North Jersey Jews volunteer in Israel to help farms, hospitals, families amid war

When she heard about the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, Teaneck's Chana Baron felt helpless. "I couldn't think about anything else," she said.

Several weeks later, the legal recruiter was helping. She was on her way to the war-torn country. "I felt so insulated in New Jersey," Baron, 54, recalled. "But in Israel, people are putting their lives on the line for the Jewish people."

Israel has come under increasing pressure over the human toll of the war in Gaza. But it also has a deep reservoir of support among North Jersey's Jewish community. Some residents have offered more than just thoughts and prayers: They've flown to Israel to volunteer at farms and hospitals and to aid families who lost their homes and belongings in the Hamas terror attack.

Baron volunteered at a number of small farms outside of Jerusalem and in central Israel during a two-week stay. The farms were desperate for help, she said, because many employees had been killed or called up to serve in the conflict or were foreign workers who had left for their home countries. Israel called up roughly 360,000 reservists in the wake of the strike by Hamas.

"I weeded and pruned strawberries, planted garlic and picked pomegranates," she said.

Among the people she encountered was a soldier who rushed to southern Israel on Oct. 7 to help but was injured in the fighting. "He is now serving Israel the only way he can — by picking pomegranates," Baron said.

"Everyone there just wants to help," she said. "There is such unity and purpose."

Volunteering in Israel was 'nerve-wracking'

At times, the work was nerve-wracking. One of the farms had no shelter in case of incoming rockets. Fortunately, none fell that day, allowing workers to focus on "weeding and pruning and picking," Baron said. "Everyone kept thanking me, but it was literally the least I could do."

She was among a slew of New Jersey residents who dropped everything to fly into the war zone and help. Others, who were already in Israel, rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

A group of 18 members from the Temple Emanu-El synagogue in Closter recently returned from a one-week mission. They packed food for the displaced, visited families of those taken hostage, gave gifts to injured soldiers and brought dinner to first responders. "Everyone who went said they were changed by the trip," said Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner.

A delegation of students from Teaneck's Torah Academy of Bergen County left for Israel on Monday for a week of visiting the wounded in hospitals, running activities for Jewish families and children who were displaced from communities on the Gaza border, and visiting families of those killed on Oct. 7.

The need for help continues to grow, say volunteer coordinators.

Stuart Reichman, a chef from Teaneck, figured that at age 58, he's too old to pick up a gun and fight. But he found other ways to serve. Within hours of the attack, he was working in a friend's Jerusalem kitchen, cooking for soldiers and families who needed meals. "I was so insanely busy I didn't sleep for days," he said.

More than 1,200 people were killed by Hamas' strike, with scores more injured and 240 people taken captive, Israeli authorities have said. The health ministry in Gaza says more than 18,000 Palestinians have been killed there, and hundreds of thousands displaced, by Israel's efforts to destroy Hamas, which the United States has designated as a terrorist group.

Tracking opportunities on Facebook

Reichman, who was in Israel on vacation when the war broke out, opted to extend his trip once he heard about the attack. He visited families that had been evacuated from southern Israel. "They don't know what their future holds anymore," he said. Many saw family members killed and lost everything they owned when Hamas shot up and bombed their homes.

When word spread about his efforts, friends from back home reached out to ask how they could help. Reichman created a Facebook page of volunteer opportunities that has grown to 400 members. "There's so much that has to be done," he said. "But there's an incredible amount of giving that's going on. You really feel people coming together."

"I think all the antisemitism in America is making people realize the need for a Jewish homeland in Israel," Reichman added. "Even people who never came to Israel before want to come volunteer."

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Elana Kaplan, 50, who moved to Jerusalem from Teaneck three years ago, began volunteering after Oct. 7 and was quickly inundated with calls from Americans eager to do the same thing. She compiled lists of jobs and has been getting at least 30 inquiries a day from potential volunteers. Kaplan, who is doing the work on behalf of Areyvut, a Bergen County-based nonprofit that facilitates kindness and social action, estimates she has helped place 300 people in jobs over the past two months.

As the war goes on, there's a growing need for medical staff and therapists to treat those recovering from the trauma of Oct. 7 and to help communities in southern Israel rebuild, Kaplan said.

Israel-Hamas war has left a gap

Beverly Luchfeld, a Teaneck resident who coordinates volunteers from her home through four WhatsApp groups, said she has placed roughly 80 foreign volunteers a week to pack food and help Israeli evacuees, with another 15 taking on farming jobs in the past two months.

"There's not enough farm workers because thousands of foreign workers left after the attack, and the Israeli workers were either killed, taken hostage or sent to fight in the war," she said. "A lot of this year's harvest has already gone to spoil."

Some volunteers are coming alone, and others in groups or on organized missions. "There are thousands of people coming from around the world," with a significant number from the United States and the New Jersey area in particular, Luchfeld said. She is able to direct people to farms that offer free housing and food to volunteers who commit to working a block of time. She also helps arrange transportation to the farms.

Volunteers say the work helps them transform their sadness and anxious energy into a positive force.

Andrea Portal, a yoga instructor who traveled from Teaneck in early November, said she worked at a farm, packed food for displaced families and taught a yoga class for stressed-out women in Jerusalem.

"I was watching the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, crying and praying and feeling helpless and wishing I could do more," she said. Then she remembered hearing about American Jews during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 who "jumped on planes to work on Israeli farms and help." That image inspired her.

Portal reached out to Kaplan, who guided her to various opportunities.

While in Jerusalem, she encountered a group of families that had been evacuated from northern Israel because of the threat from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in that region.

"They were so moved that I had come from America to help," she said.

Portal asked them what she could do to help them, and they explained they had fled their homes in a rush, with only their sandals and the clothes on their backs. With winter approaching, they had nothing for the cold weather. She texted a few friends back home in New Jersey, and within a few hours, they raised $1,500. She took the women to a mall and bought them sneakers and warm clothes.

"They were all sitting in the same clothes every day for the past two months," Portal said. "I just wanted to make them feel good. They were so thankful."

Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: yellin@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: North Jersey Jews head to Israel to bolster farms, hospitals