Members of The Cantors’ Conservatory and the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association of America and Canada traveled to Yad Binyamin
Yad Binyamin was more than we had bargained for. We sat down with Eli Eskozido the Mayor of Yad Binyamin in his office, which was turned into a sort of board room. In the center of the room was a table which had been set for a hardy brunch as we talked. In addition to the yeshiva students and former residents of Ganei Tal, Yad Binyamin is also home to fragments of Gaza settlements such as Gadid, Gan Or, Atzmona, Neveh Dekalim and Katif. Essentially, Gush Katif, which was made up of a series of beautifully manicured Jewish communities. But the vast majority of evacuees at Yad Binyamin are either from the yeshiva or from Ganei Tal. "This is not where I want to be," said Rivka Goldschmidt, an English teacher who lived in Ganei Tal for 28 years before the expulsion. "But the Torah commands us to be happy.” And that is why she built a succah. To hear Rivka’s tale and the tale of Moti Sender and others like him, is to have one’s heart broken before one is able to speak words of comfort to those dispossessed and disinherited in one of the greatest folly’s of the modern State of Israel. Since the disengagement of Gaza there has been continuous rocket attacks on neighboring communities and Yad Binyamin, Sderot and Ashkelon are extremely vulnerable. 50,000 troops and police arrived to take part in.
The Cantors with Rivka, Moti and Mr. Eli Eskozido the Mayor of Yad Binyamin in his office.
The Gush Katif destruction; troops that could have been used to protect Gush Katif rather than destroy it. Moti Sender, spokesman for Ganei Tal, spoke of rebuilding, bigger and better. After being shown through a small picture gallery of the way it used to be in Gush Katif, we drove through the Yad Binyamin complex of prefab homes that one could easily poke one’s hand through –quite depressing, and yet they, the Gush Katif ‘refugees’, had managed to make their little plots look like they had gone to English garden school. The most maddening thing was to see picture after picture of what had been bulldozed, blown up or set afire by the wanton crowds of Gazans in the wake of what finally was a rout. Beautiful homes, synagogues, cemeteries, green houses and farms were totally destroyed. To look into the eyes of these chalutzim – pioneers, glass over with tears of hurt, anger and betrayal was not something we would soon forget. The Cantors, all students of the Shoah sat with there mouths open and tears in there eyes as they heard the stories recanted and responded in broken voices. We have come here today with Mivtzah Emunah – Operation Faith to let you know that Klal Yisrael – Jews the world over are with you and feel your pain and anguish – whatever can be done will be done for you.
After our tour of Yad Biyamin we ate pizza in the newly constructed primitive mall made up of a row of stores manned by Gush Katif refugees where we bought little things to take back to our loved ones.
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