I’m finally Facebook famous!
Perhaps even more important than my recent star appearance in Facebook, I’m here to share the truth about Israel. Joking aside, I want to use my findings from my recent trip to highlight the many ways that Israeli civil society functions as a conduit for humanitarian aid at many levels, both to Israelis and non-Israelis, to Jews, non-Jews, and yes even to its potential enemies in Gaza. More than just a conduit, Israel and Israelis in all walks of life are play an instrumental role in making the world a better place. I want to share some of that perhaps unexpected insight with you.
In my posts I am trying to highlight heroic people I met during my recent two week visit in Israel. I met with so many that I’m finding it hard to organize and document my many impressions. In a sense Israel is the kind of place where “you had to be there” really makes sense. There’s just so much!
One person I really wanted to see during my visit was my friend Tova. I was disappointed that she had COVID and could not join us during the official mission. But fortunately with tincture of time she felt better and last Monday I traveled to Hadera to see her and learn about addressing community mental health needs. First a little bit of background.
Last spring Sam and I traveled to Israel to get acquainted with our our Partnership2Gether peeps in Hadera. That is where we met our friend Tova Meiner. Tova was seated next to us at the dinner welcoming our group from the Southeastern US and Prague Jewish Federations. Conversation flowed that evening as we shared stories and a few laughs. We didn’t know we’d be seeing much more of Tova and her husband Meir that weekend. On Shabbat Tova and Meir swung by the hotel to pick us up, and hosted us and another American guest on a typical “tiyul ha-Aretz,” (literally “tour of the Land”). It was a long day, typical for Israelis tiyulim (tours) and a VERY full one.
The day started at Kibbutz Beit Alpha, site of an ancient historic synagogue that dates back to Byzantine times, when thriving Jewish communities, descendants of the original indigenous people of the Land of Israel dotted the landscape. At Beit Alpha, early pioneers who founded the kibbutz came upon a most unusual mosaic that I alluded to in an earlier post. Here’s some background
We were joined at Beit Alpha by a bunch of relatives of Tova and Meir, including a new baby. It turned into a three-car family outing. Having toured Beit Alpha we were scheduled to enjoy a picnic high above the Jezreel Valley on Mount Gilboa. Our caravan took a right turn off the main road but soon we were met by a police blockade There had been reports of recent terrorism activities (the West Bank is right there) and Mount Gilboa was off limits to all but local people. So with our group of ten or so people our hosts had to make a quick decision. Where to take the American guests for a picnic?
Luckily, Tova and Meir know the landscape well. They explained that every Saturday when their kids were younger the whole family joined together for Tiyul Ha-Aretz. A few miles later, a few twists and turns on unmarked dirt roads, and we found ourselves at a lovely picnic stop at a place called Herod Springs, location of an ancient bridge and aqueduct.
A lovely late spring day of conversation and comraderie. And delicious offerings. We reveled in the generous “home hospitality” of Tova and family and felt very much a welcome part of the group. There were some not-so-lovely yellow jackets buzzing around the mountain of home baked dessert pies so Sam and I took a little walk into the surrounding countryside where wildflowers bloomed in abundance. Aware that many of the species are rare or endemic, we picked the more common varieties and brought a nice bouquet to Tova as a token of our appreciation.
Tova was introduced initially as a member of the steering committee of the Partnership but I did not know about her other “ love,” ERAN. ERAN, Israel’s Emotional first aid service, provides a confidential 24-hour hotline, by phone and internet, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They provide crisis counseling and triage if ongoing counseling is needed.
A volunteer hotline counselor, Tova has spent decades listening to people in crisis when they call ERAN Emotional First Aid.
Tova volunteers at the Hadera office, which I visited exactly a week ago, one of 13 in the country. It is not easy to find the ERAN office as it is in an unmarked 3 story residential building. It is not top secret like the offices of the Mossad which were pointed out to us another day by our tour guide. ERAN just is tucked away in a building owned by the city of Hadera. Not elegant but spacious there are many private offices for live phone crisis counseling as well as larger training and meeting rooms. Tova and along with, Imbal Amsalem also a steering committee member greeted me. After hugs they were eager to show me around and describe how a crisis line had to respond to the crisis of Oct 7th.
The calls poured in and continue to. But at first the calls included requests to find missing family members, even calls from safe rooms. Those days the calls were nonstop and the volume more than tripled. Now the volume has dropped but is still 400-500 (!) calls a day.
Many people call because of the stresses the war have triggered families, soldiers, children, Holocaust survivors. The counseling is in Hebrew, English, Russian, and Arabic. Yes, ARABIC, because Israel has Arabic speaking populations and their needs must be met.
I learned that before COVID all counseling was done in the office and then isolation during the pandemic required volunteers take the calls from their homes. The silver lining has been that this change has afforded ERAN the flexibility it has needed to respond to unprecedented phone volume since October 7. There are some 1600 ERAN volunteers in Israel and abroad. In order to respond to calls around the clock there are volunteers on both coasts of the US and even Australia.
ERAN provides services beyond the typical suicide hotline. Doctors, nurses, paramedics who are dealing with so many injured patients and too much death find it is a safe space to express their emotions.
Interesting that my recent mission trip was going to include a visit to a counseling center for the survivors of the Nova Festival. The needs of that population have evolved and that center is no longer operating. The survivors are now getting care in their communities. But ERAN is not a temporary response because of the war. They are another example of generous people being super heroes by just continuing to do what they do well, by listening and responding to each call.
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