Hartford Remembers

2005 March of the Living Mission to Poland and Israel

Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford

Harriet J. Dobin

Tuesday May 10, 2005

 

Israel Day Seven: A Hole In Our Hearts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Afula, Israel Tuesday May 10, 2005)   Today, Day Seven of  the March of the Living Mission, is our family reunion, and  there isn’t a cousin in sight.  Our skin colors are black, white, and brown, yet we were born continents apart. We speak at least ten different languages. Some of us are doctors and lawyers; some of us lived in straw huts and were taught to use forks.  What connects us all is an ancient sliver of geography where legends hide under rocks, and every street sign tells a story…Israel.

 

Zahava is one of us. She is a 19 year old widowed Israeli immigrant from Ethiopia with two toddlers who didn’t understand clocks. Her husband was killed by army soldiers before she was airlifted to Israel. She’d wake up with the sun, dress and feed her children, drop them at the “gan” (kindergarten) stoop at 5AM, and then head off to work. They waited alone until school opened at 9 AM. She didn’t know any better. Zahava  couldn’t tell time, hold a pencil, sit in a chair, or turn to the next page of a book.

 

This is one of many incredible stories revealed to Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford Mission members on a full day visit to Afula, population 43,000, in northern Israel. Twenty five years ago, Afula and the Hartford Jewish federation began a unique social and philanthropic experiment called Project Renewal. It has blossomed into Partnership 2000 – Southern New England Consortium, involving the family of Jewish communities in Connecticut,

Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

 

SNEC is a multi-faceted, people-to-people program targeting education, welfare, health and community empowerment. Students exchange places and there is constant flow of ideas and people.

 

In Hadera, Vice Mayor Robert Avramovich introduced us to our extended Juhuri-speaking Kavkazi family originally from the Caucasus mountains of Georgia and Azerbijan, Russia. High mountains, deep valleys and dense forest kept this culture intact for centuries, but they were cut off from the West. There are over 100,000 Kavkazi Jews in Israel today, with large families and unique needs. 

 

Several years ago, their teen drop out rate was 25%. With Federation-funded intervention, it dropped to 14% in 1998, still high compared to Israel’s national dropout rate of 4%. We bid them “Shalom”, marveling at the children’s energetic music and dance stage revue.

 

Today our group reunited with former Connecticut Israeli teen emissaries – many now Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Former Shaliach (Emissary) Asaf Ron greeted us at dinner, with the new crop of candidates applying for next year’s exchange program.

 

Our visit was on a tight schedule. Traffic and routine life abruptly halts with the 8PM sounding of sirens tonight, Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. The visiting young soldiers were due at memorial services at their bases.

 

Afula is 90 minutes northeast of Tel Aviv, a busy modern city home to high tech corporations, swank restaurants and cosmopolitan boulevards lined with boutiques, book stores and internet cafes.  For Yom Hazikaron, shopkeepers locked up early, businesses will remain shut for 24 hours. Couples quietly filed in holding hands, parents brought bundled up children to Kikar Rabin, joining our Mission and 20,000 others for Tel Aviv’s solemn outdoor memorial ceremony. 

 

Three large screens broadcast images of young men and women,  with artwork created in childhood, flickering Yahrzeit (memorial) candles, interviews with parents, battle scenes from 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, Lebanon and the Intifada.  Poets, singers, musicians, the mayor of Tel Aviv and Israel Defense Forces officials addressed the crowd. No cell phones, no disruptions, no standing until the Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem.

 

The father of one soldier said: “We are a beautiful family with a big hole in our heart and in our life. There is no comfort, but we go on and build something with the pieces”.  Tonight our family cried together.

 

Harriet J. Dobin

 

Israel Defense Force soldiers rehearse for the official Yom Hazikaron Memorial Day ceremonies at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Family Reunion - Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford March of the Living mission members with former Israeli shlichim and teen emissaries in Afula, Israel. Kavkazi cultural dance performance in Hadera, Israel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yom Hazikaron-Memorial Day- public ceremony at Kikar Rabin, Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv was attended by 30,000 mourners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kavkazi children in Israel created art to celebrate Israel's 57th Independence Day, 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr.Stacy Nerenstone makes new friends in Afula, Connecticut's Partnership 2000 community in Israel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family Reunion in Afula with Israeli emissaries and Asaf Ron.

Photo Credit:
Harriet J.  Dobin,
Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford

 

 

 

 

The Mission departs Israel Thursday night May 12 and will return to Hartford Friday. Reports for Days 8 and 9 will be posted on the weekend, Shalom from Israel!

LINKS:

 

Israel Day Nine: Shalom, Israel (Click Here)
Israel Day Eight: Each Child A Flower (Click Here)
Day Seven: A Hole In Our Hearts (Click Here)
Day Six: Journey From Pain to Hope (Click Here)
Day Five: Mother’s Day at Majdanek (Click Here)
Day Four: L’Chayim from Lodz (Click Here)
Day Three: Warsaw Welcomes Sabbath Peace (Click Here)
Day Two: March of the Living (Click Here)
Day One: Mincha at Auschwitz (Click Here)

 

A Journey To The End Of The Nazi Night
Holocaust Survivor From West Hartford Joins Thousands
Traveling To Poland To Mark Liberation Of Death Camps

(Hartford Courant Story)