Thank You for Your Concern About Our Safety

A number of people have written to us expressing concerns about our safety in light of the crisis in Gaza. Thank you for your concern - we appreciate your thinking of us. It is a little scary to know that we are so close to the violence, but mostly very sad to read the news and learn about the escalating conflict. Daniel and I have both spent hours poring over blogs, news sites, etc. and we both feel sympathy for both sides of the conflict and are very saddened by the increasing numbers of casualties. We wish there was something we could do to make the situation improve.

We are talking about it a lot. We talk about it in synagogue when we pray for peace, we talk about it with over-anxious students who have become irrationally concerned for their safety when doing activities that are clearly not threatening, and perhaps most enlightening, I've been talking about it with some of my Israeli classmates, some of whom view the Israeli military activity with cynicism and believe that it will only worsen the situation, and some of whom are strongly behind the actions of the military and believe that the violence is the only option. I hate the violence, and I don't agree that Israel should have taken this action, but I think I can understand it.

In terms of our personal safety, for the time being we are not at risk. Although Gaza is only a few hours away, notions of space and distance are very different in Israel. Life goes on here as normal, and we are being told by some very frank people at both of our schools, who are in contact with Israeli security and government agencies, that safety in Jerusalem, at least for now, is not a concern. I know that if there was any suspicion of a change in the security situation, Daniel and I would be informed very early, especially as Daniel's school in particular is very concerned with safety and alert us often top even the smallest activity of which they think we need to be aware. So, basically, we're more worried than we were before this happened, but we're not really that worried about our own safety.

While we may ourselves be safe, we are praying for the families both in Gaza and in Sderot and other nearby communities, and hoping for an end to the violence...