'Heartwarming, heartbreaking': Palm Beach rabbis offer comfort and aid during Israel trip

During their three-day trip to Israel last week, four rabbis with Palm Beach Synagogue offered support, compassion and aid to those impacted by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

Rabbis Moshe Scheiner, Yosef Rice, Shneor Minsky and Leibel Shmotkin, along with congregant Yossi Dworcan and Scheiner's son, Uziel, who was in Israel during the attacks, visited with residents, soldiers and community leaders and delivered more than $200,000 in financial assistance to struggling families as part of a trip meant to show solidarity with the Israeli people.

More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel and thousands more were wounded in the attacks, Israeli officials said. Another 240 people were taken hostage by Hamas and remain in Gaza.

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"When your family's in pain, you have to show up and give them a big hug," Moshe Scheiner told the Daily News. "We wanted to give them a collective big hug from the whole community."

The purpose of Palm Beach Synagogue's rabbinic trip was four-fold, Scheiner said.

The rabbis wanted to show support for those in Israel affected by the attacks; provide financial assistance to displaced families and those grieving the loss of loved ones; meet with students; and see first-hand the devastation caused by the attacks and how Israelis were responding to them.

"Obviously, we've been glued to the news and social media," Scheiner said. "But there's nothing like going and seeing with your own eyes."

The rabbis landed in Israel Oct. 30 and spent three days traveling to sites throughout the country, including military bases, a hospital, a school, a hostage center, and a hotel where evacuees from the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel were staying.

That part of the trip was particularly sobering, Scheiner said, as there were hundreds of displaced residents living there, including 200 children. Many were mourning the loss of loved ones in the attacks.

Sixty-two residents of the kibbutz were murdered in the Hamas attacks, Scheiner said, and another 18 were taken hostage.

"That community is decimated," Scheiner said. "They torched the homes, and there was blood everywhere. There was a pogrom there. The Israeli government took the whole community and put them in a hotel, in a place called the Shefayim. Every family is living in one room in a hotel. They're displaced. We went to visit them and talk to them."

The rabbis also spoke with members of ZAKA, a United Nations-recognized humanitarian volunteer organization that provides a rapid response to mass casualty disasters around the world.

In Israel, ZAKA has been working since Oct. 7 to identify those who were killed in the Hamas attacks and ensure a proper burial per Jewish law. Many who died remain unidentified as their bodies were burned beyond recognition, Scheiner said.

"Even dental records don't work, and ZAKA hasn't been able to get DNA," Scheiner said. "There are 150 people that are still not buried. It was the worst atrocities that some in ZAKA said they had ever seen."

As part of showing their support, the rabbis hosted barbecues for hundreds of soldiers in northern and southern Israel; visited with patients at Tel HaShomer Hospital in Tel Aviv; shopped for cosmetics and beauty products to distribute to evacuees; met with students and staff at the Lev Shalom Center, which serves the special needs community in the Binyamin region of central Israel; and visited with volunteers at the Chamal Distribution Center in Jerusalem, which distributes supplies to those who need them.

They ended their trip with a visit to the Wailing Wall, a place of prayer and pilgrimage in Jerusalem that is sacred to the Jewish people.

"This was the most heartbreaking and the most heartwarming thing I've ever done in my life," Scheiner said of the trip. "It's the most heartbreaking because the pain is unreal, but heartwarming because of the outpouring of love and support. Everyone's caring for everyone."

Scheiner said he and his congregants plan to return to Israel as often as they can to continue providing support, both financial and emotional.

They also plan to "adopt" the community of Kfar Aza, and will raise funds to support its needs and encourage one-on-one relationships with residents for emotional support.

"We'll have family to family connections, where a family in Palm Beach will get to know a specific family in Israel," he said. "They'll call them to talk and let them know that people on the other side of the world care about them."

Uziel Scheiner offered his perspective on Israel and shared his experiences from his trip there in a "Let There Be Light" presentation Wednesday at the synagogue.

To register, visit www.palmbeachsynagogue.org/war-room.

During Shabbat services Friday night, Palm Beach Synagogue will set up empty tables with the names of Hamas hostages placed on empty seats and high chairs.

The synagogue also invites the community to celebrate Shabbat dinner for the hostages, Scheiner said. For information, visit palmbeachsynagogue.org/ or call 561-838-9002.

For those looking to contribute to relief efforts in Israel, donations are being accepted through Palm Beach Synagogue at www.palmbeachsynagogue.org/israel-donations and through the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's Humanitarian Relief Fund at https://jewishpb.org/israelfund.

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach rabbis witness heartbreak and hope during trip to Israel