“The heart can’t feel what our eyes can’t see”

By Paula Filler, JFNA National Women in Philanthropy Board Member

I just returned from my Jewish Federations of North America mission to Germany and Israel for the first time since Oct. 7, 2023. On this trip, our mission was to understand how our combined fundraising supports the needs of the Jewish people in both countries and what additional support is required.

My visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz is only 1.5 miles from Gaza and is in a beautiful pastoral setting. With Israeli investment in irrigation systems, residents of this community grew endless rows of fruits and vegetables. Beautiful floral gardens and flowering trees surrounded each Kibbutz home. On Oct. 6, Kibbutz Nir Oz had 400 residents. Hamas came into the Kibbutz on Oct. 7, brutally murdering 40 people and kidnapping 77 others. Over one-fourth of their community was gone in a single day. All that remains today are burned-out houses — in which several residents were burned alive — bullet-ridden doors, walls and rubble. Everything the Israelis owned was either destroyed or looted. All their farm equipment, including tractors, was stolen. The irrigation systems, built over many years, were purposely blown up. Terrorists swapped their flip-flops for the shoes of their victims. Because the victims were so severely burned, archeologists had to comb through ruins to verify human remains.

Each terrorist group had a specific village to target for slaughter, humiliation and torture. Kibbutz Nir Oz residents believed in peace; they gave jobs to the Gaza Palestinians who worked side by side with them in their fields. These same Palestinians became their attackers as they knew where each family lived and exactly how many family members lived in each home. The terrorists specifically counted the number of people killed in each house, going back a second time — or more — if there were missing victims.

We saw the remains of a community shelter and safety rooms in several individual homes. Safety rooms were designed to protect residents from rocket attacks. The safety rooms did not have doors that could be barricaded from the inside. Therefore, these doors had to be held from the inside to keep them closed. The killers took advantage of this situation by shooting the people holding the doors closed, eventually tossing in grenades.

We visited the Nova Festival Commemoration Site and met with Paphael Shimoni, the father of Ben Shimoni, who was murdered on his third trip to rescue music festival attendees. Hearing the heart-wrenching story of how his son made multiple trips to rescue Jews under fire, knowing that he was risking his own life, was heartbreaking. This story exemplifies who the Israelis are — their bravery and their determination to protect each other and to live.

There were survivors of Oct. 7, and they still need more support from us. What has been broken cannot be fixed overnight. Children who have been displaced, traumatized or orphaned need more help. Women and men who have been gang raped and tortured, both mentally and physically, need counseling — despite an acute shortage of mental health counselors. As of July 10, the 9,250 injured soldiers need not only physical rehabilitation — many for the loss of limbs — but also mental health and employment counseling so that they can return home and earn a living. Supporting these very real human needs will take time. Some lives will never be repaired. It is our time in history, through our Jewish Federation of Greater Naples Annual Campaign contributions, to meet our communal responsibility to save Israel and the Jewish people. Our annual campaign contributions enable us to support Jews in need.

We can “see with our eyes so that we can feel with our hearts.”