Northern exposure

After graduating from college, I spent a year working on a kibbutz in the north of Israel with my late wife, Laurel. The year was 1974. Kibbutz Parod is located in the hills between Acco and Tzefat in a most beautiful part of the country. On our days off from milking cows and working in the children’s house, we often took the bus to Acco or Haifa. The bus passed through the fledgling town of Karmiel, which was not much more than a small main street from which stretched a few residential streets. The bus circled the town in less than five minutes.

I had not been back to Karmiel, our sister city, until last week. This time I took a train from Haifa. I was looking forward to the pastoral views from the train as it climbed into the mountains, but was disappointed to find the last section of the ride underground, engineered to avoid steep grades. After emerging from the tunnel, almost like the entrance to Pittsburgh through the Fort Pitt tunnel, the town opened up before me. It is now a sprawling city of almost 50,000 inhabitants.

Karmiel, however, was not my final destination. Last year I was given the opportunity to host an Israeli woman and her four children in my home for several months to give them a reprieve from the sirens and tension of the war in Israel. Naor lives in the yishuv of Har Halutz, which is part of Misgav, the greater Karmiel area. It is a 15-minute drive northward into the mountains above Karmiel. The drive takes you past Arab villages, a Druze village and a Bedouin encampment. It is bucolic, beautiful and peaceful. Peaceful, as long as the truce with Hezbollah holds.

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Near the community building, in the center of the village, is the following sign:

“Har Halutz, a community village of the movement for progressive Judaism was established on 12 Tishrei 5746 – Sept 27, 1985. Planned for 180 families, the settlement is comprised of immigrants and Israelis who share the ideals of religious pluralism, friendly interaction with all neighboring communities and strengthening the links between the diaspora and the State of Israel.”

Idyllic, but the place is surrounded by barbed wire. Entrance to the community is through a locked gate with a code on your cell phone. Naor and her children have gotten into the habit of sleeping together in the safe room.

We spent three-and-a-half weeks in Israel, mostly visiting old friends and distant relatives. We were treated like family by all, and thanked for visiting Israel in these difficult times. Life goes on, with people going to work, shopping, eating at restaurants, but there is a difference in the mood. There are pictures everywhere of the hostages and signs to “Bring Them Back.” There is polarization and conflict. There is anticipation of the cease-fire and hostage exchange, but little belief that it will be successful beyond the first stage. There are those who want no cease-fire, but rather a total conquering and colonization of Gaza and the West Bank. And there is a right-wing government held in power by a thread, and trying to stay in power.

What can we do as American Jews? First of all, visit. You will be welcomed with open arms, and your dollars will help struggling merchants. If you can’t visit, send money to legitimate charities in Israel, or donate through the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

And we do have a voice, as Jews not living in Israel and not voting in the Knesset elections. The World Zionist Congress has elections every five years, and Jews around the world older than18 can vote. The next election period begins this March 10. The outcome of these elections will determine how tens of millions of dollars are directed toward helping southern Israel rebuild, protecting democracy in Israel, strengthening our own Jewish communities and promoting pluralism in the Jewish state.

A good source for information is the website of Merkaz USA, the official party of the Conservative movement: mercazusa.org/votemercaz2025. PJC

Zarky Rudavsky is a doctor of optometry and Merkaz captain at Congregation Beth Shalom. He lives in Oakland.