The Jewish virtue of looking out for each other isn't just a cliché. It's a necessary reality in a world that is facing a challenge that has not been seen in the modern era. Jewish communities, big and small, are finding themselves paralyzed. The Jewish Agency's international situation room is flooded with calls from all over the world.
The community structure that has helped preserve our people's ability to exist among foreigners throughout the generations, has now, in many cases, been weakened or shut down. Community leadership is dealing with closed schools and community centers, an enormous burden on welfare services, locked synagogues, and Holocaust survivors and the elderly – who are on their own.
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The most worrying reports are arriving from the Jewish community in Italy. It is a proud, strong, community with ancient roots. Now it has found itself in the eye of a storm that is raging across the entire nation of Italy.
In private conversations, presidents of congregations tell me that except for the Holocaust, the coronavirus epidemic is "the biggest [crisis] to befall us in the past 100 years." The Italian Jewish community is aging, and there is a real concern for the lives of many of its members. Sadly, some have already died from the virus.
When the crisis began in Italy, the Jewish Agency and the JNF worked together, along with other bodies – including the Israeli Ambassador to Italy Dror Eydar – to set up an emergency team that would help Jewish communities throughout Italy and provide them with financial and logistical assistance.
This crisis is worldwide. Coronavirus, which has hit the four corners of the earth, does not distinguish between religions or people. In Spain, France, South Africa, and other countries, Jewish communities are in real trouble.
There is no doubt that humanity will emerge victorious in this battle, but in the meantime, we have to ensure that the system of Jewish communities continues to function – schools, youth movements, envoys, Hebrew study, security, synagogues, old-age homes and aid for the elderly, as well as (heaven forbid) cemeteries. It's been years since we've had an opportunity like this to act on the principle of ensuring each other's welfare. Israel, along with the Jewish Agency, has an obligation to extend its hand to our brothers and sisters in distress.
On Sunday, the Jewish Agency broadcast a live concert by Israeli artist Idan Reichel to Jewish communities worldwide, a kind of prayer for the welfare of everyone in the world, as well as the communities themselves. We are constantly working to think outside the box when it comes to dealing with the challenges facing Jewish communities in this new reality.
We need to help our communities in any way possible, and we must embrace them from afar, bring them close, and encourage them.
The Prayer for Peace in Israel, written by my grandfather – the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog – goes as follows: "Remember our brethren, the whole house of Israel, in all the lands of their dispersion. Speedily bring them to Zion, your city."
Let it be so.
