As matters begin to look up for Israel after 14 months of war, American Jewish leaders shift their priorities to rebuilding northern Israel and focusing on Israelis’ ongoing needs.
‘A Much Better Position’
Jewish leaders across the DMV, including Gil Preuss, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, said they believe Israel has made progress militarily.
“Over the past few months, there has definitely been significant weakening of the enemies of Israel, whether it is the Axis [of Resistance] that is led by Iran, whether it’s Hamas or Hezbollah, or now the kicking out of Assad from Syria, most of these terrorists or governmental entities that were the leaders in their battle against Israel have either been significantly weakened or they’ve lost power,” Preuss told Washington Jewish Week.
On Dec. 8, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resigned and fled to Moscow after rebels advanced into Syria’s capital, Damascus, according to ABC News. Assad’s collapse and the elimination of the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah and the dismantling of their military structure mark successes for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Without Syria and with Iran’s influence weakening, Israel is emerging as the “dominant power” in the Middle East region, according to Reuters.
“Strategically, clearly, Israel is in a much better position,” said Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
Karen Katzman-Hanan, the director of the Federation’s Israel office who has lived in Israel for the past two decades, echoed that sentiment.
“I am optimistic as someone who had been running to my shelter multiple times a day,” Katzman-Hanan said. “A decent part of the area that we’re looking at has quieted down somewhat.”
Halber said that although Israel’s situation is far from perfect, since 63 hostages are currently held captive in Gaza as of Nov. 26, according to The Washington Post, he is “thrilled that Israel’s making strategic accomplishments.”
Eric Fingerhut, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, is similarly optimistic.
“I am encouraged that the positive military developments could create a condition for a more lasting stable period for Israel and in the region,” he wrote in a statement emailed to Washington Jewish Week. “I also know that [the] end of the war will bring to light all of the trauma and damage that has been suffered the last 14 months in Israel, and that we as a community will have a huge responsibility to support our brothers and sisters in Israel for a long time after the fighting stops.”
‘Israeli Society As a Whole Is Going to Be Impacted’
Jewish leaders spoke to Israelis’ dire needs, including infrastructure and physical therapy and psychological services for Israel Defense Forces soldiers involved in the Israel-Hamas war.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington will continue to send funds to Israel; the nonprofit organization has raised nearly $16 million in aid since Oct. 7, 2023, Preuss said.
“The main change that will happen is — once, hopefully, there’s a cease-fire and cessation to fighting, and the hostages are released — we’ll be focusing on the rebuilding of Israel and communities,” Preuss said. “We’ll be able to focus longer-term on our funding and engagement, as opposed to dealing with the most immediate crisis.”
He said the nature of the funding and where it goes based on the most critical needs continue to evolve.
“Beginning in around May, [the Federation] started sending much more money to those who are displaced in the north, particularly as fighting started heating up with Hezbollah,” Preuss said. “If fighting continues to quiet down, then we will use those dollars to address the most urgent needs going forward.”
About 60,000 Israelis were evacuated from their homes in northern Israel, and “many more ‘self-evacuated’” due to unrest from the ongoing bombing by Hezbollah along the Israeli-Lebanese border, Preuss said.
Katzman-Hanan said kindergarten through twelfth grade students are attending schools out of caravans; one of her priorities is determining how the Federation and donors can collaborate to help improve education.
In November, Preuss visited a school of nearly 1,000 Israeli students who had lived in Kiryat Shmona, a city in northern Israel. The students and their families now live in temporary housing in Tiberias: “Making sure that we support them, that’s a critical need.”
“When those families start moving back, some of [the support] is going to be rebuilding homes, rebuilding businesses, rebuilding lives that have basically been uprooted for the past 14 months,” Preuss said.
Katzman-Hanan said now that there is “some level” of a cease-fire in Israel, evacuees are “beginning to think about … returning to their homes.”
“That’s a very, very difficult thing to do on several levels,” Katzman-Hanan said. “One is because for many of them, they have no homes to return to. Their houses were absolutely destroyed.”
Preuss added that it’s crucial to support Israelis as they continue to work through their “physical and mental trauma” since Oct. 7, 2023. Support for disabled Israelis is a major priority, Preuss said: “The number of Israelis who have a physical disability that they got over the past 14 months is massive. A lot of people have lost limbs.”
The Federation has donated $2 million to Sheba Medical Center, which Preuss said is the leading rehabilitation center in Israel, for direct rehabilitation work and trauma training for psychologists and social workers.
Katzman-Hanan said the key to most effectively helping soldiers with their “lifelong rehabilitation journeys” is decentralizing services. Many of these soldiers are reservist soldiers who live throughout Israel. Meanwhile, she said, the majority of rehabilitation services are located in central Israel in places such as Tel Aviv.
“It’s extremely difficult for these people,” Katzman-Hanan said. “Many of them are amputees. Many of them have severe physical injuries that [inhibit them from] travel[ing] to central Israel from their home communities, and this is assuming now that they are outpatients; that they have gone through months of surgeries. … They need rehabilitation several times a week.”
The Federation has worked to expand access to services, “investing heavily” in bringing physical rehabilitation and trauma services to Israelis wherever they’re living rather than transporting them to central Israel.
“That’s new,” Katzman-Hanan said of this approach. “This is a really innovative approach to philanthropy, and I think that the [Greater] Washington Federation is very proud to be associated with what really is an innovative approach to philanthropy during these unusually difficult and challenging times.”
Braden Hamelin contributed reporting to this article.
