In the days following the Hamas attack on southern Israel, Jewish communities across the diaspora mobilized to pray and donate funding and resources to the Israeli military, nonprofits, and affected communities. West Hempstead resident Michael Mandelstam joined these efforts, but he felt in this crucial moment, there was no substitute to being physically present in Israel to bear witness or offer assistance and encouragement. “Five or six of us were interested in going from day one, but we decided to wait until the last week of December when we were able to go with a strong group of 20 guys.”
“The history of the Jewish people is playing out in Israel. We knew from the outset that we would get more chizuk from being in Israel than the chizuk we would be able to give in return, but we tried our best to give strength to those most impacted in Israel. The chizuk I got from the trip far exceeded my expectations, as we met such incredible people with incredible faith in Hashem who are so devoted to klal Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael,” he said.
In the last week of December, 20 of Mandelstam’s neighbors in West Hempstead who learn together every Tuesday night as part of a weekly chaburah in his house (as well as some former West Hempstead friends who already made aliyah) joined him on a four-day trip to Israel where they visited wounded soldiers, kibbutz evacuees, and people working on the front lines combating terrorism, identifying the dead, and rebuilding homes.
“This was a quiet work week, with more time to prepare the itinerary. We found someone who was well connected to the places we felt were most important to visit, who coordinated the itinerary in Israel,” Mandelstam said. “I coordinated in America before we left and had a list of people to contact on the ground at each stop once we landed, whether it was at the hospital, kibbutz, or army base. At every step we had a person to contact.”
To keep the cost of the trip down, the group “did the legwork” of securing their own lodging, food, transportation, and schedule, by staying at the homes of family members and friends.
“The biggest thing for me is that there’s a lot going on in America and what we can do for Israel,” said Dave Tannenbaum. “They need more chizuk than anything else. It’s relatively easy to send money. Everyone had the itch to see and do more.”
Tannenbaum participated in breaking rocks on a farm, distributing toys, playing with kibbutz evacuees living at a hotel, and offering encouragement to soldiers who returned from combat in Gaza.
“We visited Soroka Hospital. We went to three units: one where they are recovering from surgery, then rehab, and then a third unit, which was the most challenging and rewarding: the ICU, where we sat with families waiting for their children, the soldiers. It was tough. One of the mothers has a son who was shot in the eye who may or may not have brain injury. She thanked us for coming. Her son put his life on the line for the country.”
“We were thanking the soldiers in the hospitals, and they were thanking us,” said Ari Gottlieb. “I wanted to be there to help. It was a memorable opportunity.” At the hospital, many patients, even non-religious, had the Sefer T’hilim by their beds and were reciting them with devotion.
Close to the Gaza border, the group walked through Nir Oz, which was devastated in the October 7 attack by Hamas. “It felt like walking through Auschwitz or the Holocaust Museum, but you could still smell the fire and see burned walls. The doors were marked by letters indicating a death, kidnapping, or recovery of remains,” Gottlieb said. This community is believed to have lost a quarter of its population to murder, kidnapping, and injury, with the survivors evacuated to hotels away from the front line.
“It’s going to take me a few weeks to digest the emotions from the entire trip. In every house, someone died or was kidnapped. The army has a code and ZAKA has a code, with spray paint on the houses. There were pictures on the houses of the hostages and the dead,” Mandelstam said.
On the long bus ride to the south, Rabbi Uri Lesser of Bais Torah U’Tefila delivered the Daf Yomi lecture, and Adam Rodkin, a member of Chabad of West Hempstead, taught Chabad niggunim to the group.
“There was a lot of siyata diShmaya here. We were able to stop at every place on our itinerary and we did not hear one red siren,” Mandelstam said “not even in Nir Oz or Sderot.” Coming from a very Zionist community, the West Hempstead group met with former neighbors who made aliyah and shared their experiences.
In Sderot, they met Rabbi David Fendel, who founded the Hesder Yeshiva of Sderot in 1994, at a girls’ school that was used by the army as a base. “We went to a barbecue with soldiers, it was a search and rescue unit. Many in the unit were structural engineers serving in the reserves. They have their own companies. They’re in their 30s and 40s like most of us. They have families and businesses. They were very easy to talk to, and it was very easy to relate to the soldiers who were at similar stages in their lives.”
In Efrat they had a meal and kumsitz with Shlomo Katz, hosted by Moshe Kesselman, formerly of West Hempstead. His brother David was among the participants on the trip and a member of a weekly chaburah given by Rabbi Dr. Chesky Gewirtz at Mandelstam’s house.
At Kesselman’s house, they were joined by students from a local yeshivah. “They already lost seven alumni in this war,” Mandelstam said. “They were happy to be at the kumsitz. One of the boys who joined us had just lost his brother in the fighting in Gaza a little over a month ago. He spoke about his brother. It was very emotional for all of us. Despite the deaths of so many friends and family members, these kids were into the singing and so happy to be there with us. These were 12th graders who will be going into the army or hesder next year. These kids are just so mentally strong. It is amazing”
The chaburah was founded and organized by former Queens resident Ben Kramer, who moved to West Hempstead and then made aliyah two years ago to Ramat Beit Shemesh.
“I was a little skeptical about the mission in general, but then I saw the reaction from parents and chayalim and it changed my mind,” Kramer said. “There is a big desire among people in Israel to see the support and see people come. It means the world to these people, and it was nice to see the chaburah crew back together.” Kramer offered them a barbecue that followed a chaburah session given by Rabbi Gewirtz, which was live-streamed for their friends in West Hempstead.
“It was nice to see how Ben’s kids have adjusted and he’s very acclimated there,” Gottlieb said.
The group also met Rav Asher Weiss shlita, a renowned poseik, who spoke of the emotional experience in Israel since the war began. Afterwards, they went to the Shura army base, where bodies of murdered civilians and soldiers are identified. “The guy giving us the tour never before saw a dead body,” Mandelstam said. “He seemed like one of the nicest guys, a young father who was probably around 30. He was breaking down, crying, in the middle of the tour. He sees dead bodies every day. We just wanted to give him a hug. That was the point on the trip where I finally broke down. The Shura base was our last stop on the last day of the trip. I had been busy coordinating each stop prior to visiting Shura. By the time we got to the Shura base, I was finally able to clear my mind from coordinating the trip and my emotions just overtook me.”
After walking past wrappings of the k’doshim, Rabbi Binyamin Zimmerman, one of the head rabbanim in the army, showed them shelves holding hundreds of sifrei Torah donated to the Army. “Torahs rescued from the Holocaust and from Egypt following the Yom Kippur War: It was an optimistic way to end our tour of the base,” Mandelstam said. “The whole base is dedicated to ensuring that Tzahal follows halachah as much as possible. We then had a very emotional mini-kumsitz with Rabbi Zimmerman to end our visit.”
“There were piles of bodies and body parts to be identified. We were all tearing up,” Gottlieb said.
The group also davened at the Machpeilah in Chevron, met with Eylon Levy (the dynamic government spokesman who is fighting for the cause on social media), and witnessed the revival of observance in Israeli society. “He spoke from the heart, rationally and truthfully. What you see on TV is what you see in person,” Mandelstam said.
Among the youth, there was a feeling of pride in the army and a sense of responsibility. The West Hempstead group hopes that their trip serves as an example for other communities seeking to express support in person by volunteering and visiting during a war.
By Sergey Kadinsky
