The distance between Milwaukee and Tel Aviv is 6,129 miles, as the crow flies.
When I fly to Israel one of my favorite things about the journey is watching the screen in front of me. Many people watch the movies, but I like to watch the channel that shows the little plane pointed towards Tel Aviv, making its way across the world.
The map diagram alternates with a list of measurements: How many more hours and minutes until we arrive; how high we are flying; how many miles left to Tel Aviv. The distance between Milwaukee and Israel shrinks with each passing minute.
The distance between Milwaukee and Israel is one phone call. When the phone rang at 6:30 a.m. two Shabbat mornings ago, my heart started to race, I fumbled to find the phone, knowing that a call at that hour on that day could not be good news.
Levana Caro, Partnership 2000 director of Sovev Kinneret, Milwaukee’s partner region in Israel, simply said, “Tiberias has been hit by a rocket.” This happened as 33 teenagers from the JCC Maccabi Israel Milwaukee Teen Trip were in the homes of their friends in Tiberias and the surrounding areas.
The rocket struck the building across from the P2K offices in Tiberias. Rockets have continued to fall in the streets and moshavim and cities of our friends, our P2K family.
The distance between Milwaukee and Israel was measured in 33 teenagers, their Israeli host families, my co-worker in Israel, 6,000 miles away, two rings before I stumbled out of bed.
The distance between Milwaukee and Israel is the time it takes for two people to embrace.
This past week I said goodbye to two artists from the Sovev Kinneret region who spent two weeks working at Albert & Ann Deshur JCC Rainbow Day Camp and two weeks getting to know the adult Jewish community of Milwaukee as well.
Shushu Natan and Zmira Mittelman brought Israel to hundreds of campers and watched from afar as their home came under fire. Rockets hit near Zmira’s moshav; rockets hit near the homes of Shushu’s friends.
We spoke daily of what it meant to be far away from home when your family and friends are in danger. When Zmira and I said goodbye, we hugged and she said that her time in our community has given her the strength to go back and face the weeks ahead.
The distance between Milwaukee and Israel is gone when two people from 6,000 miles apart hug in partnership and friendship.
Over the past two weeks dozens of e-mails have flown between Milwaukee and Sovev Kinneret, as those who have visited the region or hosted Israeli partners have e-mailed or called, reaching out.
One friend and co-worker writes me often, telling me that writing helps her to deal with the situation. One letter concluded, “We want to thank you all for your continuing support during this very difficult time. It makes a tremendous difference knowing that you care.
“Throughout the years, I have often found myself trying to describe the meaning of partnership and now I have learned one more important facet — it gives strength during good times and bad.”
There are ways we can help from 6,000 miles away. We can contribute to the Israel Crisis Fund, Milwaukee’s community-wide effort to raise emergency funds to help our partners in Sovev Kinneret and people across Israel cope with the current situation.
This crucial financial support will make a tangible difference in the lives of the people in neglected bomb shelters and for the children who are thus able to leave Israel’s north for summer camps in safer areas of the country.
But don’t underestimate the power of reaching out in other ways as well. Reach out by being informed: Read Israeli media Internet sites, watch the news, and circulate information and opinions. Staying engaged and updated keeps our thoughts with Israel, when after a few days or weeks we might be tempted to push the crisis to the back of our minds.
Reach out by writing to everyone you know, even more than once; they really do appreciate every word and they are strengthened by knowing we care.
Reach out by planning a future trip to Israel, look toward a better, more peaceful time when we will show Israel how much we care by going there.
Reach out by visiting the Website milwaukeejewish.org and sending a message to our partners in the Sovev Kinneret region.
There is no distance between Milwaukee and Israel, our hearts are with her and our people. Sha’alu Shalom Yerushalayim. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and of all Israel.
Roslyn Roucher is the Milwaukee Jewish Federation Partnership 2000 director.
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