By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO, April 9 — Daniel Viflich, the 16-year-old boy who was injured Thursday, April 7, on the Israeli school bus that was hit by an anti-tank shell fired from the Gaza Strip, had been visiting his grandma at Kibbutz Ruhama and had gone on a ride with his grandma’s neighbor, the bus driver, Zion Yamini, who was shocked but not hurt in the attack.
Viflich and Yamini were the only two persons left on the bus after it dropped students off at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The two kibbutzim—Nahal Oz and Ruhama—are part of the Sha’ar Hanegev Municipality that is a partnership region in Israel for the Jewish Federation of San Diego County.
Ulla Hadar, our former correspondent at Kibbutz Ruhama, informed me via e-mail, that Daniel’s parents used to be members of Kibbutz Ruhama, which is secular, but after becoming religious, they had moved with Daniel to Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Daniel came back to Kibbutz Ruhama for a few days to pay his grandmother a visit. Asked if there was anything that the San Diego Jewish community could do, Hadar responded that Daniel’s parents have asked everyone to offer a mishaberach prayer for the healing of the boy, Daniel ben Itzhak.
Hadar added that Kibbutz Ruhama is doing what it can to emotionally support the victims of the attack and their families. (At Nahal Oz, our Sha’ar Hanegev correspondent Dov Hartuv reports his grandson was one of the students who got off the bus moments before the attack.)
(After taking a leave of absence from her volunteer duties as a columnist, Hadar still stays in touch with us – and, in fact, is planning to visit Temple Solel here in San Diego County next month.)
*
Our Jewish hearts go out not only to our own, but to all people whom tragedies have struck. Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami of March 11 that caused thousands of deaths in northern Japan and left thousands more homeless, the Jewish Federations of North America has raised $1,349,000 for relief efforts, according to spokeswoman Katlyn Carter.
Some of these funds are being used by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in partnership with the Israel Defense Forces to operate a field hospital in the city of Minamisanriko. “We are overwhelmed by the generosity of the Jewish community,” said Fred Zimmerman, chair of the JFNA’s Emergency Committee, commented in a press release.
*
Next Tuesday, April 12, on the Grossmont College campus, where I teach journalism, the Muslim Student Association is sponsoring “Islam Awareness Day.” It is planning a speech by a guest lecturer and to distribute literature and Korans at a booth to be located on the main quad of the campus.
As far as I am concerned, this is all to the good, because it is helpful if we can learn about each other’s religions and cultures in convivial, non-threatening environments.
What troubles me is that whereas other religious groups like Muslims and Christians actively tell their stories at the community college campus, the Jewish community apparently is financially unable to mount such an effort.
When I inquired earlier this year of Hillel Rabbi Lisa Goldstein at UCSD whether that organization wished to register as a club on the Grossmont campus, she told me regretfully that there just weren’t sufficient funds to take the Hillel message there. Jewish students at Grossmont College, of course, are welcome to visit the Hillel houses elsewhere in the county, including SDSU and UCSD.
*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com