{"id":1548,"date":"2025-03-13T14:08:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T19:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/?p=1548"},"modified":"2025-08-10T09:42:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T14:42:31","slug":"march-april-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/march-april-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteering at Gaza Envelope in August 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

March-April 2025<\/p>\n

Dear Friends,<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s been a long time (much too long!) since I\u2019ve written here, absence of words does not necessarily mean an absence of actions. <\/p>\n

In fact, it\u2019s because of so many actions that I haven\u2019t written. <\/p>\n

But that ends right here, right now.<\/p>\n

Aside from conferences and seminars, one of the most consequential things I did in recent months was volunteer at the Gaza Envelope, helping to rebuild several of the kibbutzim destroyed on October 7th. Since the war in Israel and Gaza was still very active this past August, it was not unexpected that most of the volunteers had cancelled. When I was volunteering on the Israel side of the Gaza border, there were only three other people, in addition to me.<\/p>\n

One (Kolya) was a venture capitalist from Chicago, who had just made aliyah (moved to Israel) and he was now studying Torah at a Jerusalem yeshiva. One (Jacob) was a 3rd year medical from Perth, Australia, who had taken this year off to study Torah at a Jerusalem yeshiva, because\u2014as he explained\u2014once he\u2019s a doctor, he\u2019ll never have a year off from medicine again. By the way, these young men were both studying at a yeshiva named after (and funded) by David Shapell z\u201dl, a survivor whom I not only knew but whom I had interviewed for my book. The third volunteer (Mir) was an interior designer from New York \u2014and here\u2019s an interesting fact: I was more than double the age of all of them!<\/p>\n

\n
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This menorah on a rooftop in Sderot (this city was bombed virtually every day long BEFORE before Oct 7, because of its proximity to Gaza) is made from Hamas missiles. Clever \u2018re-purposing! Here is our volunteer group (from left to right): Kolya (venture capitalist from Chicago), Jacob (medical student from Australia), Mir (designer from NYC) and me, Ann<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Professional Israeli contractors taught us how to repair damaged walls, how to caulk, edge and paint them. In the process, we saw firsthand the devastation left behind after October 7th\u2014bullet holes, broken glass, towels still hung on shower hooks, underwear still remaining on the floor. We worked in several kibbutzim, but it was when we were brought to Kfar Azza which, together with Be\u2019eri and Nir Oz, were the hardest hit of all the kibbutzim\u2014it is there that that death felt palpable. <\/p>\n

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Underwear found on bathroom floor, after destruction of Kfar Azza<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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This poster, of happy children\u2019s faces, was found in the rubble at Kibbutz K\u2019far Azza<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Before we could repair any walls, first we had to clear out all the rooms. We were working in the entrance area, where the Thai workers had lived. <\/p>\n

I was put in charge of packing up and boxing the contents of the one area, where anything salvageable had been moved. All the other rooms were emptied entirely of their contents. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Packing up salvageable items\u2014from happier times, community meals and holiday celebrations<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Army reservists came to help us clear the area\u2014moving beds, dismantling shelves and emptying the contents of every room. By the time every room was empty, these discards now constituted a mountain of people\u2019s lives. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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IDF reservist soldiers who emptied all the rooms, together with us volunteers.<\/em><\/figcaption>
Freshly laundered IDF uniform, still labeled with cleaning tag\u2014but the soldier who wore it is dead. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The people were dead, only their possessions remained.<\/p>\n

As difficult as the work was, with long hours, back-breaking work, the emotional strength we needed to muster was much harder. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Empty room, devoid of all possessions\u2014but their inspiring message remains.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I feel this has experience changed me in a fundamental way. <\/p>\n

Only in the days and years to come, will it be clearer to me exactly how.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Sunset over Gaza<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March-April 2025 Dear Friends, Although it\u2019s been a long time (much too long!) since I\u2019ve written here, absence of words does not necessarily mean an absence of actions. In fact, it\u2019s because of so many actions that I haven\u2019t written. But that ends right here, right now. Aside from conferences and seminars, one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7778,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fromann"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1687,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions\/1687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}