Rabbi Zuckerman Travels to Israel to Help Supply Troops

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A retired clergyman from Mesquite travelled to Israel last month in the aftermath of the savage Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel by Hamas extremists in the Gaza Strip. Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, who himself lived in a kibbutz near Gaza between 1971 and 1979, said that he felt compelled after the recent attack to do something helpful on the ground.

While living in Israel, Zuckerman served two and a half years in the Israeli military. So he says he is no stranger to the situation there.
“I just couldn’t sit and watch this horrific stuff on television anymore,” Zuckerman said. “I had to go and do something! If they were willing to give me a rifle, I would have taken it and gone out there with them.”

But at 70 years old, Zuckerman recognized that this was not going to happen. So he decided to do the next best thing: bring support and supplies to the reservists of the Israeli forces.

He knew that more than 360,000 of reserve troops had been activated on short notice due to the Oct. 7 attacks. Many of these were probably ill-equipped, he said.
“Reservists don’t always get the same thing that the guys in the regular army have,” Zuckerman said. “They are called up at a moments notice and they take what they have. The country wasn’t ready to fully outfit them all.”

So in a very short period of time, Zuckerman gathered a host of necessary supplies that he knew reservists might need. He spent more than $4,000 on this supply shopping spree. Most of those funds came from generous donations from friends and neighbors here in Mesquite.

Shortly after the attacks, the word began to circulate around town that Zuckerman was planning this trip. Suddenly monetary donations, as well as various supply items, flowed in to help him. Churches in town took up donations in their services to help in the cause. People showed up at Zuckerman’s doorstep with donations. Folks would stop him in the street and hand him money justing wanting to help.

“The people in this city are outstanding!” Zuckerman said. “The generosity here has been overwhelming! A lot of times I couldn’t even speak I was crying so much.”

Getting to Israel was not easy given the conditions on the ground there. Of course, Zuckerman paid for his own airfare since it was his trip. “I could have just shipped everything over to go to the troops,” Zuckerman said. “But I felt like: ‘Hey! I am donating this stuff, I want to be there. I want to see what these guys are doing and what they are going through.”

After some difficulty, Zuckerman was finally able to find an airline that was still flying in and out of Tel Aviv and he booked it. He flew out on October 18.
“I brought three bags with me,” he said. “One was for my stuff and the other two were filled with supplies for the soldiers.”

These two bags were packed with dozens of pairs of socks, thermal underwear and other necessary clothing items. There were also essential equipment items like flashlights, batteries, head lamps, U.S. military backpacks that had been donated, elbow and knee pads, 22 pairs of tactical gloves that had also been donated, and much more. Zuckerman even used some of the funds to purchase a set of Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) night-vision glasses to donate to the troops in their work.

Once there, Zuckerman went to work arranging passage to deliver these supplies to reserve units in an area along the northern border with Lebanon. It was a distance from Gaza in the south where the intensive action was. But it is still a dangerous area known for regular rocket attacks, he said.

He arranged for an escort, with two reservists, into the area. Zuckerman received a warm welcome from the troops upon his arrival.
“Happy to see me?” Zuckerman exclaimed. “Are you kidding? These guys didn’t know what to do for me. I mean nobody goes up there to see them.”

Zuckerman had other adventures during his 28-day stay in Israel. He travelled around a great deal visiting family and friends.

While visiting his son in a West Bank settlement, he volunteered several times to serve the night watch duty for the 2-4 am shift. His job was to watch for people who might be approaching the settlement in the middle of the night to cause trouble. But all he said that all he saw were a couple of desert foxes moving around in the darkness.

Zuckerman also attended two funerals of fallen military personnel while in Israel. He said that attendance at these funerals was remarkable because of the support that the citizenry feels for their military members.

One of these services was for Rose Lubin, 20, who had emigrated to Israel from Atlanta in 2021. She was drafted to the border police force in March 2022. She was killed on duty in a stabbing attack outside of Jerusalem. Thousands of people attended the funeral.

Zuckerman said that he is tentatively planning a similar trip to Israel early next year. He has already had people in town make donations for this second trip.
“I’m hoping that by then, United, Delta and American airlines will start flying there again,” he said. “But even if I can’t go in person, the donations will be going to the right place. There are plenty of people I know there that will take the money and buy the stuff that is needed.”