Oh, dear Louise,
How dear you have become. Things like that happen as blessings, and happen quickly, that, I think, is the way things can be; we can make that so.
The paper piece is magnificent, smile, not my words, that would be immodest of me, no truly, that my words, all of them you so generously included, are there, really there in a Devils Lake paper, the Journal, that is magnificent. In Israel, in better times, we always hear ourselves saying, “You never know,” and when said, it nuances that blessings come all the time, the hand of G-D, you just never know when, how, where, especially in Jerusalem this is so, you turn a corner and right there in front of you is the person you were just thinking about a minute age. Truly that is life in Jerusalem. Blessings just come, as rain.
Tonight, Louise, when your welcome email arrived, I was sitting at my desk trying to write, trying to review some lessons, essays, and all the time, my heart and brain were hearing and listening for the planes flying overhead. The planes pass our community on their way to Gaza. It was so in 2014, and now it is so in even a bigger way, a response to a horror impossible to have imagined, even to realize that evil is evil and shameless in carrying out its objectives, creating and leaving the horror it shapes. There are 21 newly orphaned children in Israel from 13 families where children saw their parents murdered before their eyes. Often and almost always in their own homes, in their safe rooms, safe from rockets, not from evil doing murderers. Who can imagine such a thing? Two more children whose parents also were murdered were stolen away to Gaza where they are now being held.
Today in the library where I sometimes do research for articles I am writing, I was sitting at a table with two other people. One, a woman, approximately my age, she has 17 nephews in the IDF, Israel Defense Forces, now on the borders in the South against Hamas in Gaza, and in the North against Hezbollah, an equally treacherous terror group that wants only the death of Jews and the destruction of our land. The man at the table has 4 sons, two in the North, two in the South.
Thank G-D we are a believing people. G-D runs the world in His mercy, kindness. G-D willing we are strong and of good courage as Moses told Joshua, be strong and of good courage. We pray that G-D will protect our soldiers, this holy land, us and all the good in the world, G-D willing.
Sorry to take up your time. Smile. Ask Mike, he knows me well, and knows, smile, this about me: I write long emails. Writers write, smile.
I think I am telling you all this because, although strong, we feel fragile, shattered to see how quickly some will condemn us, some will G-D forbid support Hamas and terror against us, against really civilization.
Blessings, Louise, for health, safety, goodness, blessings on “our” North Dakota, “our” Devils Lake, sometimes the turning of the world brings one back to just where they indeed do belong. We all hope G-D willing you will visit Israel and us some day soon.
Again, thank you.
Warmly,
Joanne Yelenik, Israel
To this e-mail I responded, again, asking for her permission to put her letter to me in the newspaper. — Louise Oleson, DLJ: The following is her response:
Dear Louise,
You read well my mind and heart. After I wrote you, I read what I had written and I gave myself a kind of smile thinking, I wrote this to Louise because of the qualities of Louise and how she responded to my emails, but, I thought continuing the idea, what I really desire is to shout this to the world, the world that so quickly forgets, so speedily accepts as truth the biases against Israel while in their hearts they know Israel and its people are not liars, not evil, have never sought to harm the innocent, have always advised, even at our own peril, for people to leave areas of danger and combat.
Yes, of course, please do as you are suggesting for the very reasons that you write and that I and all Israelis feel in our hearts, the Jewish dread that soon we will stand alone, that soon no one will see what is plain for all to understand.
Jewish history sadly has many such examples, but this, Louise, this time is perhaps the most cruel of all, the wanton murdering, the reckless abandonment of all civility, humanity to brutality; no doubt Hamas wants us dead; Hamas, like its terrorist cohorts, wants to utterly destroy Israel and its people, G-D forbid.
Thank you again for your keen insight, wisdom, graciousness. We are of shared souls, that, with the help of G-D, will see us through.
Warmly, with affection and respect,
Joanne Yelenik, Israel
Please join me in praying for Joanne, for all in danger in Israel and Gaza — Louise Oleson, DLJ editor
