The Commander of the Home Front, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, met Israel’s Chief Rabbis in Jerusalem this week in order to launch the Home Front’s unique informational campaign for the hareidi public. The campaign will include information in Yiddish, for Ashkenazic hareidi Jews who use the eastern-European dialect in their daily lives.
The meeting was held in advance of the nationwide emergency exercise which will be held next week, in anticipation of a possible conflagration in the Middle East in the future.
Attending the meeting were the Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar (the Rishon LeTzion), the Chief Ashkeazic Rabbi Yonah Metzger, Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook and Rabbi Yitzchak-Dovid Grossman (also known as “The Disco Rabbi”).
Lack of awareness
Maj.-Gen. Golan was accompanied by the Head of the Home Front Command’s Population Department, Col. Chilik Sofer, and the Home Front Command Rabbi, Maj. Amir Zouzout. The Home Front officers presented the rabbis with the informational materials in Hebrew and Yiddish that will be distributed to over 130,000 hareidi families in Israel. The pamphlets include instructions to citizens on how to choose an emergency “protected space” in their homes, schools and workplaces.
According to the IDF Spokesman’s Unit, the officers explained the challenges and threats facing the Israeli civilian population and the pressing need for greater awareness of the importance of carrying out life-saving instructions in emergency situations. This awareness is seen as somewhat lacking in the hareidi populace, large parts of which ignore all non-hareidi media publications and scoff at all things military.
The information campaign geared at the hareidi public will be carried out with the blessing of important rabbis, and its motto is the biblical commandment “venishmartem meod lenafshoteichem” – “Watch yourselves very carefully” .
'Do not rely on miracles'
The informational material is accompanied by a a letter from the Chief Rabbis in which they make clear that the instructions are more than recommendations and must be followed, because of the precept of “ein somchim al haNes” – “do not rely on miracles.”
Citizens who do not receive the materials to their homes by the end of the week should contact the Home Front Command at telephone number 1207.
Israel’s civilian population came under missile attacks in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and its south-western corner has been under missile attacks from Gaza for many years. Israel has not been able to prevent these attacks and use of old-style bomb shelters is seen as inadequate for the threat posed by missiles, while disrupting people’s lives inordinately. The Home Front therefore urges citizens to use moderately protected “safe spaces” in case of a missile attack.