IDF

Original Article is Published on JNS.org

“I noticed that non-working parents often did not have the funds to buy personal army gear for their kids,” says Ashkelon resident Beth Newmark.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ashkelon resident Beth Newmark identified a need and did something about it.

The American immigrant to Israel explains, “I noticed that non-working parents often did not have the funds to buy personal army gear for their kids. It seemed obvious that people would have secondhand stuff they didn’t need and others who did need could benefit. Save some money, save the environment.”

Newmark created She’ilat KITBAG, a “gemach” for soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (an abbreviation of the Hebrew word, gemilut chesedim, or “acts of lovingkindness.” While technically a gemach is a Hebrew free-loan fund, the concept has expanded to include clothes, books, household items and more).

Israelis would donate used army gear and clothing that soldiers are required to purchase before they enlist in the army. Draftees would then travel to a nondescript apartment in Beersheva, across from the northern train station, to gather needed supplies. She’ilat KITBAG housed a large supply of T-shirts, fleeces, thermals, socks, canteens and the all-important large army duffle bag.

The Hebrew term she’ilat is slang derived from an (apocryphal) army experience shared by many soldiers. The expression was created when an IDF soldier, commanded to assemble for a march with weapons and ammunition vests, asked his superior if he should also bring his presumably very heavy kit back. The reply was: “Good idea, bring the kitbag as well.”

Had he not asked, presumably the commanders would never have thought to require bringing the kitbag. The expression, which has become part of general Israeli society, refers to any question that is better not asked.

Blankets, towels, socks, jackets

Newmark says she is proud of the gemach and adds that “everyone who commits to serving in the IDF deserves to have everything they need without forcing them to spend money they may not have.”

This week, the work of She’ilat KITBAG has expanded in unexpected ways. Due in large part to the call-up of 360,000 reservists and counting, there has been an expanded need for army clothing and other supplies.

Israel Defense Forces soldiers get much-needed items from She’ilat KITBAG. Credit: Courtesy.

Newmark reports that since the terror attacks perpetrated on Israel by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, “we have had requests for warm clothes, blankets and towels for 72 soldiers. Then, when we were packing, we got another call from 50 soldiers who needed socks, shirts and warm gear. And then we were almost done, and someone else reached out asking if we had anything and took what was left. We estimate that 200 to 300 soldiers will benefit.”

The extraordinary demand led Newmark to go beyond the initial model of receiving donations of used clothes and supplies. She purchased gear for 20 soldiers, including underwear, socks, fleece jackets, toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, thermal clothing for under uniforms, flashlights, headlamps and gloves, She was unable to locate portable chargers, which she says are greatly needed by the soldiers.

Newmark and four volunteers moved quickly and managed to pack up 50 black garbage bags stuffed with goods, which were delivered to bases a short drive from Beersheva. “Our shelves are bare,” one of them said. “Time to start restocking!”

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A painting of Esther, Ahasuerus and Haman by Rembrandt. Credit: Google Art Project/Wikipedia.

Original Article is Published on JNS.org

Throughout Jewish history, public fasts have responded to and beseeched God for mercy at times of great pain and uncertainty.

Rabbi Eric Woodward of New Haven, Conn., plans to join more than 675 rabbis, cantors and Jewish community members in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel in a communal fast day on Oct. 12.

In an email on Wednesday, the rabbi of Beth El-Kesser Israel strongly encouraged the Conservative synagogue’s community to join him in abstaining from food and drink—something that Jewish communities have done throughout history in the face of tragedy, troubling uncertainty and other times that call for beseeching Divine mercy.

“With feelings of utter horror for the fate of the kidnapped, and with worry for the soldiers of the IDF, I am as mara d’atra declaring a taanit tzibbur, an obligatory communal fast, for our community tomorrow, Oct. 12, 27 Tishrei,” he wrote, using the English and Hebrew calendar dates. (Mara d’atra is Aramaic for a religious adjudicator who is considered to have authority in a certain place.)

The fast was called to begin at 5:38 a.m. at dawn and to end at 6:58 p.m. at nightfall, New Haven time.

Woodward told JNS that he and a rabbinic colleague had considered declaring a public fast when he received an email from the Hadar Institute—a Manhattan-based center of Jewish life, learning and practice—announcing a fast day.

“We stand in horror as Hamas has taken over 100 Israelis and other citizens hostage, among them infants, toddlers, entire families, the elderly and Holocaust survivors,” the Hadar email explained. “While political and military leaders are pursuing pathways to their release, we have a religious and communal obligation to stand up for the victims and to cry out to God.”

Woodward, who has great respect for Hadar and its rabbis, announced the fast in his community and signed on to a list of rabbis, cantors and communal leaders planning to do likewise. At press time, the list—which appears to span several religious denominations—numbered more than 675.

‘A gut punch’

“It feels like a very important Jewish moment. It is something we can do to unite our prayers with our bodies and our existence,” Woodward told JNS.

The rabbi has found himself feeling “unwell and physically nauseous” upon seeing new, horrifying images from Israel of the aftermath of Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 which Israeli President Isaac Herzog and others have called the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.

“It feels like a gut punch,” Woodward told JNS. “A fast feels like a Jewish way to deal with it.”

Woodward’s colleague Fred Hyman, the rabbi of the nearby Westville Synagogue, is encouraging his Modern Orthodox community to fast as well. 

“At times of great distress, the community declares a public fast with prayers of supplication as a spiritual response of reflection and introspection,” Hyman told JNS.

The concept of a public fast in the face of danger or trauma comes from the Mishnah, in a tractate called Taanit (“fasts”), according to Woodward. In the Mishnah, which was codified in the third century, that danger includes droughts and persecution of Jews.

“This clearly fits,” Woodward told JNS of the present moment, despite the fact that rabbis don’t typically call for fasts in the month of Tishrei—that of the High Holiday season. (There are two set fasts in the month: Yom Kippur and the Fast of Gedaliah.)

“This is the right moment to call a fast,” he said.

Fighting back against danger

Laura Shaw Frank, of Riverdale, N.Y., told JNS that she finds the idea of a fast meaningful, having always connected personally with the biblical character of Esther—who fasted and called for the Jewish community to fast before she went to plead on their behalf to King Ahasuerus.

“I connect with Esther and the notion that Jewish people can be called to fight back against danger and oppression through a religious act,” said Shaw Frank, who directs the American Jewish Committee’s Department of Contemporary Jewish Life.

Linda Roth, of Woodbridge, Conn., also thinks of Esther and Mordechai when she thinks of participating in a public fast.

“We are in a critical time to put on sackcloth, sit on the ground and cry,” Roth told JNS.

Roth spent a lot of time in a bomb shelter in Israel in the summer of 2014 with her daughter, son-in-law and their newborn child. Roth told JNS that helping out by providing food, clothing and other supplies to those who need them in Israel is important. But it is “not sufficient.” Fasting will be a meaningful way to show concern, she thinks.

“I have never seen it in our lifetime,” she said. “This is a serious moment, and I am grateful they called one.”

‘I welcome the opportunity’

While rabbis declared the fast for Jews worldwide, at least one pro-Israel, Zionist non-Jew, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) also plans to fast on Oct. 12.

The Dallas native Joseph Kline, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst currently in his second year at Harvard Law School, couldn’t stop thinking about the attacks in Israel and about his Jewish friends serving in the Israel Defense Forces, particularly after witnessing a pro-Hamas rally at Harvard University.

“I am very religious and am praying for the IDF soldiers on the front lines,” he told JNS. “I had mentioned the idea of fasting on behalf of Israel to my Jewish friend since we fast once a month. She said that there was going to be a fast.”

“I fasted alone on behalf of Israel on Sunday,” he said. “I welcome the opportunity to join my brothers and sisters around the world in fasting on Thursday.”

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Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

Yuval Wagner was an IDF pilot who became paralyzed after a helicopter crash. Now he runs the NGO Access Israel with the goal of making the Jewish state more accessible to people with disabilities.

A group of 29 adults with disabilities stood near a Cobra helicopter at Palmahim Airbase in Israel, mesmerized as Yuval Wagner recounted that fateful day in 1987 when the helicopter he was piloting abruptly crashed and left him paralyzed and his commander dead.

Wagner also explained how his new life as a paralyzed man with a desire to embrace life, travel and make his beloved country accessible for all, led to the creation of Access Israel, the Israeli NGO he founded nearly 25 years ago.

The former pilot, used to navigating Israel from the controls of a helicopter, now gets around with the help of a sophisticated electric wheelchair he operates with a joystick. He moves so quickly that it is hard to keep up with him. The community members from Chapel Haven in New Haven, Connecticut, Wagner’s guests at Palmahim, had to work hard to follow the fast-moving Wagner as he showed them the ins and outs of the base.

The group first toured the hangar housing Black Hawk helicopters and listened to mechanic “H” explain how engines are repaired and replaced. When the group later met young pilot “D,” they had a chance to board a Black Hawk and experience what it feels like for 18 people to cram into such a small space usually used to transport crew members, including pilots, mechanics and medics on rescue missions.

Wagner led the group from the Black Hawk hangar to the Cobra helicopter replica, which serves as a memorial to the events of March 18, 1987. Wagner began by giving the group a sense of what it means to be a pilot serving in the Israel Defense Forces and of the centrality of one’s aircraft.

Wagner holds the Access Israel logo. (credit: YUVAL WAGNER)

“It was my dream to fly Israel’s most advanced helicopter,” he told the group. “The time you become a pilot, you learn that you live not only with your wife or girlfriend, but with your aircraft too.”

The group gathered around Wagner in front of the helicopter as he recounted the story of the helicopter’s unexpected crash. 

“We were eight helicopters – four pairs of two. It was a beautiful day, and we took off from Palmahim on a training mission. We flew to the Dead Sea and from there made a turn north. A little before Beit She’an, the helicopter began shaking wildly, and suddenly we crashed in the fields.

“We fell from 400 meters [1,300 feet]. Lt.-Col. Zion Bar was killed immediately. He had a wife and three kids. I could not feel or see anything. There was mud in my eyes and I didn’t know if I was blind. I broke my neck and was taken by rescue helicopter to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and was between life and death. I eventually went to a rehabilitation hospital.”

The large group, standing around Wagner on this hot day didn’t make a sound as he recounted the impact of the crash on his life. 

“This is the second that life changes for you and your family. You have options. Where do you take your life from here? I chose to make the most of the situation and become stronger, to take a second that is terrible and make a life that is better, to make the most out of our lives, to enable people with disabilities and their families to live and do. It is tough. You can’t hide it.”

Wagner then recounted the issues he faced day to day in the aftermath of becoming paralyzed. 

The sudden challenges of becoming disabled

“The first challenges are medical. Then, how do I live with myself as a disabled person? How do I live my life with the thoughts, reactions and stigmas of others?” He then began to tell the story of how and why he created Access Israel. 

“I didn’t know about accessibility,” though he acknowledged having some experience, as he spent his life living with a disabled IDF father who also used a wheelchair.

“The next challenge was how to go out of the house. I got married and had three kids and wanted to go to a hotel in the Galilee.”

Yuval begins to tell the well-known story of how Access Israel got its start.

Wagner and family prepared for their first family vacation by taking steps to ensure the accommodations were fully accessible. They were in touch with the guesthouse about elevator size, door sizes of the room and bathroom and more. They were reassured it was accessible. Wagner stops the story mid-sentence and promises to tell the whole story later that evening when the group will gather for dinner in his home.

CHAPEL HAVEN community member Jonah Sabol found Yuval’s talk at Palmahim to be the highlight of a 10-day Israel trip. 

“That was an inspiring story. I can’t imagine what he must have been feeling,” he said.

Later that evening, at a poolside dinner at Wagner’s fully accessible Hod Hasharon home, Access Israel’s CEO Michal Rimon welcomed the group and told the longer version of the story of Wagner founding Access Israel.

“Twenty four years ago, Yuval went on vacation, and the door of the bathroom was too narrow to get his wheelchair in,” Rimon explained. “He had to make a choice between disappointing his family and going home or staying. The staff told him to go get a cup of coffee and worked to make the door frame bigger. When Yuval went home, he wrote a letter to Israel’s then-president Ezer Weizman.”

Wagner explained to the president and former pilot what had happened and expressed disappointment about Israel’s lack of accessibility. 

“A day later, I got a call back from the President’s Office. They said the President read the letter and wants to speak to me,” Wagner said. “After talking, he gave me the responsibility for starting an organization that would make Israel accessible in every way possible. And he told me to come back in six months to the President’s House with a report on the status of the organization.”

Rimon, who has heard and recounted this moving story dozens of times, succinctly shared Weizman’s message to Wagner with the group. 

“He said, ‘I apologize on behalf of Israel. Do something – establish an NGO and stop kvetching. And you have a six-month time table for the launch!” Access Israel was launched on the lawns of the President’s Residence in June 1999.

Wagner returned to the army to complete his service – now focusing on coding over flying – and worked with friends and colleagues to come up with a business plan to show the president. They began with work on a website to identify accessible and non-accessible places in Israel. They have continued in three areas: awareness, consulting to organizations, and legislation.

While Access Israel’s vision has always been to create a world where people with disabilities can live their lives with respect, equality and independence in all areas of life (including work, education, culture, travel and leisure, commerce, health and transportation,) the scope of their work has expanded over the years.

They work to raise awareness among decision-makers and engage the Knesset to initiate new legislation and regulations regarding accessibility. The organization also manages projects to implement accessibility.

A Feel Accessibility 2023 family event took place May 12 to raise awareness around accessibility, disabilities, sports, and people with disabilities in general. The educational and experiential event included a flotilla of sailboats and yachts, and helicopter and aircraft flights over the beaches of Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Herzliya.

In Israel, Access Israel has hosted international conferences on inclusion and accessibility and has rolled out the Purple Vest Israel initiative, which provides a toolkit for implementing preparations to evacuate and assist individuals with disabilities in emergency situations.

This initiative has expanded beyond Israel and has been implemented effectively at the Ukraine-Poland border. Since February 2022, participants have helped rescue 4,000 people with disabilities and the elderly, while providing support to 10,000 people by providing essential equipment and medications.

Online initiatives with an international focus include webinars on topics around disabilities, access and inclusion. Their May 24 webinar on Accessible Tourism, their 13th such event, attracted more than 200 people from 80 countries.

Despite Wagner’s extremely busy schedule, he finds time to keep up his connection to the air force and flying – and to connections with his comrades. In December 2021, Wagner had the opportunity to return to a helicopter – this time as a passenger – along with Noam Gershony, a fighter pilot and Israeli wheelchair tennis star who was also paralyzed in a helicopter crash.

Each Remembrance Day, Wagner joins the family of Zion Bar, his deceased comrade, on the beach for brunch. Bar left behind his wife, Naomi, and three children – Yaeli, Assaf, and Michali, all in their 20s now. 

“He loved the beach,” Wagner said. Each year on the anniversary of Bar’s death, Wagner visits the cemetery in Tel Aviv where Bar is buried.

Wagner’s professional colleagues are impressed with his drive and dedication. James Lassner, executive director of Accessibility Accelerator, an Access Israel partner, reported, “One who has the opportunity to meet Yuval gets to see the focused and dedicated commander of Access Israel that he is. As his collaborative partner, I get to see the same and I am blessed to see deeper into his golden and very caring heart. This mission we are on with him is to make a focused effort each day better than the day before for people with disabilities and the elderly.”

Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, vice president of admissions and marketing at Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, Inc., who got to know Wagner on her group’s recent trip to Israel, added, “I was deeply impressed with Yuval’s story and his determination to make his country more accessible. He turned a personal tragedy into a lifetime of advocacy and it is evident throughout Israel. We saw many historic sites that are being made accessible for people across the globe. I also was impressed that Yuval is still active with the Israel Air Force. Visiting the airbase and his home and experiencing the depth of his commitment was a deeply moving part of the trip for me.”

While Wagner runs a complex and very ambitious organization, it is all pretty simple. 

Wagner noted, “I came to a moment of acknowledgment that my life story, my fortune and luck to stay alive after the accident is for a reason – to make Israel fully accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities and their families and to share knowledge and best practices to the world.” ❖

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