October 31, 2025
Home.
Community.
Resilience.
Life.
It is difficult to find the words to capture these last three days on the JewishColumbus Israel mission. Traveling with our Beth Tikvah family and the larger JewishColumbus community has been incredible. We are the largest mission to travel to Israel since October 7th with over 190 people. As I walked through the neighborhoods of Tel Aviv last evening, I saw a vibrant market, a kids’ Halloween party, trick-or-treaters, packed restaurants and bars. Tel Aviv has the vibrancy that it has always had.
Of the 190, 45 were first-timers, and only a few had been since October 7. You instantly feel at home. Where else in the world could you visit and be thanked for coming. Our opening dinner was prepared by celebrity chefs; one stood to speak and he thanked us for “coming to my home” and then he immediately corrected himself and said, “our home.” You feel an instant connection to the land and the people. They are our family.
When we arrived at Rickenbacker Airport on Monday afternoon to board our chartered ElAl flight, many of us saw old friends and began connecting to new ones. The JewishColumbus staff and volunteer committee have been planning this trip for the last 18 months. Their vision was to bring us together and connect us to Israel. After a long night’s sleep, we learned about Columbus’ direct connection to the Ein HaBasur Moshav in the Eshkol region. Sivan Shefer’s parents made Aliyah from Columbus, OH to the Western Negev region of Israel more than 50 years ago. Their grandson Dudi was murdered on October 7 at the Nova festival. Sivan had a vision: to create a farm called Dialog for Life in memory of her nephew, Dudi. This farm specializes in healing the trauma endured by the residents of the region, IDF soldiers, and Nova survivors using the Human-Animal Dialogue method. JewishColumbus is the Founding Partner, helping to establish this incredibly impactful place. As we planted trees, made ceramic kalanit, and helped build this sacred place, we recognize that our community extends far beyond Central Ohio.
I am continually amazed by the Israeli people: the residents of Kibbutz Alumim who defended their Kibbutz on October 7th. The residents of Kfar Azza, another Kibbutz I visited in May of 2024, promise to rebuild in the next two years. The Nova site has changed so much in the last 18 months. The memorials where laminated paper was on display have been replaced by permanent metal placards that share the stories of the victims. As I have immersed myself in these stories over the last two years, some of the names are becoming more familiar. To remember just one name keeps their memory alive. To have met family members of victims and learned their child’s story helps us personalize the connections in a more meaningful way when we see their names. I recall the feeling I had the first time I was at Nova. It was as if my soul had been sucked out of my body. That emptiness was only matched when I walked the grounds of Auschwitz. Perhaps one of the lessons of Jewish sovereignty is our ability to not only remember and build memorials but to know and share the name of every person who was murdered.
We woke up in Tel Aviv, ran and cycled on the beach, watched the sunset, and saw and felt that Israel is still a vibrant place. Yes, the trauma of October 7th is still trapped in the souls of every Israeli, but so is the hope. It is the hope to be a free people in our own land. Together, with our family—the Jewish people, we share in the dream for our collective future. It is the dream that our ancestors shared when they wept by the waters of Babylon after the destruction of the first Temple. It is the dream that directed our hearts towards Jerusalem for centuries. It is the dream that Herzl and others after him turned into a reality. That dream is kept alive by every Israeli and Jewish soul. Each and every day, another stone is laid that hearkens back to our history and looks toward the future.
As Shabbat begins in Jerusalem and Columbus this evening, we nurture that dream through our prayers.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rick Kellner