Like many others, I'm still wrapping my head around the challenging times of the last two weeks. Driving to pick up Ilana at her weekly volunteer shift for the first time since the siren went off (because last week was Shavuot) a script repeatedly ran through my head of "this is where I was when the siren went off.....I looked to the side as I ran into the community center.....I saw sparks in the sky that were rockets. Or the Iron Dome being activated. Or both...."
Penina's school sent out a very interesting guide for helping those traumatized (ironically, I'm not sure if they sent it after Meron or the next week, after the "security situation" started. How sad that we have had so many traumatic times lately.....). It talked about how it's better to have a person access the "thinking portions" of their brain, not the emotional centers; so rather than asking them to tell you how they felt/feel, you should help them focus on exactly what happened during the situation and then give them specific activities to do ("call the friends you were with and make sure each got home okay"). As someone who is a "let me get you a glass of water and you'll tell me how you're feeling about it" person (all of which was explicitly on the "DON'T DO" list), it was an interesting insight into the Israeli psyche, to say the least.
It's VERY hard to think of the violence that erupted in many mixed cities, and worse to think of in cities that have a long history of being Jewish/Arab mixed. Chana is taking graduate classes in English literature and the one class that had been meeting in person (a whopping two times since Covid restrictions eased) went back to being on Zoom after her professor's boutique hotel was "destroyed by a violent mob" (that is just so sad to type). I encourage you to read what he wrote.
At shul on Friday night, my neighbor introduced me to her sister, who had moved in temporarily after her home city of Netivot got totally pounded by rocket fire. Here, take 30 seconds to watch the beginning of this and have the tiniest taste of what it's like to live with that. No wonder my neighbor, who has a very full house as is, of course welcomed in her sister with her own big family.
My friend's son and daughter-in-law live in Ramle (note: not the same place as Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered). Ramle got a number of sirens/rockets and then had some really horrific mob violence (the photo in that link looks like it's a still from the Batman movie where Gotham City goes up in flames. Except this is a normal, working-class mixed Israeli city less than half an hour from where we live). The young marrieds, who don't have a mamad shelter room in their apartment or even in their building, were huddling in the stairwell (which is the advice for such places), and at the same time trying to decide which was the right decision: to be in their apartment away from the mob but less protected from the rockets or vice versa. What a choice to have to make....
I'm saddened and frustrated that Israel is not doing great on the public relations front. If you (like me) are feeling fed up, read Blake Ezra's Times of Israel blog post, especially if all you know about the current situation is what you've seen on Instagram (no, you cannot find out "the truth about Sheikh Jarrah" in 50 words or less. If you'd like to actually read more about the Shiekh Jarrah situation, here is a pretty good piece).
To end on a hopeful note (and I kind of can't believe what passes for hopeful these days), I give you one final news article: Kidney of Lod Lynching Victim Donated to Arab Recipient.
Hashem, please help us.
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