Letters of Hope and Love…

Dear Soldier, I am a high school student… The war you are fighting in the Holy Land has grabbed my full attention. I am standing behind you and believe in what you are fighting for. You are fighting for Israel, my home, and a safe haven for Jews and any others wishing to practice religion peacefully all over the world.

I thank you from the deepest place in my heart for putting yourself in harms way for the fight against any enemy of freedom. You are my hero. I am praying for immediate peace and success in all of your missions. May G-d bring salvation to all those in need and peace to the land of Israel. Thank you for your dedication to Israel. Love…

January 7, 2009 / 11 Teves … we are on our way back from the front lines, having just delivered hundreds of letters from people all over the world to the Israel Defense Forces soldiers who are so courageously fighting the Gaza War.

The letter above is just one of the many we hand-carried to the soldiers – letters filled with emotion and encouragement, hope and love.

We arrived at about noon with the letters as well as soft drinks, cookies, candy bars and pocket-size tehillim (Psalms). We also brought tefillin so that the soldiers could put them on.

Not too long after we arrived, there was a three hour ceasefire called, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, so that humanitarian aid could be brought into Gaza. What other country in the world would halt a raging war for three hours so the “enemy” could receive aid? Only in Israel!

We found the delivery of these letters, which is a joint project of Tzeirie Chabad HQ in Israel and Chabad.org., to be an amazing way to connect with the soldiers. Their reactions, first to us being there to bring the letters, and then to the messages of the letters themselves, was “Wow! We can’t believe that people around the world are thinking about us.”

We gave the letters to the soldiers to keep and take back into battle with them and you could see on their faces how meaningful this was to them. They were putting little missives of hope and love into their pockets.

Rabbi Chuni Vogel of Wilmington, Delaware, accompanied us on this visit. In his own words, this was “a day I will remember forever”.

“Coming to the soldiers,” he said, “and telling them I was here from America to give them blessings and support brought huge smiles to their faces. It was clearly so meaningful.

”As we translated the letters for those soldiers who did not speak English, we could see their awe at the fact that here were people who did not know them, but who had such love and admiration for them just because of who they are – the defenders of Israel.

“As we were leaving and gave them our heartfelt blessings that they should come back safely, they looked us directly in the eye and in solemn voices, said a loud and unified ‘Amen!’ I have to tell you that I felt tears gathering in my eyes and chills going down my spine. It was such an unbelievably moving moment.”

To read more and to see photos please visit www.israelhomefront.org