Robinson Report—October 2024

I learn something new each time I go to Israel. We met with a team from Israel’s Fire & Rescue Authority. I’ve always seen firefighters as heroes, but now, even more so, as they work tirelessly in northern Israel to put out fires caused by Hezbollah’s missile attacks. They are literally fighting fire under fire. Racing to douse flames in open land, forests, and crop fields as they are being shot at. They can’t take red fire trucks to the sites because they become targets. They must carry guns but leave them outside the fires — as guns and fire don’t mix.

Consider this too: we often breathe a sigh of relief when we hear a missile has landed in open land, thinking no one was hurt. But if it hits agricultural fields, that’s someone’s livelihood. Imagine your store or factory in flames — this is their life, their income. And it’s not just this year’s harvest; it could take years to recover. The ripple effect is tremendous—on the farmer and on the nation.

We spent time in a community we helped build after Israel’s 2006 withdrawal from Gaza, where nearly 10,000 people were uprooted. Remember, Israel has not been in Gaza for 18 years! They could have been bitter, yet instead, they chose to build new lives in the Negev Desert, in partnership with Jewish National Fund-USA. It’s now a vibrant community with children, greenhouses, a dairy farm, kindergartens, a medical center, and since October 7, we’ve been hard at work building the region’s largest community center.

On October 7, they received an emergency call from a neighboring community under attack. Four men rushed to help and tragically lost their lives. They left behind four widows and 15 orphans. We heard from Donna Cohen, who returned to the community with her six children after months of evacuation. “I didn’t know if I could do it,” she told us. “But my children said, ‘It’s our home and what abba [daddy] would have wanted.’ I am so grateful for the time I had with him, and I am so proud of him. He died saving Jewish lives. We are going to live our lives here. This is our home. We believe in tomorrow.”

There wasn’t a dry eye among us.

Then, we visited their kindergarten, where 100 children waving Israeli flags greeted us with a song, Am Yisrael Chai. They are choosing life. We are helping them. And hearing those children was the sound of hope.

Our “We Choose Life” trip was intended to go up north, but when that became impossible, we brought the north to us, setting up a mini outdoor mall at our Muss High School in Hod Hasharon. We invited about ten vendors, all barely hanging on to their businesses, but they’ve stayed open thanks to our Support Packages, which provide for soldiers and evacuated families. Dror, a farmer, shared a harrowing experience of dodging an explosion in the field with his daughter — a stark reminder of their daily challenges. All he wants is to make a living, be a farmer, raise his children, and have hope for tomorrow. We gave him hope.

We also had dinner with about 30 lone soldiers from all over the world one night. 60% of them said they enlisted because of October 7. The same night we were joined by Peter Paltchik, two-time Olympic medalist and Israel’s most decorated judoka. His whole life he had dreamed of representing Israel and carrying its flag at an Olympics. Then, for the Paris Olympics the team elected him to carry it, and a boyhood dream became a reality. He told us that his wife was scared he’d be attacked for representing Israel, and said to him: “Don’t do anything heroic. If they start shooting at you, jump out of the way.” He said, “I’ll jump into the Seine, but I’m going to hold our Israeli flag up even higher.”

One of the most memorable moments of the trip happened during a visit to a kibbutz founded 50 years ago in the Israel Envelope. There, we met with 30 high schoolers who are the founding students of our new high school which opened on September 1. The school’s mission is to teach high schoolers how to love the land of Israel by working it fields in the mornings, followed by afternoons of schoolwork. This was the 6th such school across Israel. We met with Maayan, a 16-year-old from Jerusalem. She told us that no one in her family had ever even been to the Israel Envelope before. But with her 2 brothers in the IDF, she realized she just couldn’t stay in Jerusalem living her normal life. She needed to do something, so she found this school and was the first person from her family to set foot in the region.

We closed our three days with a celebration at our Alexander Muss High School campus in Be’er Sheva. As our band of IDF soldiers with special needs performed, I watched our American Muss students dancing with Israeli teens, united by their Jewish and Zionist identities — a beautiful circle of shared passion for who they are as Jews and as Zionists. The epitome of hope.

That is the vision of our World Zionist Village: to transform the conversation about Zionism, Israel, and the Jewish world, and to serve as a bridge between denominations, countries, generations, Jews and non-Jews, cultures, and religions. Right before my eyes, I saw hope for tomorrow.

If you haven’t yet signed up for a volunteer mission or want to go again, register today at jnf.org/volunteeril!

Thank you for all you do for the land and people of Israel. Please reach out to me with comments, ideas, and suggestions at ceo@jnf.org.

Am Yisrael Chai – The People of Israel Live!

Russell F. Robinson