A poll in Israel this week revealed that 28 percent of Kiryat Shmona residents are seriously considering moving south, far away from the border with Lebanon.
That may be so, but Eve Bernstein of San Francisco has been energized by the other 72 percent.
During a two-day fact-finding mission to the upper Galilee over Memorial Day weekend, the incoming chair of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s Israel and overseas committee didn’t meet any of those planning to leave.
“These people are not easily defeated,” an exhausted but adrenaline-charged Bernstein said by phone Tuesday from Tel Aviv.
“They are there, it is their home and they’re going to rally and make life better for themselves there — and the rest of the country and the diaspora needs to support them.”
Bernstein said although Israel’s rapid troop pullout from southern Lebanon last week created great uncertainty in the north, nearly all of the estimated 16,000 people who bolted Kiryat Shmona last week had returned, restoring the town’s population to about 22,000.
But what if Hezbollah, supported and financed by Syria and Iran, were to launch a fresh offensive against Israel from its new vantage points directly across the border?
“Even though the numbers show 28 percent leaving, and even though there is a real concern about having enough teachers for the schools in the fall, we didn’t hear from anybody that was thinking about leaving,” Bernstein said.
JCF has had a close relationship with Kiryat Shmona for some 25 years, so Bernstein knows the problems northern Israel faces are real — and not just because of rockets and the threat of war.
People are also considering moving away for social and economic reasons, delicate issues that people are suddenly waking up to.
“No matter if the peace lasts or not, the rest of the diaspora will now be aware of the situation in the north,” she said. “This has totally opened up the diaspora’s eyes and hearts to the people in the upper Galilee.”
It apparently has opened Israel’s eyes, too.
After years of talk and pushing the issue to the back burner, the Israeli government has unveiled a plan to invest in the socioeconomic life of the 170,000 Israelis who inhabit the 70 communities in the northern border region.
Israel announced plans for a wide-ranging $381 million program that would expand the infrastructure (roads, water and sewage), build schools, secure teachers, boost tourism and provide assistance to the neediest residents of the north.
“They have sacrificed a lot, they have suffered a lot. We owe them a lot,” said Yossi Kuchik, director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office.
“It’s tough to look into their eyes,” he said. “I feel personally obliged to show them we mean business. It is important for them to see that they are not alone, suffering, while others in Tel Aviv are going out to restaurants and shows.”
The Jewish Agency for Israel followed up by announcing Monday that it will erase $38 million worth of debts that had financed housing and basic infrastructure at 40 moshavim and kibbutzim in the region.
Global Jewry is being called upon to focus on the needs of northern Israel.
“We want to be responsive not only in the short term but also in the long term,” Stephen Solender, the president and CEO of United Jewish Communities, said Tuesday in a satellite conference beamed to 65 federations around North America.
UJC, the federation system’s umbrella fund-raising and social service agency, announced plans Tuesday for a special meeting in June that will address funding needs in the northern Galilee region.
Bob Schrayer, the UCJ’s national campaign chairman for financial resources and development, tabbed the program “Road to Peace.”
He said there would not be any special campaign but that UJC, a major funder of the Jewish Agency, would likely recommend targeting some of its overseas allocations specifically for the north.
For many, the mission seemed to be an eye-opener to the social problems of the north, such as the 74 percent of children in that region suffering from anxiety because of bombs and the constant threat of being shelled.
Others have long known about the situation.
“This is no light bulb going off for me,” said Bernstein, who has been on the JCF’s Israel and overseas committee for six years. “The rest of the diaspora is finally getting it.”
During its long relationship with Kiryat Shmona, its partner city, the JCF has funded a number of programs, including providing support for a local college. Last year, it funded a summer camp for kids.
The relationship started with Project Renewal, a program of the former United Jewish Appeal designed to raise living standards in Israeli development towns.
It continued mainly through the Amuta, a 15-year-old committee of Israeli volunteers who advise the JCF on worthwhile projects in the Jewish state, and through Partnership 2000, a new program that has partnered JCF with the northern Galilee region.
From her vantage point, Bernstein said the consequences of a mass exodus from the north would be enormous.
If the population were to dwindle dramatically because of fear and a low-quality of life, it might create a new buffer zone — this time in Israel itself, said Sallai Meridor, chairman of the Jewish Agency.
“Then where does it stop?” Meridor told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tuesday. “We can only draw the line if the population in the north is strong.”
Meridor led a blue-ribbon task force, including Jewish leaders from the United States, Canada, Italy, Mexico and Australia, on a hastily called tour of the north.
About half the 30-member delegation was North American, including Charles Bronfman, chairman of the board of UJC. Solender did not make the trip.
The consensus was that to keep the younger generation from moving away, the north needs top-notch teachers and schools, small-business loans and high-tech jobs, and all sorts of culture and entertainment.
Despite strong Zionist ideals that attracted many to the Israeli frontier, “We need things to root the residents even deeper,” Bernstein said.
A former board president of Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco, Bernstein received a call on Thursday of last week asking her to join the UJC contingent.
A day later, the airplane reservations were in place, and she left her husband and three kids on Saturday. Although she didn’t return until Wednesday, she slept only one night in Israel — on a kibbutz Monday night.
Bernstein has now been to Kiryat Shmona, the largest town in northern Israel and the frequent target of Hezbollah-fired Katyusha rockets, three times since January and 10 times overall.
She said her visit last weekend, however, was unlike any she had experienced before.
“There is a feeling of reluctant joy,” she said. “On one hand, there is a sense of relief that there are no longer [Israeli] soldiers on the other side of the border and that the Katyushas have stopped. But on the other hand, everyone is just waiting to see if [Hezbollah] is regrouping and things are going to be bad again.
“There’s an energy there. People are trying to figure out: What now? What next?”
On her previous visits, Bernstein said there was always noise in the region: helicopters, gunfire in the distance, Katyushas exploding in the buffer zone.
This time, she said she “could hear the peace,” which she described as an eerie experience.
“It’s a little unsettling,” she said. “At one point, [someone] turned to me and said, ‘Do you hear that?’ I said, ‘What?’ ‘It’s quiet.’ That really said it. I wasn’t tuned into it until he pointed it out to me, but you could hear the peace.”
She said “CNN is showing rock-throwing but we didn’t see anything like that.”
And although coverage of flag-waving Lebanese chanting anti-Israel slogans were prevalent on television, “we didn’t even see one Hezbollah flag,” Bernstein said.
“We were all a little disappointed,” she added in mock seriousness . “We were looking for one.”