By Donald H. Harrison
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CARDIFF BY THE SEA, California –These are the good times in the Jewish preschool at Temple Solel here, where children are blissfully unaware that warfare is again looming over Israel and the rest of the Middle East.
How nice it was on “Grandparents Day” on Friday, Nov. 16, to watch our grandson Brian and his classmates recite the alphabet; review the day of the week and the month of the year; sing a song about the month of November, talk about what foods they will eat on Thanksgiving; color and paste a paper hamsa (a hand to ward off evil); listen to stories during private time; sing songs about Shabbat and the ‘Shabbat feeling,” and carefully recite the three Shabbat blessings.
For his reading selection, Brian chose Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, and Peter Yarrow’s Puff the Magic Dragon.
So simple, sweet, uncomplicated.
In the Jewish preschool world of San Diego County, thankfully, there are no members of Hamas with mortars nor rockets sitting just across the border; no Hezbollah with even more powerful weaponry up north, and no even-stronger Iran to the east with aspirations for nuclear tipped missiles.
Instead, preschoolers have understanding and loving teachers who make learning fun, and who give them breaks for recess and lunch (bagels with tuna fish, and a side of fruit.)
Would that children throughout the world could be in preschools like Temple Solel’s.
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Those of us who understand the world situation know that there are two wars that have recently flared — the military battle between Israel and its enemies, and the public relations battle which fills the airwaves, the Internet, newspapers, and the social media.
At San Diego’s first Arab Film Festival , forces opposed to Israel are showing an anti-Israel movie based on the previous battle in Gaza– Operation Cast Lead conducted in 2008. Meanwhile, on Sunday, November 18, Jewish community groups led by the Jewish Federation of San Diego County plan a pro-Israel rally at Nobel Park in the University City area of San Diego.
Organizers of both events are courting politicians, celebrities and news media to demonstrate which side has captured the hearts and minds of San Diegans.
The pro-Israel rally has requested attendees to bring stuffed animals for the children of Israel, who have been forced increasingly to spend their little lives in bomb shelters — so different from the lots of the preschool children like Brian safe here in San Diego County.
In addition, the Jewish Federations of North America organization has set up a charitable fund to come to the aid of approximately one million Israelis who have come under the barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and its terrorist allies in Gaza.
I sent a message to Alon Schuster, the mayor of the Sha’ar Hanegev municipality, which is comprised of ten kibbutzim and a moshav, all lying close to Israel’s border with Gaza. This area has a special “partnership” relationship with the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, which has assisted it in building an educational complex that is specially constructed to withstand rocket attacks. It was designed with an interior courtyard so pupils can reach bomb shelters within the 15 seconds allotted to them after the siren sounds. Fifteen seconds, imagine that. I can’t conceive of children at Temple Solel all getting to their classrooms from the playgrounds just outside their doors in just 15 seconds.
I wrote to Schuster that our hearts and thoughts are with him and his fellow citizens. He wrote back that “We are ok. Fortunately no serious wounded…till now. Damages to houses.”
However, rockets have landed elsewhere with deadly effect. In the city of Kiryat Malachi, for example, — which years ago had a special relationship with San Diego’s Jewish Federation — three people were killed when a missile struck an apartment building. And Hamas has sent its rockets, thus far harmlessly, toward the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv population centers.
I remember my last visit to Sha’ar Hanegev, some four years ago. Israeli teachers were telling their pupils not to hate the people in Gaza, whom they described as captives of Hamas. The teachers told the students that before Hamas took over, there were friendships between the people of Sha’ar Hanegev and Gaza, and even some mutual cooperation projects. Someday, they said, there will be peace, and those friendships will flourish again.
May it please be so.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com