A Small Liberal Arts College, and Jerusalem’s Largest War-Relief Initiative
The day after Hamas’ October 7th attack, Director of Service and Citizenship Gila Rockman, together with students, alumni, and members of her department, established a command center at Shalem College to help with immediate war needs. They began contacting all students called up for reserve duty—within the war’s first 48 hours, more than half the student body had been drafted—to check on their well-being. They then determined what they were missing, and worked to obtain and deliver items ranging from socks and rain gear to tactical knives and helmets.
“Like everyone else, we sprang into action to fill the gaps in a system caught completely off guard. We figured that we’d be needed for a week or two at most, until the official supply chains kicked in,” Rockman explains.
Looking back, she realizes those first days were a mere dress rehearsal for what was about to come next.
Four days into the war, Gila’s colleague and a leader in Jerusalem’s educational landscape called to say that he had just visited an extraordinary grassroots initiative in the heart of Jerusalem. He wondered if Shalem might like to join forces and help them increase their impact. Together with Senior Vice President Seth Goldstein, Rockman drove downtown to the Nissan Nativ Studio, the use of whose six-story building was offered to the newly formed Jerusalem Chamal (“Command Center”).
What they saw, she explains, was inspiring.
And a bit overwhelming, too.
“There were hundreds of volunteers in more than a dozen call centers fielding non-stop requests from soldiers, displaced citizens, families of reserve soldiers, and citizens in need of a range of services,” Rockman explains. “One team was securing housing for families evacuated from the South; another was helping organize thousands of rides, both to bring soldiers to their bases and supplies to the frontlines. Still another person was sourcing missing tactical equipment within Israel.” Additional departments included trauma and psychological services, a rabbinic operation responsible for funeral arrangements, and an entire team of multi-lingual volunteers doing intake in English, French, Arabic, Russian, and Amharic. “Not surprisingly, we also saw tons of Shalem students and graduates among the volunteers. Many of them were heading up teams that were working around the clock,” Rockman recalls.
Yet while the Jerusalem Chamal was able to meet many soldiers’ needs through an extraordinary outpouring of donated equipment and supplies, it had no mechanism for raising funds in Israel or abroad, and no revenue with which to make large-scale purchases for both soldiers and civilians’ evolving needs. “Seth and I looked at this incredible display of goodwill, and then at each other. And we said, ‘We think we can help.’”
Offering to serve as a lead institutional partner, Shalem quickly created a platform for raising the initiative’s emergency funds. By putting its entire financial infrastructure in service of the Chamal’s efforts, Shalem began raising significant resources, all of which were put to immediate use in the field. Seven weeks into the war, the platform had brought in nearly $4 million for the purchase of vital tactical and medical equipment for soldiers, and for a range of supplies and services for victims and evacuees—almost all of it from Shalem’s vast network of overseas friends.
“Like all colleges and universities in Israel, Shalem was scheduled to begin its academic year the week of October 7,” notes Goldstein. “It was immediately clear it would be months before we could return to business as usual, and all of us were eager to put our infrastructure and significant manpower to work for the war effort. We’ve undertaken many projects in the last two months, but none as ambitious and gratifying as our work with the Command Center. To see the Chamal in action is to see the very best of Israel: The passion and commitment of its citizens—the majority under 30—united in a common purpose. This generation will refound the Jewish state.”
And they’ll do so, adds Rockman, not just as Israelis, but together with Jews everywhere.
“Just one month before the attack, we were in the Bay Area and Los Angeles as part of the Jewish Peoplehood Project,” Rockman notes, referring to a multi-faceted effort spearheaded by the Koret Foundation to help bridge the divide between the world’s two largest Jewish communities. “Students are always struck by how different the American Jewish experience is from their own, here in a Jewish state. But today, when they see how North American Jews have responded to our moment of crisis with an overwhelming show of solidarity, and so much love and concern and immense generosity—they feel more than ever that we’re one family. There’s an awareness that we’re in this together, and that what unites us is so much stronger than any of our differences.”
To date, the Chamal has provided more than 25,000 hot meals to soldiers, distributed more than 20,000 boxes of urgent supplies—with everything “from defibrillators to diapers,” explains Rockman—is operating around the clock in more than 60 hotels housing residents of the South and North, and is ensuring that the city’s more than 20,000 displaced children have daycare, psychological services, clothing, and even books and toys. Moreover, it shows no signs of slowing down: Everyday, new volunteers and donations arrive to help Israelis in their time of greatest crisis, and to let them know they’re not alone.
“On October 7th, we saw the darkest depths of evil. But in the weeks since, Israeli civil society has reached unimaginable heights of empathy, resilience, and mutual responsibility,” Rockman concludes. “I am humbled by and proud to be part of a people that responds to the most horrific tragedy in the most hopeful, beautiful way.”
