The last thing Israel needs when it’s trying to get its story out to the world is the disabling of the Facebook account of an Israeli citizen participating in the national information drive.
But that’s what happened to Chicago-born Jeff Seidel, who helps Jewish university students who are in Israel from abroad. Some are here just for a visit; others have come to study. Through his Jewish Student Information Centers in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Beersheba, and Herzliya, Seidel, who has spent half his life in Israel, organizes Shabbat meals, networking experiences, and Jewish outreach.
Below is his complaint in his own words:
“Our Worldwide Jewish Network with over 35,000 members has been disabled by Facebook due to our putting ‘nudity’ on the site. This is a vile falsehood and likely the result of vicious antisemitic attacks against our group that we have been fighting in the days following the Hamas massacre. We have been filtering the content, removing posts about Hitler, dead Jews, and celebrations of the outrage committed against our people. PLEASE help us get our group back online – how do we fight Facebook to return our group, get this story in the news, and fight back against ridiculous media bias against Jews and Israel.”
Making sure those who help get appreciated
■ NO ONE should be denied the right to help or to know that what they have done is appreciated. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari makes sure to do this regularly. Sometimes children are even more in need of appreciation than adults. Bernice Fogel is a key activist in the Jerusalem-based Friendship Circle, which is working out of Talbiyeh’s President Hotel, providing toiletries, meals, accommodation, and activities for displaced southern residents brought to Jerusalem. She tells of a sweet little boy who came to the hotel clutching a couple of bags of munchies to donate to the evacuees. When asked if he had purchased them with his own money, he replied in the affirmative and was told that he was doing something very worthwhile. The grin on his face went from ear to ear.
Raising funds for IDF equipment, evacuees
■ SHALEM COLLEGE has partnered with the Jerusalem Civilian Command Center to raise funds for the purchase of urgently needed equipment for IDF units and to assist the evacuees from the Gaza border communities.
The center runs two shifts a day of 5,000+ volunteers responding to a range of urgent needs – from providing advanced medical equipment to deployed units and arranging supplies for evacuees to organizing babysitters for essential workers and housing for fleeing families.
It even organized a wedding for a reserve soldier who was given one night to get married. Evacuees were invited to help the newlyweds celebrate.
According to Jewish tradition, bridegrooms should not go to war in the first year of marriage; but in this war, several bridegrooms have reported for military duty, not only in the first year but in the first week, often the day after the wedding ceremony.
Medical supplies are among the most urgent needs right now, says Gila Rockman, who works at Shalem College and has made a stirring video appeal for supplies and financial donations.
Rockman knows a lot about medical supplies, as her father is the well-known Jerusalem physician Dr. Michael Goldsmith, who practices family medicine.
Chabad: Helping Jews in distress
■ WHERE JEWS are in distress and in need, one usually finds Chabad. Emissaries in Jerusalem and all over Israel instantly became involved in rescue and assistance efforts following the massacre of southern residents.
Chabad centers exist in most Jerusalem neighborhoods, but the most veteran is Colel Chabad, established in 1788 and today directed by Rabbi Sholom Duchman.
Like most other organizations, Colel Chabad is currently flooded with volunteers delivering food to outlying areas, and also providing food and clothing for some of the thousands of evacuees in Jerusalem.
Donation requests pile up
■ PRIVATE AND public funds that had been designated for various organizations have either been frozen or canceled. As a result, many more requests for donations for one cause or another are piling up on people’s social media platforms.
Among the victims of the freeze are the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, whose regular donors are diverting their funds to what they consider to be more pressing needs.
But the hopes of board chairman Alan Berkley, gardens director Tom Amit, and JBG executive director Hannah Rendell have not been shattered. They are planning to reopen the gardens to the public to help the community to heal.
As soon as it is safe to do so, there will be a major programming expansion to fulfill the unprecedented demand for therapeutic action. JBG will also expand its post-trauma relief for combat soldiers program. It will also resume support of hundreds of senior garden lovers as they return to voluntary gardening; activities will be provided for families and children, along with schools and colleges, as well as workshops on health and nature in healing.
Temporary residents of Jerusalem evacuated from vulnerable areas may enter the gardens free of charge – as is policy during every war.
Jerusalem goes from ghost town to buzzing
■ IN THE first week of the war, Jerusalem was a ghost town. Coffee shops and other commercial enterprises were closed; nearly all the stalls in the Mahaneh Yehuda market were closed; and the path in the open market that is usually teeming with humanity was all but empty, with lone individuals here and there using it as a shortcut between two major arteries. But this week, the coffee shops were open again, albeit not as well patronized as in September. The market was buzzing but not crowded. Most shops on the main streets such as Jaffa Road, King George, and Ben-Yehuda were open, and there were definitely more people in the street. The only places that were really crowded were the discount stores, especially those selling winter clothes and blankets at extremely low prices.
Will Moshe Lion show care during peacetime?
■ WITH ALL the goodwill in the world to send food and equipment to soldiers and to help evacuees in a myriad of ways, there is a danger of overlooking the people who are regularly cared for by municipal and national welfare authorities. There seemed to be more homeless people sleeping in the street than before the war. But the nights are getting colder, and the people sleeping in the street are risking their health, as well as their lives. With all the construction going on in Jerusalem, surely Mayor Moshe Lion could have come up with a plan for providing shelters for the homeless, complete with showers and soup kitchens. Look what can be quickly organized in wartime. Why are we so slow and uncaring in peacetime?
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