Dear Friends,

Oy, Gevalt!

As you surely heard by now, the situation in Israel is extremely unstable these days. It is like a spark that grew bigger and bigger and is now a very dangerous fire.

I want to thank you for your support emails and phone calls and I am writing this email to all of you before I answer you personal emails. Your support is truly valuable and it is of great help during these times of uncertainty.

It all started two days ago, when without any warning Hizbala started sending Katyusha rockets to Israel, causing people who live in the North to spend the night in their bomb shelters, fearing the worst. The reports also stated that two soldiers were kidnapped and that 4 more soldiers were killed in an attempt to bring the kidnapped soldiers back home. Analysts here say that Iran and Syria are helping the Hamas and Hizbala.

This situation for most Israeli citizens meant only one thing: the beginning of battles that could lead to war.

The escalation continued as Katyusha rockets hit cities in the North. According to television and newspaper reports, 110 rockets have already landed in Israel in 30 cities in Israel, leaving several dead and dozens wounded. Zahal reacted by starting a military operation in Lebanon.

Yesterday trains were full of people who gathered their belongings and fled from the North, staying with their family in the Southern regions of Israel.

The irony is that many people came to Haifa, a city that was considered safe from Hizbala threat, until yesterday evening, as a missile with a head of 100 kg hit Haifa, and brought people to believe in the unthinkable. Many of our friends were out running errands, but when hearing about Haifa being in the line of fire, people hurried home to prepare for a possible attack, getting ready to possibly stay in their bomb shelters for the night.

Luckily, there were no unusual occurrences during the night , but people are still afraid.

Only 10 out of 72 children arrived to our preschools today, while most children left the city during the weekend. Most of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah families, are thinking of canceling the event this weekend, since their relatives from the Tel Aviv area told them they will not be coming.

As every Friday, we are preparing for Kabalat Shabbat, but is seems that many people are afraid of arriving this evening, and prefer the safety of their homes. We might have to hold the Kabalat Shabbat in our Or Hadash bomb shelter.

The situation is depressing. We worked very hard in the past few years to have a vibrant Friday night with an average of 150 people arriving, but in light of recent events, it seems that we may have a minyan of 4 Bar Mitzvah families and myself in the bomb shelter.

I hope that this whole situation will be over as soon as possible with minimum casualties of innocent people on both sides and that the diplomatic efforts will be efficient.

Sending you a Shabbat, lets pray of Shalom, from Haifa, Israel.