Standing Before Giants: The RCA Solidarity Mission to Israel

As I bid farewell to my RCA colleagues on the final night of our mission, I confided that I felt like one of the meraglim, the twelve spies sent in Sefer Bamidbar to scout the Land of Israel. I too had journeyed from chutz la’aretz and encountered “giants”: wounded soldiers, freed hostages, milu’imnikim, and ba’alei chesed of the first order. But unlike in Sefer Bamidbar, where the giants saw the meraglim as small grasshoppers, these modern-day giants did not see us in miniature. Quite the opposite. They were profoundly moved that we showed up, that we listened, and that we made the effort to simply be present, almost three years after October 7th.

That, more than anything, captures the essence of the RCA’s most recent solidarity mission to Israel. From 29 Tammuz through 2 Av, a delegation of RCA rabbanim traveled from the Lebanese border to the Gaza envelope on a mission we called “lechazeik u’lehitchazeik”, to strengthen and to be strengthened, organized in partnership with World Mizrachi and the Barkai Center for Practical Rabbinics. It was my fourth RCA mission to Israel since the war began and, without question, the most stirring and consequential.

The war may be receding in certain respects, but it is far from over. Its consequences are only beginning to surface. Everywhere we turned, we encountered giants dedicating all their strength to Am Yisrael. Here are a few highlights that left a deep impression on us. 

Day one of the mission opened with a briefing from Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Marc Rosenberg on the work of Nefesh B’Nefesh supporting olim and lone soldiers throughout the war. We then traveled north to meet Shlomi Ziv, held hostage in Gaza for 246 days before his rescue in Mivtza Arnon, the operation named for Arnon Zamora, the Yamam officer who fell bringing him home. For eight months, Jews across the world, including the rabbis in our group, davened for Shlomi. To stand beside him, alive and free, was to witness an open miracle from Hashem. We shared a meal at Noor, the first Druze kosher restaurant in Israel, owned by an IDF widow who lit a torch on the 76th Independence Day, and heard about the enduring covenant between the Druze community and the State of Israel. We visited the community of Shtula, on the Lebanon border, where fifty of the hundred families that were evacuated have returned. One Shtula resident who recently moved to the community, shared with us that he came not despite the danger but because of it. Someone, he told us, must hold the line.

At a barbecue with IDF soldiers on their base just meters from the border, we discovered that this was no ordinary unit. They were reservists, many already released from duty, who volunteered to come back and serve again. Among them stood Or, one of the youngest on the base. Her brother, a commander, was gravely burned in battle and spent the past year in the hospital. Since the army would not permit his return, he told her she would have to take his place. And so she did, heroically.

In Kiryat Shemonah, we slept in tzimmers, rented apartments in the homes of local residents, so that even our lodging would bring business to a community starved of tourism. We rose early to daven Shacharit at the local Yeshivat Hesder and learned alongside its Rosh Yeshiva and recently demobilized soldiers. Seven hundred and ninety missiles struck Kiryat Shemonah during the war, and a third of its residents have yet to return. Local activists spoke candidly about what rebuilding will require – not just the physical infrastructure, but the sense of community that was shattered. And yet young families are choosing to move there as their shlichut. This is not mere idealism. These are people who sense that Israel needs them, and who answer that call without hesitation.

We continued to Tzfat to experience Beit Binyamin, a retreat center that Jen and Rob Airley opened in memory of their son Binyamin Hy”d, an IDF soldier who bravely fell in Gaza. This place of rest and renewal for so many who desperately need it – milu’im families, freed hostages, wounded soldiers and more – is a tremendous merit for the neshama of their son. 

We ended the day at the Tel Hashomer rehabilitation center at Sheba Hospital, where visitors nearly trip over one another in their eagerness to tend to wounded soldiers, arriving with food, song, and art. Some wounds will never fully heal. But no one there is alone.

The final day carried our group south, first to Rabbi Doron Perez, Executive Chairman of World Mizrachi and President of the World Zionist Organization, whose son, Captain Daniel Perez Hy”d, was killed on October 7th and his body held hostage. At the Nova site, we heard from a survivor rescued by Younes, a Bedouin farmer who sheltered eight young people fleeing the festival. When terrorists came to his gate, he told them in Arabic that no Jews were there – a lie that saved eight lives and could have cost him his own. The last stop was to Netiv HaAsara, mere meters from the Gaza border, where twenty members of the community were murdered on Simchat Torah. We were led by Rabbi David Fine, a member of the RCA who recently became a part-time resident of the moshav. Although most residents have returned, one spoke candidly of her lingering fear and exhaustion. 

I returned to America certain that I had spent days among genuine angels, people bearing an extraordinary sense of responsibility for Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael. It is hard to know what to say to those who have endured so much. But words matter less than we imagine. Showing up matters. Listening matters. Being present becomes its own source of strength, for them and for us.

The number of people visiting Israel on solidarity missions has significantly decreased; hosts told us they once welcomed far more visitors than they do now. I encourage you to join a Mizrachi mission. Tickets are costly and time is hard to find, but there is no substitute for visiting these communities and letting them know they are not alone, especially as October 7th recedes further into our past. It is the very least we can do for our people and our nation, still so deeply wounded. 

Through the hard work of Rabbis Yossi Goldin and Shimon Rapport of World Mizrachi, the impact of these few days will last a lifetime. We set out to strengthen. We returned strengthened.

• To organize a mission through Mizrachi, please contact missions@mizrachi.org

Rabbi Menachem Penner is Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America.