Soccer Dad

Life in haifa

I have an Aunt (Sibby) and Uncle (Yale) (and cousin - Deborah -and cousin-in-law - Edgar - and their family) who live in Haifa. (They made Aliyah from Boston.) My Aunt's been sending out e-mails of her experiences in and out of the shelter. This is from 8/3 and 8/4. The sister and brother-in-law mentioned are my mother and father. One of those grandsons is my son who was in Haifa two days before. (The son in Bet Shemesh is my brother)

I have not edited these in any way. I think that they are more powerful than anything I could write.

Hi everyone, Hope you are well, and enjoying the sunlight. We are doing ok here. I wanted to share some of my memories of what we have gone through. When this war started, it was so unexpected. It was not like the war with Iraq with months of buildup. On Tuesday, Yale's sister and brother-in-law from Baltimore were visiting their son in Beit Shemesh. They came into Haifa that day with 2 of their grandsons, and we met them, along with Ariel, our almost 9 year old grandson, at the science museum. Had a great day. Everything was fine. The next day - war.

I woke up one of the first nights about 1:30 and looked out the window to drink in the view of Haifa at night. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. To the right, which would be northeast, the sky was bright red! I could only think that there must have been a fire in Haifa,but there were no sirens from emergency equipment. The next day, Deborah said it was probably from the fires in Beirut when they blew up the airport and the fuel containers. Beirut is 60 miles from Haifa!

I remember the total panic when the first siren went off in Haifa. We could
hear the rockets landing in Haifa. I was terrified that I wouldn't hear the
siren at night and I was afraid to sleep. the next day there were so many
sirens, we stayed in the bomb shelter at Or Hadash for about 5 hours.
The little kids were still in the nursery school and day camp at the shul,
and there were about 8 kids, mostly under age 5, when we got there. Talk
about noise. After that, the city cancelled all camps and programs, and the
nursery school and camp at Or Hadash had to close as well. It was either
that night or the next when Deborah decided we should stay in the bomb
shelter for the night. The siren went off about 9:30 that evening, and we
said enough was enough. There are mats there for the kids to nap on, so we
pushed a bunch together and tried to sleep a few hours. After that night
they stopped firing rockets at night, because we could spot the tracer from
the rockets, and destroy the rocket launcher. So fortunately we were back
to sleeping in our beds.

There is always fear when the sirens go off, but we have developed aroutine
now. Still, I have never unpacked our emergency bag in case we have to go
to the bomb shelter. Extra clothes, toothbrush and deodorant, a book to
read, some knitting and most important, Elite bittersweet chocolate bars. I
understand Elite has a website set up for people to make donations to send
packages to the soldiers.

It's been a very different week for us. After the house that was bombed
in Kana, the IDF called off flights for 2 days. Monday and Tuesday we had
no sirens. Unfortunately, yesterday life returned to normal - or so it has
become. The sirens went off 3 or 4 times. Today, we thought we'd have a good day. No sirens at all. And then 4 pm, 4:10 and 5 the sirens went
off.

We are so thankful that we haven't had much damage in our area. Some areas of Haifa, on the lower levels, have been hit really bad. Today unfortunately, there were 8 people killed by katyushas. Yesterday a man
who made aliya from Newton, MA about 20 years ago was killed. There are many tragedies that don't make sense. Deborah was reading an article that one of you forwarded from the Boston Globe about a young single mother in Haifa who is afraid to come out of a bomb shelter. She lives in an area that has
had much damage, and the community shelter is a distance from her home. If
the siren goes off, she wouldn't get there in time, so she lives there except
to go home at night to shower. The war is becoming very intense now, as you
know if you watch Fox news. Israel is in a fight for her life, and everyone
knows it. I listen to Deborah talk to the kids, and they are so tuned in for sirens. They keep their shoes right by the door so they can make a rapid flight down the stairs. The other day, Deborah had dozed off, and the siren went off. They all ran in to wake her - "the siren, mommy."

We've had a touch of normalcy Wednesday. Some friends of ours came over to visit us in the afternoon. They live in our area, and drove over. We had
tea and played a little cards. I begged them to stay for dinner and leave
when it got darker. Needless to say, the siren went off twice while they were here. Some people show off new clothes or furniture - here we show off
safe rooms and bomb shelters. It was a little mental vacation to sit down
for cards, dinner and conversation.

Friday 8/4

New day, quiet. Deborah and the family were supposed to go to Zichron Yaakov yesterday but Edgar cancelled his appointment because the sirens were coming too frequently to go out. As I'm writing this at 5:20 pm,
fortunatley we've had no sirens yet. However, unfortunately, the fighting
and katyushas have been coming fast and furious further north. At least
2 people were killed there today. Yale and I are going to Jerusalem next
week. Deborah and Edgar are going to a wedding there, and since they won't
leave the kids with us now, we'll go along and babysit that night. A nice
little break for us, and time to spend with the kids.

We wish everyone a Shabbat Shalom, and I'll write again next week.

Sibby and Yale

ps: While the day was quiet on Friday, at about 9 pm there was a siren
(during dinner) and a long range missile reached Hadera, south of Haifa.
-
Deborah

Here's an earlier one from 7/29

2:10 pm Hi everyone, Thank you so much for all the replies we have been receiving from you. It is so very comforting to know we and all of Israel are in your thoughts and prayers. We had a quiet Friday. The siren went off about 5 times, but there were no rockets that landed in Haifa. It is very strange, we hear the distant sounds of the cannons along the border, 20 miles away, and when it is quiet, it is spooky. We are always aware of the sounds now: the planes, the cannons, but the saddest sound is the lack of sounds from children. It is always quiet outside except for booms. In the beginning of the situation, or whatever we call this war, you didn't even hear a car outside. Now the traffic is very light. But the sounds of people on the street is absent. Our apt. is located so that we are in an echo chamber, we are up on the Carmel mountain range, and everything is carried up from the streets. I know I'll miss the quiet when we are back to normal, but for now, I would like to hear people instead of cannon fire. Deborah and her family celebrated the Sabbath with us last night. It is so nice to have a bit of normalcy in this insanity. For a few hours we act like everything is ok. Today Yale and I turned on BBC and Sky news from England. It is very frightening to listen to the rhetoric they spew. You would really believe that Israel started all this if it was your only source of news. It is now 5:30 pm We had sirens at 3, 4, 4:15, 5 and 5:30. So we make our exit and wait in the hallway for the sirens to stop - usually a couple of minutes. We hope you are well, and you are in our thoughts. Stay well, Sibby and Yale

Sunday, 7/30
Hi Everyone,
I had a feeling today might be crazy The talk is about a cease fire in
the next few days, now that Condaleeza Rice is in Israel. I'm afraid they
might decide to use up whatever rockets they have. It is now 7:15 am. The
siren went off at 6:50 and 7:10. That is about the earliest they started
firing at us, and very close together, timewise. Thankfully, we did not hear
any booms.
As we listened to the news and heard about the terrible tragedy in Qana,
it became apparent that we will be in for a rough time now. Talk of more
suicide terrorists coming into Israel from Hezbolla and the Palestinian
factions can be a sobering thought. The public outcries of hate for
Israel from the world is frightening, expeciallly after seeing what happened in
Seattle. It makes you realize no matter where you live in the world,
you're still a Jew.

Monday 7/31
Yesterday we had a total of 5 sirens. During the night, Israel suspended the air force flights, so today, there have been no sirens. We are actually going out with Deborah and Edgar and the kids for supper. Catch me before I fall - I'm so excited. Will be in touch with you soon.
Love you all,
Sibby and Yale

Here's a link to the Elite "Send a hug" program that's mentioned above.

Technorati tags: Haifa, Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah.