“My Home is Your Home” Reflections from a solidarity and service trip to Israel
By Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family JCC
“You flew thousands of miles just to give us a hug. That’s what gives us strength. The Jewish People are family—that is our superpower.”
These were the words spoken by Danny, the father of Israeli hostage Omri Miran, when he spoke to our group traveling on a Ramah Solidarity and Service trip to Israel this week when we asked where he finds the strength to keep up his hopefulness every day.
Not every moment on my recent trip was filled with this much optimism. Indeed, the trip was as heart-breaking as it was soul-filling.
We cried at the Nova site when we went to bear witness to the hundreds of memorials created by the families of the victims. We were overwhelmed when we visited the bus stop-bomb shelter from where Hirsch Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped after 28 people were murdered there. Our hearts broke at the Car Cemetery, where we saw over 1,500 burned out cars, stacked up in piles like the shoes in Auschwitz, each with its own story. We felt the pain of every family member when we made the pilgrimage to Har Herzl, Israel’s Arlington, which is once again an active cemetery with new graves dug almost every day for Israel’s greatest generation.
We rolled up our sleeves, as we made meals for soldiers at a teaching kitchen in Tel Aviv that transitioned its purpose after Oct. 7. We were humbled as we helped serve a barbecue dinner for soldiers on an army base alongside a group of Israeli volunteers who do this multiple times a week at a different base each time. We felt useful when we picked 1.5 tons of grapes at a farm because all the field workers were called up to serve in the military. We were grateful to be of service when we packed food in Netivot, a kibbutz in the Western Negev (often referred to as the Gaza Envelope), for families in the surrounding area.
We gave hugs, as we came to show solidarity to families of hostages, as well as families of soldiers and civilians who were killed, and listened to their unbearable stories. We were emotional when we took pictures at Hostage Square, where art installations stand alongside meeting tents for hostage families, demanding we “bring them home now.” We felt good spending money at Café Ofek, a pop-up coffee/chocolate shop run by the members of Kibbutz Re’im to sell products from the kibbutzim that were devastated on Oct. 7.
There is no way to thoroughly encapsulate these experiences, but there is one story I want to share. After Omri’s father, Danny, learned that his son had been kidnapped, he came to Tel Aviv from where he lives three hours north. Danny didn’t know what to do—he just knew he had to be around other families who knew the hell he was living in, so he just showed up at Hostage Square. He was sleepwalking, unable to wake from his nightmare, and a stranger approached him on the square and asked him where he was staying for the night. Danny said he didn’t have a place to stay so the stranger invited him to stay at his place. Danny politely declined but the stranger insisted, so Danny reluctantly accepted.
Three hours later, the stranger came back to the square to find Danny because he knew that Danny wouldn’t really take him up on his offer. Danny said he would, but he still didn’t go. Later that night, the stranger came back and finally took Danny in his car to his apartment. He brought him up to his flat and handed Danny the key, telling him he would stay with his sister so Danny could have his own space.
Danny looked around at the beautiful home, saw the expensive art on the walls and the nice things on the shelves, and joked, “As soon as you leave, I’m taking all this nice stuff, putting it in a car, and driving away with it.”
The stranger smiled and said, “You have the key. Do with it as you please. My home is your home.”
After a few days, the stranger learned that Danny couldn’t sleep because he liked to fall asleep with the TV on and there was no TV in the bedroom. So, the owner went and bought a tv and installed it in the bedroom. Danny stayed in the flat for three months, and now these former strangers refer to each other as brothers.
It didn’t matter whether these two men shared the same politics or not. Neither one asked if they had the same religious beliefs. It was simple: “My home is your home.”
That’s Israel: unbelievable generosity mixed with dark humor; shared trauma creating unbreakable connections. That’s what gives strength to those on the front lines. That’s at the heart of the resilience of Israel. That’s the superpower of the Jewish People.
There is no way to fully do justice to these encounters. It’s impossible to convey the depth of connection you feel with the people. My hope is that you can just make the trip to Israel and experience it yourself. Until then, the OFJCC will continue to make our home your home.
Am Yisrael Chai.
This article was originally posted on the OFJCC Live Fully Blog HERE
Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family JCC
Zack Bodner spends his days as the CEO of the OFJCC and his late nights waxing poetic on the Live Fully Blog. During the in-between hours, he and his wife ro-sham-bo for who does the dishes and who puts each of their three kids to sleep. On the weekends, Zack schleps his brood from soccer to baseball to drama to dance and then back to soccer. He can often be found asleep in one of his kids' beds after reading bedtime stories to them.
