Remarks Regarding the Delivery of the Reach Out To Israel Letters
By Judy Menikoff

Thank you for welcoming us here today. We are honored to be in Israel and to express our solidarity with you. On behalf of the 55,000 members of your ORT family in America, I am delivering hundreds of letters of concern, support and love from Jews across the United States. Few of us in America can begin to comprehend what you experience on a day-to-day basis, but we can and do empathize with you-your sadness, fear, frustration and outrage are ours. It is said, "As with nuts, if you take one from a heap, all the rest topple over, so with Jews, if one is smitten, all feel it."

We are also here to convey the hopes for the people of Israel that are contained in these letters. Hope for an end to violence. Hope for lasting peace. Hope for an end to injustice. Hope for long lives full of happiness, tranquility and prosperity.

Here are but a few of the many expressions of hope contained in these letters:

Remember that we love you and stand with you, and that you are always in our thoughts and prayers...and our hearts.

Reflections on the Solidarity Mission to Israel
By Judy Menikoff

"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch." - Isaiah 62, 1.

No matter how many times I have been to Israel, no matter how many missions, delegations, congresses I've attended, none has had more meaning for me than my visit during the first week of September. I joined a group of 14 men and women from the United States, France, Russia, the U.K, Belgium, Mexico and Uruguay who journeyed to Israel to demonstrate our support for their continuing struggles.

Perhaps others would share with you statistical information. Yes, the reallocation of municipal funding from education to security has forced ORT Israel to reevaluate the programs it can offer to its students. (Programs like the Learning Skills Centers, which serve the needs of 17,000 children with learning difficulties, may need to be eliminated. The Laptop Computer classes at Ya'arat Ha'emeck may not continue.) But this is truly a very small part of the story.

A recent article in The New York Times written by Clyde Haberman provides the background for my ORT story.

"He listens," it begins, "for the ambulances. The first siren captures his attention, but it is not enough to make him afraid. Not yet. Maybe the ambulance is on a routine call. People do have heart attacks and fall down stairs in this city after all. It is the second siren that causes this Israeli to stiffen. Then comes a third and a forth and more, and he knows it has happened again. Somewhere, not too far away, another young Palestinian in search of martyrdom and paradise has blown himself to pieces in a crowd of Israelis.

Now, the Israeli does what scores, hundreds, of others in Jerusalem are doing at the same moment. He reaches for his cell phone to find out if his wife and son are safe, to make sure this was not the day that one of them paused at the wrong pizza restaurant or outdoor cafÿ."

A pizza parlor, an outdoor cafÿ, a teenage discoÞeveryday places, places you and I, our children, our grandchildren visit all the time. A few weeks ago Ronen Landau, a 16-year-old student at the ORT Ramot Comprehensive High School in Jerusalem, drove with a friend to a neighborhood movie theater. (He had only recently received his drivers' license.) When the movie was over he found that his car wouldn't start, so he called home to tell his parents he and his friend would take the bus home, and pick up the car the next day. His father, fearing the dangers of bus travel, insisted on picking him up. Ronen was killed half a block from home, where a bullet from a sniper struck him.

On Sunday September 2nd, the opening day of school, the members of our delegation attended a memorial service at Ramot, the school where Ronen's mother is a teacher, and where his brother, cousins, and friends attend. How many times have we routinely picked up our children from some activity? The majority of us are blessed - for we can send our children to the movies with free hearts. Most of us have never had to help our children grieve for a fallen classmate.

On Monday, September 3rd, we, again, attended memorial services for two young girls, recent Russian immigrants, who had come with their mothers to Israel, to live freely as Jews, to grow and enjoy a full and productive future. Maria and Raisa were students at ORT Lvovich in Netanaya and had gone to a disco in Tel Aviv to celebrate the birthday of a classmate. They were two of the 18 youngsters killed in the terrorist attack. Only weeks before they died, a car bomb had been detonated at the bus stop right outside the school. Fortunately, the students were taking exams, so no one was hurt. Only a few days later, another Lvovich student was injured in an attack on the car in which he was going home from school. The driver was killed, but the boy was spared by pretending to be dead. This fourteen-year-old boy wept as he thanked us for being there, for demonstrating our support, for showing him and his schoolmates that Israel was not alone - that we, the Jews of the Diaspora, were part of his family.

As Haberman says in his article, " Where there was hope in the mid-90's that things could only get better, there is now despair that the shooting and bombs and blockades will only get worseÞReasons for gloom keep comingÞyet, life, of course, goes on, as many Israeli's are quick to say. They get married, have babies, go on drives, go shopping, and take in a movie. And they do go to school." While we were in Jerusalem, we met with Mayor Olmert. There were discussions about delaying the opening of schools (there are 8 ORT schools in Jerusalem), but most Israelis are determined to make life as normal as possible.

And each of you helps make that "normalcy" possible. In light of the horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that have killed an unbearable number of our fellow Americans and lifted the veil of invulnerability and security from our collective eyes, we have much to learn from Israel. How to persevere during uncertain and dangerous times. How to continue living full lives undiminished by fear, hatred, chaos and death.

In the past, how many times have we alluded to the famous quotation, "If I am nor for myself, who am I? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"

Each moment is precious. If we do not use this particular moment meaningfully, its potential is lost and can never be retrieved. We must make the most of each moment allotted to us, and whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it is the only time we have. I applaud each of you for standing up at this time. Your participation and support of ORT, and of ORT Israel in particular, is crucial.

• Read Shoshana Ben-Yoar's thoughts concerning the Solidarity Mission to Israel here.


Reach Out to Israel: We Need Your Help!

We continue to collect Reach Out to Israel letters of support for ORT Israel students, which will be delivered in person in the near future. To express your interest in and support for our students during these uncertain times, please take just a few minutes of your time to complete these letters and e-mail them to us. Your letter assures these children that they are not alone, but part of a global community of concerned and compassionate people who will never abandon them.