War is hell. And the impact of war on every level of society is also hell.
Most of our daily news reports tend to focus on those directly involved in war activity. We keep track of soldiers and fighters killed and wounded in battle. We monitor civilian deaths and injuries. We mourn for those lost. We pray for those who have been injured.
And we worry about the well-being of the combatants and the survivors.
But what about the ripple effects of war? What about those who are not directly involved or victims of the fighting itself but are nonetheless impacted by war’s powerful waves of trauma, uncertainty and fear, including soldier families and survivor families?
Fortunately, there are ongoing efforts to monitor, identify and serve those victims.
For example, a recent study by the Taub Center for Social Policy in Israel found that parents whose partners were serving in the military reserves suffered higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress than those who did not serve. And it found that children of reservists were more likely to experience more severe emotional and behavioral issues compared to children of non-reservist parents and exhibited more reactive behaviors such as bedwetting, temper tantrums and fear of sudden noise.
The study also reported that increased stress, anxiety and depression was found in families displaced by Oct. 7 and for Arab parents of young children.
Other reports indicate that some 185,000 Israelis are currently seeking employment, including evacuees and reservists who have returned from military service without jobs or are at risk of losing their jobs. This is going on at the same time as it is reported that more than half of Israel’s adults suffer from some form of anxiety, while for Israel’s youth, depression, loneliness, anxiety and substance abuse have increased significantly.
None of this is really a surprise. Nonetheless, the compilation of information concerning those populations helps focus on those elements of society that need attention and care as a direct result of ongoing war. But how can we help?
As proposed in a recent opinion piece authored by two leading Jewish professionals in eJewishPhilanthropy, the answer requires a coordinated effort of government, social service agencies, private enterprise and philanthropy. According to Ariel Zwang, the CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Hadas Minka-Brand, the executive director of JDC-Israel and an IDF brigadier general (Res.), the coordinated response is necessary because the scope of the challenge is too large for any one entity or agency to go it alone.
They also argue that in the reality of today’s Israel, philanthropy must be the catalyst for planning and implementing Israel’s response to the needs of its ailing community and that the focus of the response needs to be on creating long-term solutions rather than being satisfied with shorter-term wins.
The Zwang and Minka-Brand article focuses on the extraordinary work of JDC in Israel both before and after Oct. 7 and outlines two of the agency’s groundbreaking programs that assist in the recovery.
We applaud the continuing life-enriching work of JDC and marvel at its accomplishments. JDC has, once again, stepped in to provide social service relief in a process that, by design, paves the way for government involvement in the best traditions of the public-private partnership that is so vital for communal life generally, and uniquely effective in Israel.
