Note: Mr. Ratner spoke shortly after returning to Cleveland from a national mission to Israel of worldwide Jewish community leaders. Other Clevelanders on the trip were Joel Fox, Federation executive vice president; Karin F. Schleifer, national chair of the UJC Young Leadership cabinet; and community leader Larry Robinson.

Charles Ratner with former Clevelander Yitz Feigenbaum, on duty at Kibbutz Merav

I was just in Israel for 36 hours. A Jew was killed every hour and a half we were there.

I met with three of our Pardes students who are studying there. "What can we do for you," I asked. "Don't let them bring us home. This is where we want to be," they answered. Our students on Project Otzma, for those just out of college, said the same: "This is where we want to be." The future of the Jewish people is assured with these students as our next generation.

I made a shiva call to our good friend Mark Robinson in Beit She'an, whose son was one of the first soldiers killed in Jenin. I was there on behalf of every one of you. It was a terrible, awful experience, the saddest thing I have ever done.

I was depressed by what I saw on Mt. Gilboa. Yitz Fiegenbaum told me sadly, while looking down from Mt. Gilboa to the Palestinian region just beyond, that we had lost 50 years of relationships, 50 years of building community with the Arabs.

Prime Minister Sharon told us, "Don't think for one minute you can live freely in the United States if Israel is lost. You will not be able to live your lives if Israel is compromised."

Morale in the Israel Defense Forces is high; 92 percent of the reserves came when called up, compared to the usual 50 percent. Israelis proved they have the will to fight when faced with a threat to their existence.

I was saddened, I was depressed, I was afraid and I was intimidated. Yet I was also invigorated and excited, and elevated spiritually, renewed spiritually.

There's a tear in the fabric of the Jewish people. Tears can be mended and relationships rebuilt. But we cannot lose sight of the miracle. During the Shoah, there was nowhere to go.

What I am is not just sad or depressed. What I am is not just excited and invigorated. What I am is angry. I am angry. I am angered at the enemy. I am angered at the world. An editorial cartoon that appeared in every newspaper in Greece shows an Israeli in a Nazi uniform with a gun pointed at a Palestinian in a stripped prisoner's uniform; under it is the picture we all know so well of the young boy in the ghetto with his armed raised high as a Nazi points a gun at him. They are trying to take away the Shoah from us.

I am angered at my own government. The U.S. ambassador told us that U.S. policy is high-risk; if Israel pulls out prematurely, we will have lost tremendously. President Bush is a very good friend of Israel. So if his ambassador is saying this, why is he pressuring Israel to pull out now?

Neil Weinberg shared with me a letter he got from his sister in Israel. "For the sake of Zion I will not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem, I will not rest," she quoted to him. It's all right there, in our own text.

What can I do to manage this anger? Israel needs only one thing from us - our solidarity. They are so alone, except for us. How can we express it? The most important thing is to go there. We sent 200 people on a mission in October, and there hasn't been one that size since. That mission is still talked about, and we'll send even more on another mission this October and you should go. You should volunteer in Israel. I asked our partnership coordinator in Beit She'an what we could do. Come teach in our schools, he said. Work in our hospitals. Forty percent of the men on Kibbutz Merav have been called to military duty; we can go and do their work.

We should advocate for Israel. Loudly and publicly. Meetings like this among Jews are important; they make us feel connected, make us feel stronger. But we also need to be seen in public. Our actions can shape public opinions. That's why you should go to Washington to rally, and to Public Square. There is no end to the advocacy we can provide.
 
Golda Meir said it so beautifully back before the war in 1948. "You will not decide if we fight," she said. "You will decide if we win." Make no mistake. We are fighting our second War of Independence. Sallai Meridor, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, put it this way. "What you do and how much you do will decide how much we bleed." More Jewish lives will be lost unless we do something about it. How tragic it would be if we have to say the same thing in 2002 that we said in 1948.

And you can give to the campaign. It makes a difference. I was talking to Yitz, he was holding his 3-year-old in one arm and his rifle slung across his other shoulder. What do you need, I asked. "You already helped build a yeshiva, and a youth center, he said. What I need now are night-vision goggles so I can go on patrol, and we need a new security fence."

Night goggles for $7,000 and a security fence for $12,000. Make no mistake about, your gifts can and do count.

You have never done work as important as this. We will decide how much they bleed.

Nisan 5762 - April 2002