“What is the purpose of your visit to Israel?” the El Al guard asked, his voice stern as I handed over my passport at Newark Airport. I braced myself for the classic El Al grilling and quickly tried to recall the date of my Bat Mitzvah, just in case.
“A girls’ weekend,” I explained. “To spend money in Israel and show Israelis that we support them.”
“Really?” The guard raised an eyebrow, momentarily breaking character.
“Yup.”
Kim Hirsh and Paula Gottesman with Liat Kosovich
and Roni Flamer of the Or Movement, in Ofakim
“Yofi,” he murmured with a faint smile, stamping my security form.
And just like that, my five-day journey to Jerusalem and the South of Israel began—a mix of a “girls’ weekend” and a personal solidarity mission.
For months, I’d felt a nagging pull. I hadn’t visited Israel since before October 7, 2023, and it was time to change that.
“Join me and just do it!” urged my lifelong friend, Kerry Iris.
I was fortunate to stay with Kerry at the beautiful home of Hilary Kapner, who splits her time between Israel and Maryland. We three all grew up in Greater MetroWest NJ and share deep roots in Jewish communal work—through Federation, AIPAC, and more. Over mint tea and bourbon cocktails, we talked late into the night, laughed, and caught up on life. By day, we walked (more than 15,000 steps daily!), visiting friends and exploring Jerusalem. We shopped, dined at some of Jerusalem’s finest restaurants—bustling with Israelis and some tourists—and soaked in the energy of this vibrant city. With so much pain still, life is not moving on, but it is carrying on.
(If you’re planning a trip, do yourself a favor: try the lemon za’atar chimichurri on Frena bread at Tzemah Restaurant. Heaven on earth.)
But beyond reconnecting with friends and doing my part to support Israel’s economy, I came with deeper purposes in mind. I came to bear witness to the horrors of October 7 and its aftermath—to show Israelis that we stand with them, and to experience firsthand the resilience of this remarkable nation.
I hired a guide from our July 2023 Centennial Mission—Itzik Yanai, who was on Bus 7—and joined my dear friend, philanthropist Paula Gottesman, for a visit to the South. Paula, who spends her winters in Jerusalem with her daughter and son-in-law, is a force of nature at 90. She pulled on her sunhat and was ready to go.
Our journey took us to sites of unimaginable devastation, including the Nova site, now a top tourist destination in Israel, and Kibbutz Be’eri, where the charred remains of homes, refrigerators still open with spoiled food, and walls pocked with bullet holes serve as haunting reminders of that horrific day.
We also visited our Federation’s partner community, Kibbutz Erez, so close to Gaza that you can see the rubble from a hilltop within the kibbutz. Miraculously, the community was largely spared on October 7 thanks to a brave and quick-thinking security team. Today, around 80 percent of the residents have returned, and a new neighborhood is being built—expected to sell out quickly.
Next, we visited Ofakim, another Greater MetroWest partner community, where the skyline is filled with cranes constructing new high-rise apartment buildings, new parks, and upscale shops like Golda’s. We toured the “old” part of the city, including the home of Rachel Edry, who famously cooked for and charmed terrorist invaders on October 7, all while quietly orchestrating her family’s rescue.
A few blocks from Rachel’s home, we toured a brand new Agro-Tech Innovations Center, a glimpse into the city’s bright future.
Ofakim has been nurtured, assisted and supported by our Greater MetroWest community over decades, and in particular since Oct 7, through countless programs and projects funded through our Federation’s UJA Annual Campaign, specifically the Leadership Leap. This includes a new, much needed Resilience Center being built here, with yoga, meditation, cooking, art and more to support community members in their continued recovery. In addition, the Mack Ness Fund of JCF has long supported economic development here.
But Ofakim’s improbable and inspiring rebirth and mind-blowing expansion is in many ways a testament to the Or Movement, an extraordinary non-profit that is helping to shape the future of Israel by planning and creating two new population centers beyond the country’s densely populated Tel Avi-Jerusalem center: the Galilee in the North, and the Negev in the South.
In 2022, the Gottesman family established the Or Movement’s Paula and Jerry z’l Gottesman Lab for the Future of Israel—essentially the think tank driving key planning for the future of Israel. At the time, no one could have predicted just how vital this lab would be to the rebuilding of the Negev.
That the future of this vital region is being carefully planned in a lab created in memory of Jerry Gottesman, one of Greater MetroWest’s most admired and successful real estate developers and long- term thinkers, is truly an inspiration.
I know Israel faces tremendous challenges both now and in the years ahead. But I also saw a glimpse into what this small but mighty nation could do and dream.
So, I have returned home with a suitcase full of gifts for my lucky family, some new friends I look forward to visiting on future trips, and a sense of awe about the people of Israel and renewed hope for the future.
It turns out a girls’ weekend to Israel is good for the economy and good for the soul.
For those who cannot venture to Israel, here are some websites to shop from:
https://www.makersofisrael.com/
https://www.lss.org/supportisraeliartists
To learn more about Federation’s work to help Ofakim recover and rebuild, please read “Protecting Our Secure, Resilient Jewish Future.”
Join others who have made the “leap” for our brothers and sisters in Ofakim here.