When Shir Ami members Randi Cohen and Jackie Luber decided to start a fundraiser for an organization that builds bomb shelters in Israel, they weren’t sure how people would take to the cause. At a time when there are dozens of Israeli charities vying for donations at any given time, would their cause stand out? The answer from the rest of the Shir Ami family was an overwhelming yes.
“Donations started to come in right away — before our website forms were even set up or the marketing materials or social media posts had even been created,” Cohen said. “People wanted to help, and we were so encouraged by that.”
Shir Ami, a Reform synagogue in Newtown, has been galvanized by the Oct. 7 attacks. One of the congregation’s two rabbis, Eric Goldberg, said that since that day, the temple has been in constant action. The synagogue has organized three mission trips to Israel in the past year.
“We had the opportunity to be in the Gaza envelope, to meet members of the communities that had been intimately affected by October 7,” Goldberg said. “We helped people rebuild their kibbutzim and hear their stories. For those who were with me or with [the other Shir Ami rabbi, Charles Briskin], it inspired them to want to keep making Israel a safer place for those who live there.”
This is how a group of Shir Ami congregants that included Cohen and Luber came up with the idea. They wanted to take the experiences they had in Israel and give them to their fellow synagogue members back in Pennsylvania.
“A group of us got to talking and someone told us about the bomb shelter program where [an organization] helps facilitate the placement and building of bomb shelters in Israel,” Cohen said. “We said, ‘We can do this. How do we make this happen?’”
They met with Rabbis Goldberg and Briskin and decided to set up a fund for donations, with the goal of raising $60,000 for the construction of a new bomb shelter in Israel. Since then, they have raised more than $40,000, Cohen said.
For Luber, the most inspiring part of the trip to Israel was seeing the relationship that Israelis have with the land.
“All of these terrible things happened around their homes, and they still want to go back,” Luber said.
The goal, Cohen said, is not just to build one bomb shelter, though. Shir Ami wants to forge a long-term relationship with the town that the shelter ends up being built in. Shir Ami doesn’t know which Israeli locale will be chosen, but officials said that it will likely be towards the southern end of the country in the Negev desert, nearest to Gaza.
While in Israel, Luber said someone leading their tour told them how the shelters can be beautified —painted, decorated — to make them less depressing and ominous. She said that she looks forward to the potential of seeing a decorated bomb shelter whenever the project is completed.
Goldberg said it’s important for American Jews to remember that Israelis aren’t just part of the same large tribe — they are so much more than that.
“When people go to Israel, I hope they feel that the people of Israel are our brothers and sisters, our moms and dads, our grandmas and grandpas and our kids and grandkids,” he said. “It’s not like going to any other place in the world.”
Over 120 individuals have donated to the shelter thus far, and Goldberg, Cohen and Luber are confident that donations will continue to roll in until the $60,000 mark is reached.
Goldberg said the synagogue’s commitment to helping Israel extends beyond this fundraiser. Shir Ami takes part in a program called My Tree in Israel, in which members invest in Israeli olive oil farmers and receive shipments of olive oil in return. Goldberg said it’s valuable because it “connects the congregation literally and figuratively to the land of Israel,” not to mention that it’s “the best olive oil.”
He also explained a modern version of a pen-pal system in which teens at Shir Ami communicate virtually with Israeli teens. All of these activities culminate in the journeys that the congregation takes to Israel a few times a year, which Goldberg was careful to describe as “not a vacation, and not a trip.”
“It’s like going home,” he said.
The ultimate hope for this program is that it builds more momentum for future work in Israel from the Shir Ami community, according to the rabbi.
“Not only are our hearts and minds in Israel, but we have literally helped to build [it] into a place where Jewish people can live,” he said. “In the Hatikvah, it says that Israel is a place where Jewish people can live free and have a place that — no matter what is going on in the world — they can be safe in.”
