Turning Out for a Strategic Meeting of Spiritual Proportions

July 28, 2006
NAHARIYA, Israel – With the daily barrages of rocket fire from southern Lebanon laying waste to sections of Israel’s northern cities, it is now more necessary than ever to connect with victims on a person-to-person level.

That’s the message a psychologist had for Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries across Israel’s northern environs.

“There is no substitute for human touch, the personal connection,” emphasized Dr. Asa Arnon, a psychologist specializing in trauma and post-traumatic stress. Chabad’s visits to bomb shelters and its outpouring of support for bereaved families is a lifeline for the families and for the Israeli society as a whole, Arnon explained.

Dr. Arnon was speaking before a large group of Chabad emissaries who gathered on Monday at the Nahariya Chabad house, struck last week by a Katyusha rocket. The psychologist made an emphatic case that this aspect of Lubavitch work may be the most important.

The get-together, held just a few kilometers from the Lebanese border and against the constant backdrop of the threat of missile attacks, was an opportunity for the emissaries to share stories and ideas, and to talk about what they need to do as war and destruction continue to ravage northern Israel. Among Arnon’s advice to participants was to counsel besieged Israelis to do the simplest of things to get their minds off of the conflict, such as turning off the TV and playing with their children.

But the gathering went beyond professional development, and was an opportunity to encourage the emissaries themselves, many of whom have been personally touched by Israel’s latest war. According to Rabbi Yisroel Brod, one of the conference’s organizers, the intent was to “strengthen the strong” and to address the unique challenges they face in being potential targets themselves.

The “shelter brigades.” A Chabad-Lubavitch emissary encourages children in a bomb shelter in the northern town of Nahariya

“The emissaries in the north are some of the strongest people you’ll ever meet,” he said. “They go about their shlichut, their duties, with passion and professionalism. But war is tough for everybody. In decisions taken jointly with their husbands, many of the women emissaries have followed many residents southward in order to safely tend to their younger children, and we felt that all the emissaries could use a good dose of uplifting.”

In addition to Arnon, the group was addressed by Amiram Duvdevani, a civilian volunteer with the Israel Police in Nahariya. Duvdevani praised what he called Chabad’s “shelter brigades,” and said he didn't know what the city would do without the organization’s support and assistance.

“Every visit you guys make raises people’s spirits,” he said. “Whether it’s material help or just general encouragement, these visits are a crucial part of helping the city get through this.”

Brod said the meeting coincided with the printing of two booklets, one for adults and one geared towards children, to be distributed around the country. One, called “Chazak, Chazak, Venitchazek” (“With strength, we will all be strong”), consists of a description of activities to strengthen the Jews of Israel, including tefillin drives, visits to bomb shelters and visits to victims of terror. It also features essays about charity, prayer, repentance, as well as the mitzvah to love other Jews.

The kids’ booklet, “Little Soldiers,” will be distributed to young people in bomb shelters throughout the north. The pamphlet includes puzzles and activities for children to uplift them and strengthen their faith, as well as the crucial need to occupy their minds with something other than Katyushas.

“We definitely came away strengthened from this conference,” said Rabbi Shmuel Jeruti, the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Kiryat Motzkin, one of many towns across northern Israel that has suffered missile attacks by Hezbollah. “These kinds of meetings give a everyone a tremendous shot in the arm to go out and continue our work in the field."