Sunday, August 6th,

Dear Friends,

Today is my wedding anniversary. My wife, Deborah and I usually eat at a restaurant to celebrate the event, but this year we are “celebrating” at home, hoping that it will be a quiet evening with no sirens (of course we couldn’t find a single restaurant open during nighttime in Haifa).

We were hoping for some calm, but the past Shabbat was anything but quiet. After the 48 hour ceasefire, things changed for the worse. In the past 3 days over 200 katyushas per day landed in the North of Israel, with dozens of civilians killed and many more wounded. Just a few minutes ago, 12 people were killed in Kfar Giladi in what is to referred to as the one of the most difficult days for us since the beginning of the war.

Friday evening, while most people were enjoying their Friday night dinner, Hizballa managed to shock Israelis once again, when Katushas landed in Hadera (near Caesaria). Nasralla’s threat to aim katyushas toward new areas closer to Tel Aviv, came true. Actually, many people were not surprised since Nasralla has already done everything he threatened to do.

The news reports showed residents of Hadera (half way between Haifa and Tel Aviv) shocked about the Katyushas reaching their area. It reminded us of the day( we will remember for a long time), when katyushas landed in Haifa for the first time 25 days ago. We felt such disbelief that katyushas can reach Haifa.

Most people like to take their time on Saturday and rest, but at 8 am a siren woke everyone up (except for me since I wake up early on Saturday to prepare B’nei Mitzvah for their Torah reading). Everyone in Haifa could hear the explosions, since they were nearby.

We constantly hear “mini explosions” without any siren, since they are far away. Even if we become a bit relaxed, these mini explosions remind us we are still in war.

I wanted to share with you the blessing that the mother of our first Bar Mitzvah read to her son on the bima this past weekend:

“Not everyone celebrates his Bar Mitzvah at a time which is so meaningful for our country. When your children and your grandchildren ask you where you celebrated your Bar Mitzvah, you can always tell them that during your ceremony there were sirens in the background and katyushas from Lebanon landed nearby. The three weeks until 9 Be’av mark the period of time when the walls of Jerusalem fell after the siege on the city and the Temple’s destruction. These days, our enemies also want us to leave our land , but we are confident that given how strong Israel is, they will not be able to defeat us”.

It was a beautiful ceremony with 3 generations of Reform Jews at Or Hadash. The grandparents (a distinguished Prof. from the Technion) were among the founders of Or Hadash in 1964 and they joined us. Their son who has a high rank in the IDF was Bar Mitzvah in 1972. And now their youngest grandchild, Asaf, had his Aliyah to the Torah.

They celebrated all their life cycle events with all 4 rabbis of Or Hadash (in the past 42 years). This ceremony was also special and significant. Almost 70 congregants attended the ceremony which also shows the love and respect for this family, since many of them were afraid to come.

Later that day I traveled to Tel Aviv for another special ceremony. The mother was one of the first women to have a Bat Mitzvah at Or Hadash 30 years ago. All of the cousins had their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs in our Temple. She came from L.A., where the family has been living for the past 10 years. The relatives insisted that the Bar Mitzvah be held in Tel Aviv instead of at Or Hadash. In order for us not to loose more income, I traveled to Tel Aviv and it was a very emotional ceremony.

On my way back home after a few hours away from the sirens, I returned to our new routine of noises and running to the shelter and watching the TV (seeing tragic pictures).

I am still remain optimistic. All 30 staff members of Or Hadash report every day to work. All 3 preschools and the summer camp are open. Today we have almost 70%of the children with us (about 65 children ages 2-9). The food that Shlomit cooked was tasty, I think she made it with special love. Also on Friday night, more than 50 congregants came to pray which means that we are on our way back to our day to day lives.

A million times thanks for your letters and your support: spiritual and material.

Waiting for the U.N. to declare a real ceasefire.

Wishing you Shavua Tov,