100 days.
If you asked most Israelis how long we’ve been at war, they might say that it feels like a lifetime.
Or they might say that it’s been one day, since we are all stuck forever on October 7, 2023.
Or they might say the technical amount of days that it’s actually been – and that’s 100.
100 days of
Burying the dead after a massacre not seen since the Holocaust; searching for loved ones after October 7 to find, eventually, that they were murdered; searching for loved ones after October 7 to find, eventually, that they were kidnapped but not knowing for 100 days if they are dead or alive in Gaza; of not hearing one word about a loved one; of fathers leaving their jobs and their lives to fight; of wives holding down the family all by themselves while working, parenting and worrying; of soldiers without rest; of parents who don’t hear from their soldiers for weeks, months; of waking up each morning to the list of more soldiers who have died fighting for us; of friends reporting on the helicopters they hear from their homes, bringing injured and dead out of Gaza; of families burying their fallen soldiers; of injured soldiers spending weeks, months in the hospital and in recovery; of entire communities displaced from their homes living in hotels and apartments, scattered and shattered.
The depth and scope of our devastation is almost impossible to encapsulate.
As we hit 100 days, and there are rallies and protests all over the country (and throughout the world) for the 136 hostages who must be brought home already, it’s hard to know what to DO. I’m a working mom with two fighters; I won’t be going to the rallies or marking the 100 days in an organized way with others.
So how can I make it meaningful?
Here is the list of items that I’ve taken on for tomorrow. I’d love to hear any other ideas people have that I might incorporate into my 100 days. I was trying to think of 100 things that I could do; or 10 things that I could do 10 of…but then I decided that just doing is really the important thing, without numbers.
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- Rachel Goldberg-Polin has been wearing a piece of tape over her heart counting the days since her son, Hersh, has been stolen from her and kidnapped to Gaza. Tomorrow morning, I plan to buy tape (why don’t we have tape in the house…hmmm) and write 100 on it and wear it over my heart so that she isn’t holding this burden by herself. You can learn more about this initiative on Facebook and on Instagram.
- Messages: I am sending messages to some of my friends to thank them for their service in the reserves or to thank their children for their service. I am also reaching out to friends whose sons have been injured, or killed, during the last 100 days in service.
- Financial Donations: I plan to make small donations to a number of organizations to show my appreciation for everything they have been doing for the last 100 days (and before that). These include donations for each of my son’s army units (Duvdevon and Golani), the Pina Chama, Mada, the One Family Fund, the Koby Mandel Foundation and others.
- Food donations: Finally, I plan to make a few vegetable platters to deliver to the few soldier centers in my area where soldiers can drop in for snacks and coffee. I hope to drop off coffee and muffins, as well, by the soldiers who are stationed near my office.
If there is one thing that I’ve learned during these past 100 days, it’s that we can’t all do everything. I wish I could be on a farm every day, helping the farmers in the north and south to save their produce; I wish I could be protesting with the hostage families; I wish I could be making meals along the border and serving them to our forces as they come out of Gaza; I wish I could be at every funeral and every shiva; I wish I could visit the injured in the hospital; I wish I had the strength to tour the kibbutzim that have been ravaged in the south and to visit the memorials for the people killed at the music festival.
We can’t do everything.
We each have to conserve our energy and get through the day in the best way that we know how to do so. Tomorrow, this is how I hope to mark 100 devastating, tear-stained days of hell here in our little country.
Let me know what you will be doing, and join me in any way that works for you.
