When they recently traveled with their family for a visit to Israel before the start of Sukkot on Sept. 29, Northwest Baltimore residents Yossi and Amian Kelemer never dreamed they’d spend a good deal of their time in a Jerusalem bomb shelter.
But that’s exactly how things played out in the wake of Hamas’ attack and invasion of Israel last weekend.
Jmore spoke on Monday afternoon, Oct. 9, via Zoom to the Kelemers, who belong to Shomrei Emunah, Kehilath B’nai Torah, Mercaz Torah U’Tefillah and The Shul at the Lubavitch Center.
Jmore: First of all, how are you all holding up?
Amian: We’re OK. We’ve been coming to Jerusalem for so many years, and this is the first time something like this has ever happened to us.
We arrived Friday erev chag [before the holiday] and rented a beautiful apartment [near the Old City], and we’re here with all of our son and daughter-in-law and grandson and our other four kids. And we’re in two apartments here.
We had a beautiful couple of days of yontif and spent a day in Tel Aviv. We built sandcastles on the beach in Tel Aviv and danced and had an amazing couple of days. Then, obviously the nature of the experience and everything changed with the first ringing of the sirens.
Describe what that was like?
Amian: It was eight in the morning and our daughter, who has lived here before, woke us up. I heard something, but it didn’t really register. We all got up and ran to the stairwell and went to the shelter, and we met all of the neighbors in the shelter. They told us we should wait 10 minutes after the sirens are finished before going back in.
What was going through your mind?
Amian: You have to keep everything in balance. You feel like everyone is created in the image of God. So how could some people want to be so destructive and hateful, and do I have the right to hate back?
So it’s emotional and you’re having all of these deep thoughts because you’re just sitting there. But you want to be even-keel and stay calm and keep it together. You have so many conflicting things at once. It’s impossible to comprehend, and you’re just sitting there. Everybody’s sitting there with their private thoughts. You don’t really want to voice what you’re thinking.
Were you in a state of disbelief?
Amian: It’s Jerusalem. Nothing reaches Jerusalem. That’s just the impression. So there was disbelief. And it was Simchat Torah.
Yossi: It’s not the destination you’d expect this to happen. The fact that it was Yerushalyim made it surreal.
Amian: And then being in shul and you see these guys being called up with their tallesim on, and people are giving them challah to take with them so they have it when they’re on the front, and they’re hopping into cars and they all have their phones. It was just a very unusual experience.
To see them separate from their families and hop into cars on a chag and rush off with their tallis still on was just … [trails off]
Yossi: The other thing is to see people cross the street and say [a blessing for soldiers’ safety], they know they’re going to the frontlines, and they’re all strangers. There’s a bittersweet beauty.
Amian: And of course, the news just got worse and worse throughout the day, and you try to get your head around it or part of it. It was unbelievable.
Have you been going outside at all?
Amian: We went out today to the makolet [store] to get a few things. People are on the street. Butcher shops and coffee shops are open. We went to the makolet and sirens went off, and I looked at a Sephardi older woman there and asked in Hebrew, ‘Is it better to be in the store or shelter somewhere else?’ And she said in Hebrew, ‘I don’t know but let’s stay together,’ and she began to say [Psalm 23]. She was a perfect stranger but she had a beautiful smile on her face, and you know by six degrees of separation that she knows people on the front and has family.
In Jerusalem, there’s little you can do but pray and pack boxes for Hatzalah, supplies for the soldiers. But there’s relatively little we could do.
Yossi: There’s so much unity. One of the bigger problems that’s happening now – this is a positive problem – is that there’s so many volunteers. People want to give blood or donate boxes, and people are being turned away. They’re overwhelmed. People just want to help. Again, it’s bittersweet, but everyone wants to take part and make a difference.
My oldest daughter contacted the army and wanted to sign up for miluim [the reserves], she was a combat soldier. And they didn’t know how to deal with that. They’re getting so many similar calls like this.
Amian: Today when I was at the market, the other members of my family went to a funeral for a ‘lone soldier’ [an IDF soldier with no family in Israel] and to help dig graves at Har Herzl [Israel’s national cemetery], and the azaka [siren] happens and it was terrifying. You see images of everyone hitting the ground.
Yossi: You can hear where it’s taking place by how close the siren is. You’re not supposed to have more than a 50-person gathering right now and they probably had around 5,000 people at Har Herzl, all for this lone soldier. There’s no place to go, no shelter, people are very emotional and want to honor the lone soldier and be a part of it and do the mitzvah, and people just all got down … and hugged each other [stops conversation due to emotion].
When are you planning to leave Israel?
Amian: We were supposed to leave this morning, but right now we’re booked for 5 on Thursday morning. But we hear a lot of pilots are being called up, so there’s a lot of uncertainty.
And your eldest daughter is remaining in Israel?
Amian: Yes. She would do anything she could to stay here anyway and be a help. This is her home, just as much as Baltimore is our home. She feels she needs to be here, but of course it’s scary.
Yossi: This is a country that when everyone else is running away, people here are running towards to make a difference.
What would you want to convey to the Jewish community here?
Amian: People should pray for the soldiers and the people. Expending energy on the anxiety of this isn’t worth it. Think good thoughts and send positive energy to those people protecting our borders and donating blood and packing boxes, The Jewish people are the eternal people and all of the positive energy is welcome.
Have you talked to people who’ve suffered losses?
Yossi: Everyone knows someone. My oldest knows people and people who know people, and it’s so incomprehensible. How could this happen to a country that has such great intelligence, and you hear stories of people who call for six hours for help and don’t get help? This is a country brought up on that idea that you don’t leave a soldier behind on a field by himself.
Amian: I keep thinking of all the grief. Over 900 losses, it’s incomprehensible. All of the loss and suffering. … People should just send out good thoughts. We’re sitting in Jerusalem and doing our best.
**********************************************************************************************
The following was recently posed by Amian Frost Kelemer on social media:
We are here. In this place. HaMakom Asher Nivchar.
We danced joyous hakafot and in between them we prayed heartfelt tehillim.
We hold in the balance disbelief and realism, love and loathing, anxiety and serenity, a pull to action and a pull to shelter.
We watched as daveners turned into soldiers, running from shul on chag, taleisim fluttering behind them like heroes’ capes, leaping into cars and joining their units.
We watched in anguish as soldiers turned into daveners on heartbreaking video posts.
We hear the roaring of planes overhead but the construction site nearby is silent today, absent of its workers.
And while there are fewer people on the street than usual, we watch the seller from our window, dutifully hawking his pomegranate and carrot juice.
It’s like his personal prayer for normalcy.
A former resident of Baltimore and central Florida, Ritt was active in the Soviet Jewry movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
The Orioles' weak defense plays a major role in the nightly carnage, writes Michael Olesker.
For more than four decades, Goldman played a vital role in the supervision of elections in the city.
Educators, ethicists and Jewish leaders are debating the question as content mills slop on.