabs and the Palestinians and the Jews, cannot live together in this land is untrue. We can and we must.

A story of unparalleled activism from a young feminist leader whose words re-lit a justice fire I had allowed to dampen under the weight of my own fear and anxiety. Lee works for Bonot Alternativa, an Israeli organization that seeks to promote social equality and empower women. These change makers were leadership on the ground in Israel’s pro-democracy movement of this past spring and summer. They already had an extensive network of What’s App volunteers, people who get things done and do not sweat the small stuff. These fundamental principles of grass-roots organizing allowed them to pivot overnight. Bonot Alternativa now mobilizes their volunteers wherever they might be needed doing whatever might need to be done. Lee’s story, and particularly the passion with which she shares it, is one you cannot ignore. She has no time or space for those who say the work to re-imagine and rebuild Israel into a place we can all call home is impossible. Lee told us, “There is no way to make this world a better place to live for all of us unless women are part of every decision-making process.” A clarion call to my unabashedly feminist soul.

One last set of stories for this evening, stories from the headquarters organizing for the hostages and their families in Tel Aviv, a civil society organization that came together so that the world would not forget those held hostage by Hamas, terrorists who intentions I refuse to repeat on this holy day in our holy space. These stories are hard to hold, stories of the lives of innocent people, in their homes or at a music festival or on an early morning walk, that have been suspended in time since October 7^th.  People stolen from their loved ones. Survivors of atrocities too horrible to share. In a crowded room they told us about their people, their sisters, their fathers, their children. A hostage released in the first round joined us as well. I will never forget her face. If you can only remember one thing I share tonight, I hope this is what sticks in your soul. We must remind the international community, the Israeli government, the Biden administration, and anyone else who is listening, that the return of the hostages should happen immediately.

This week’s Torah is Va’era, a portion early in the narrative of Exodus. We learn of Moses and Pharoah and the plagues. We lean into the story of a people enslaved who shall one day be free. The ideas shared in Exodus become an essential part of the Jewish story. Many of Judaism’s foundational ideas are found in these chapters, including the imperative to fight for redemption for all who are not yet free. I especially think about that moment we read about in a few weeks, when the Israelites face the overwhelming waves of the Reed Sea, when the people realize that the only way forward to other side in an impossible situation is with courage and conviction. When they understand that they have no choice but to step forward into an unknown future. And when they somehow figured out that joining together is the only path that ensures survival to the other side, a side where the promised land would one day, God willing, come into focus.

Standing in an abandoned kibbutz in the south, a place where people fought for their lives, surrounded by burned cars and homes, the leftovers of terror, listening to, and frankly feeling in my entire body, artillery being directed Gaza, artillery that I hope beyond hope did not land somewhere to create more unbearable suffering on an innocent civilian in Gaza, I took a deep breath to help me find a spark of hope in these stories I now carry. It found it in a teaching I return to often, brilliance from Emanuel Levinas, a French Jewish philosopher. Levinas teaches about seeing the face of the other. And that when we witness the face of the other, we become responsible for the other, their stories become our stories.

These stories must open break open our hearts. These stories must become our own so that we do not let those who are bent on destruction destroy our human connections. These stories are ours now, they are worthy of space in our weary, heavy hearts. We can – we must – use them to change the world, our world, for the better.

Kein Yihi Ratzon. May this be God’s will.

Find Out More Information (links to the places and people Rabbi Abrasley engaged with during her trip to Israel in January 2024 – big shout out my colleague, friend and fellow traveler Rav Claudia Kreiman at TBZ in Brookline, whose shared similar list and many of the foundational ideas in a Shabbat report to her congregation)

Wolfson Medical Center: Some of the returned hostages were treated at Wolfson. These trauma physicians are amazing and detailed an intentional story of care for each returnee.

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy: She is the Chair of the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, an independent, non-governmental organization created to document every piece of information, and to research, advocate for, and support the investigation of war crimes committed on by Hamas both on October 7th and the continuous war crimes towards the abducted women and children.

Nova Music Festival Memorial: The site of the Nova Music Festival, near the city of Re’im, where hundreds of young people were murdered by Hamas terrorists. We met Esther, a survivor, the previous day at Wolfson. She shared her story and her strength.  

Kibbutz Nirim: This kibbutz is in the Gava envelope. It was attacked on October 7^th but many of its members survived due to the amazing heroism of three soldiers. We toured this empty community (members have been temporarily relocated) with journalist Adele Raemer, a kibbutz member and survivor of October 7^th.

Community Center in Rahat – Shared Situation Room: These women are amazing. Simply doing what needs to get done for everyone affected by October 7^th and the ongoing war with Hamas.

Lee Hoffman Agiv from Bonot Alternativa: Lee works for Bonot Alternativa, an Israeli social activist organization that seeks to promote social equality, empower women, and raise awareness of violence against women. She is a rockstar! I’m tempted to quit my day job and go work with her.

Hanan Alsana: Hanan is the co-founder of the Jewish-Arab Situation Room in Rahat that we visited. She is also a feminist, attorney, and activist in Bedouin and Arab-Israeli society. She shared with us the challenges of those who hold Israeli citizenship and have family/friends in Gaza.

Women Waging Peace: Founded in the aftermath of the 50-day Gaza War/Operation Protective Edge of 2014, Women Wage Peace is the largest grassroots peace movement in Israel today.

Center for Women’s Justice: Rachel Stomel joined us to share wartime challenges that directly affect women – agunot (women who cannot receive a get, a Jewish divorce), domestic violence, and the fear felt by women due to increased gun access.

Hostages and Missing Families Forum: A remarkable place that came together in the days after October 7^th. Meeting these families and hearing their stories of their loved ones was challenging and perhaps the most important moment of our time in Israel. Freeing the hostages in priority number one for almost everyone in Israeli society.

Sally Abed from Standing Together: Sally spoke with us about her work with Standing Together, a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice.