10/16/2025
Federation Trip Sees Resilience of Israelis
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News.
by Jimmy Oswald
Participants of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland's trip to Israel to see the impact of the organization's Israel Emergency and Recovery campaign stand outside of hostage square with Batya Mantzur, the daughter of Shlomo Mantzur, middle in black and yellow shirt. Shlomo Mantzur was a hostage from Kibbutz Kissufim, Cleveland's partnership community, that was attacked on Oct. 7. His body was recovered and returned to Israel in February. Submitted photo
Resilient. It’s a word that those who traveled to Israel as part of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s weeklong mission trip used to describe not only the people they interacted with, but the vibe of the country as a whole, even amidst the destruction and war.
“We saw the damage that had been done, it’s just horrific, but the resilience of the Israeli people is amazing” Neil Waxman, a co-chair of the Federation’s Israel Emergency and Recovery campaign, told the Cleveland Jewish News. “I describe it as tragedy and resilience. Oct. 8 was one of Israel’s greatest moments of unity. The people came together through WhatsApp groups and so forth to find housing, and there was just an amazing amount of volunteerism.
“The tragedy may be creating an opportunity for a reset in Israel both individually and with regional municipalities, which historically collaboration between was nonexistent. But, they had to come together to help each other out.”
Dara Yanowitz is Waxman’s fellow co-chair of the campaign, which raises funds that go towards the work Cleveland does to support and help in the relief and healing efforts in Israel following the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the conflict that followed.
The funds raised help aid victims, assist with evacuations, fix up and rebuild damaged buildings, and provide temporary housing to those displaced. Phase one of the campaign has already raised over $20 million, and the trip to Israel from Sept. 1 through Sept. 6 gave 18 Clevelanders the chance see the effects the dollars raised had in helping the of the country while getting a firsthand look at the work that still needs done.
“We’re looking to do more because we’ve seen firsthand how great the needs are,” Yanowitz told the CJN. “Neil and I wanted to take a group to meet with people and see the renewal and recovery taking place, to share with them how the Israelis are feeling and doing, and to see the devastation that happened during the 12-day war in June from Iran.”
Yanowitz called the trip a “boots on the ground” mission that covered the “north, south, east and west” of the country.
Beth Rosenberg, who has been involved with the Federation for around 30 years and served in leadership roles as board member, vice chair and executive committee member, was a part of the mission her husband, Frank. She said that a big takeaway from the trip was that despite every single person in Israel having been directly affected by Oct. 7, the Israelis continue to look ahead, and the Federation’s campaign will continue to do so, too.
“There was a focus on the possibilities for the future and what people are doing not only to help the immense needs of the folks on the ground, but what can we do to really take Israel from here to there,” Rosenberg told the CJN. “Governments come and go, but you go to Israel for its people. You have to separate the government from the people. It’s about their resilience, sadness and pain.”
The Rosenbergs are from Pepper Pike and are congregants of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike and Oheb Zedek Cedar Sinai Synagogue in Lyndhurst.
Members of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland's mission trip to Israel serve ice cream to children at Kibbutz Kissufim, Cleveland's partnership community, during a visit in September. Submitted photo
The trip allowed the group to stand directly in places that had been directly impacted by the conflict, such as in Bat Yam, a city that is a 20-minute drive south of Tel Aviv, which had been hit by an Iranian drone.
“We were in a bombed-out building that was next to the direct hit, and you could see the shelter intact, where the people would have opened the door and seen the building around them was gone,” Yanowitz said. “120 buildings surrounding it were affected, and it showed how much devastation one bomb could cause.”
While the group was never forced to shelter in place due to a missile strike, although they did tour bunkers as part of the experience, the 18 got close enough to the border with Gaza to hear the active sounds from the fighting.
“We were in Kibbutz Kissufim, which was one of the kibbutzim impacted on Oct. 7, and you hear the artillery in Gaza,” Beth Rosenberg said. “You hear bombs. On each of the borders you’re standing right by the West Bank, by Jordan or by Gaza, and it becomes real. I’m standing right where all these people were standing when it happened.
“We live in Pepper Pike, it’d be the equivalent of people from Cleveland Heights coming to get us. In the United States, you just can’t imagine it. We can’t begin to fathom all of our men in our houses leaving to go fight a war. But that’s what the Israelis do, it’s how they live.”
Kibbutz Kissufim, which was attacked on Oct. 7, is Cleveland’s partnership community in Israel, and the Clevelanders had the chance to speak with residents and survey the recovery efforts.
Frank Rosenberg said that he had never been in Israel at a time where downloading an app to warn about incoming missile strikes was a necessity, but that with the positive general spirit of everyone on the street, “you wouldn’t know it the conflict was going on unless you sat and talked with them.”
And he said the Israeli people appreciated that Clevelanders not only have been working hard to raise funds to help support the recovery efforts, but are willing to come out in person to see the impacts.
“Everywhere we went, people said, ‘We can’t believe you guys, the Cleveland people came back,” Frank Rosenberg said. “They kept saying that Cleveland is so different from the rest of not just America, but the world. They said, ‘You guys come out there, you listen to us, you try to help us and then you come back to see how things are going. You stick with us.’ It was amazing for our morale and feelings.”
Waxman, Yanowitz and the Rosenbergs all spoke on the impressions that each conversation with those in Israel had on them and each expressed amazement at individuals’ ability to step up in the face of adversity and help during a time of crisis.
Beth Rosenberg said that a particularly influential experience was meeting with Rotem Avidar Tzalik and Sapir Bluzer, who founded the Reservist Wives Forum.
“This is a group of women whose husbands have been in the reserves, and the average time in the reserves is over 300 days,” Beth Rosenberg said. “Forty-one percent of those men in the reserves that many days have lost their jobs. These women started a WhatsApp group and said when these husbands come back, they’re trauma ridden and don’t have jobs. They’ve talked to (Bezalel) Smotrich (Finance Minister of Israel) and to the IDF and have gotten money and commitments from them to help these families. Their force of will and not taking no for an answer was incredible.”
The group met with all kinds of people, talking with a fighter pilot who started an organization to try to develop schools in the northern part of Israel, and Yoav Sarel, an owner of Shipuedi Ron, a restaurant, who spoke on owning a business while also serving in the military.
“It was a great and impactful mission with a terrific group of people from a cross section of the community, who were incredibly moved and inspired to do more,” Waxman said. “It was one of the best missions I’ve ever been on in terms of the coexistence and exchange of thought.”
