Jewish Federation director's trip to Israel brings tragedy home

Nov. 11—NORWICH — Rachel Levy has been executive director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut for only a year and a half, yet the chaos in Gaza half a world away has already caused an about-face in her mission.

Where once she had been focused on a multitude of programs to knit together various Jewish constituencies locally, she is now caught up in a struggle, as she sees it, for the very survival of Israel.

Having just returned last weekend from a nearly weeklong solidarity trip to Israel with 25 Jewish leaders across America (where she presented a more than $40,000 check to support humanitarian causes), she since has been coordinating a Tuesday bus trip to Washington, D.C., where activists will rally against antisemitism, as well as showing support for the Jewish state and the more than 200 Israeli hostages believed to be held by terrorists in Gaza.

"I think this is going to completely transform Jewish life," she said of the Hamas terrorist attack that killed more than 1,000 Israelis in a single day.

She mentioned the possibility of major shifts in population occurring in the near future as some people move into Israel and others leave out of fear, though she couldn't pinpoint what those changes are going to be.

"Something massive is going to happen," Levy predicted. "I think this is a once in a generation major historical event, and it will impact all of Jewish life as we know it both in Israel and in the diaspora (outside)."

Levy said the Israeli people are fighting Hamas with values and morals, trying to warn civilians an attack is imminent to help ensure their safety.

She didn't address the effect of the war on Palestinians in Gaza directly, but did say she believes in peace and coexistence.

"We want everybody to get along together, and we're going to stay strong that peace is possible, and that one day we will learn to get along. When babies are born, they smile and they love one another. They're not born with hate. The hate is taught through the generations."

Already, there has been a reshaping of people's attitudes toward the Israeli government and their Arab neighbors, she added. People, she said, have lost faith in a government that couldn't keep them safe.

"My sister-in-law ... she's completely shell shocked, she cannot smile. She's just completely terrified for herself and for her children," Levy, 50, said of a relative who lives near the area where Hamas attacks occurred and has been affected by constant bombardments.

"Are we going to lose the war and not have a Jewish homeland? What's going to happen next? Who's going to get hit by the next rocket? How many more hostages might get taken? Who can we trust? Can we trust the Israeli government to defend us? Can we trust the Israeli army to defend us? Can we trust our neighbors?" Levy said. "You know, everything is now a question, everything is now scary."

Meeting with hostage families

Levy said she spent part of one day in Israel meeting with the families of hostages in an underground bomb shelter the size of a school gymnasium. One of the women she met moved to Israel in the 1970s, and her daughter attended the fateful concert where terrorists butchered dozens of Israelis.

"No one's heard from her since," Levy said of the daughter. "There's no understanding if they're still alive, there's no understanding how they're being treated, if they're being fed, if they're getting medications that they need, if they're being raped, no one knows anything. And this lack of knowledge is really terrifying."

Levy also has a more personal connection to the hostages: Her childhood friend, Rachel Goldberg, who moved to Israel as a teenager, had a 24-year-old son at the concert who helped usher two young women into a bomb shelter, hoping to hold off the terrorists. But Hamas fighters were able to pry open the door and shot the young man, taking him hostage, while one woman was killed and another escaped.

"And that was the last we know about him," Levy said. "It's not clear if there was a plan, if there was an intention, how many kidnapped they were trying to gather but it's clear that they're in all different places now because we've gotten five out so far. Five hostages out of 242 have been released. And they were in five different locations. So, we have no idea where the rest are being kept. If they're along the border, if they're deep in Gaza, we don't know."

As to the chances of getting Israeli hostages out alive, Levy remains hopeful.

"I believe in miracles. I have no option but to hope and to stay hopeful and optimistic," she said. "So I hope and pray for the hostages every day."

The rise of antisemitism

On a national level, a Chicago-based group Levy met with last week called the Secure Community Network that oversees the safety and security of the North American Jewish community has been tracing a 400% increase in anti-semitic incidents in just the last four weeks.

"We have alarms on the door, cameras in every synagogue, no doors are open during the day. Everything's locked. Everybody has to be buzzed in," Levy said. "All of the Connecticut synagogues in early October received bomb threats via email. And it's a terrifying time, because every single thing could be true."

Levy noted a swastika last month was seen painted on a playground at Waterford's Leary Park. The next day, she went into the Waterford High School library to talk about the Holocaust and the swastika incident to an assembly, eliciting snickers from two teenage girls, she said.

"They don't get it, they do not understand that," Levy said. "All of this is seen as a threat to the Jewish community, and these threats are turning into violence."

There's a difference, she said, between free speech and hate speech.

Levy said she plans to talk to local school superintendents to emphasize the importance of educating youths about antisemitism.

"I think it's up to the leadership of our school superintendents to teach there's no place for hate in Connecticut," she said.

While Levy acknowledges the war in Israel and the rise of antisemitism has taken a front seat in recent weeks, she was hired in June 2022 largely because of her experience working with smaller Jewish Federations in the Midwest, where she was known for her expertise at fundraising and community building. A Brown University graduate, she grew up in the Providence area attending a conservative Jewish day school and still lives in the city today.

"She's visionary," said the Jewish Federation's board president, Scott Wolfe. "People are very positive about her, for sure. She's brought new life."

Wolfe said the Jewish Federation board has set up subcommittees to look into issues such as finances, education, communications and arts and culture in order to keep on top of priority items. Levy has been meeting with many community groups, rabbinical leaders and synagogue boards to listen and learn, he added.

"We're moving in multiple directions, which gets everybody enthusiastic," he said. "She's approachable and accessible."

Building relationships

Jerry Fischer, a former president of the Jewish Federation, cited Levy's experience working in small communities.

"She's honest, direct," Fischer said. "She's committed to the work of the Federation and all communities."

Fischer, who has two cousins held hostage in Gaza, said the fate of Israel has united Jews nationwide and will take up a lot bandwidth in the local community until the war is over.

"A lot of people ... in the community are supporting the effort to defeat Hamas and are appropriately horrified by what Hamas did," he said. "It's just a horror. The people who perpetrated it need to be called to account and be dealt with."

"We both love the idea of a Jewish state ... and we want to support it," he added. "The focus has changed, but we haven't taken our eyes off what has to be done in our community."

Indeed, Levy said she is currently working hard to forge relationships outside the Jewish community with African-American and Christian leaders. There have been few recent contacts with local Muslim leaders, but Fischer recalled past good relationships and said the community is much smaller and less active than it used to be when many Pfizer scientists were involved in the Groton mosque (previously used as a temple).

Fischer and Wolfe also noted Levy's ability to connect with Jewish leaders of varying denominations, from conservative to reform to orthodox.

Fischer said he has been impressed with her work to "engage young people in the community and to deal with dwindling and weakening congregations." He added that the Jewish Federation provides people another route for identifying as Jewish in eastern Connecticut.

"Unfortunately, so many people in Connecticut leave the state in their later years and go to Florida," he said. "That's a real challenge."

So Levy has been adding programming for seniors during weekly lunches she attends, Wolfe said.

"She wants to get everybody involved," Fischer said. "She's really pushing for inclusiveness. ... She's working well with the rabbis, and that's good, too. Her role is the role of the entire Jewish community and not of any one congregation."

A fight for Israel's future

Levy said she has been gratified for the support shown by the local Jewish community to Israel and its people.

"This is a very Zionist community," she said. "People are very passionate about the state of Israel. Because it's an older community, they remember a time before there was a state of Israel in 1948. And they also remember the Holocaust; we have several people here who are children of Holocaust survivors."

These families do not want to see a world where antisemitism is allowed to flourish and Jews have nowhere to go, she said.

"We've been taught, 'never again,' and what we're seeing right now is it is happening again. And so, this community feels very passionately that we have to spread the word and bear witness to what's happening; that killing children in Israel will not be tolerated and that Israel losing the war and not being the Jewish homeland is not an option. We have to have one place that's safe for Jews to go in the whole world.

"Since the Spanish Inquisition, we've been kicked out of every single Arab country. ... There's nowhere to go. You know, so this is an existential threat, this is really a fight for the state of Israel that, you know, losing this war is the end. There's no option of losing this war, and so the families of the hostages realize that their beloved is the most important thing, but that the other most important thing is we cannot lose this war."

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