Barbara Crook, the Canadian Co-Chair of Ottawa’s Partnership2Gether (P2G) with Etzba Hagalil, was recently part of a five-person delegation from Ottawa that travelled to our partner region in northern Israel. There, they witnessed firsthand both the devastation caused by the ongoing war and the remarkable resilience of the communities determined to rebuild. In this special report, Barbara shares reflections from the mission and the stories of those working tirelessly to turn crisis into opportunity.

KFAR BLUM, Israel – “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

The saying attributed to Sir Winston Churchill has become the mantra of many of those determined to rebuild, revitalize and reimagine the Upper Galilee after almost 18 months of war and displacement.

“We can hang our heads and cry, or we can remember that we did it before and can do it again,” says Michal Raikin, founder of the GalilEast leadership program, an innovative program entering its second year of training young professionals for regional leadership roles.

“We can take this as an opportunity. The North can be a solution, not a problem.”

Raikin was one of many community leaders, academics and demographers who shared their insights with 37 lay leaders and professionals from seven Canadian Jewish federations during our whirlwind mission to the North in early March.

The Ottawa delegation comprised Federation CEO Adam Silver, Hannah Silver, Samantha Sigler, Bram Bregman and me.

We were joined by our Israeli partners from Kiryat Shmona, Metulla, Yesod HaMa’ala, Galil Elyon and Mevo’ot HaHermon, many of whom were just returning to their homes and communities after endless months of internal exile.

Amid runoffs for local mayoral elections, uncertainty about when schools and other community services would be fully functional and the trauma of surveying damaged buildings and bombed cars, they opened their hearts and their homes to us.

Together we celebrated more than 25 years of the Coast to Coast Partnership of the Partnership 2Gether (P2G) program, which pairs communities in Israel with Jewish communities in the Diaspora.

Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Atlantic Canada are the “official” Canadian partners. We were joined on this trip by Marion Zeller, Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Windsor.

“You have been with us through all of our challenges, including COVID and the war, and we know you will be there for us as we move forward,” was the recurring message from our Israeli partners.

We also met up with a delegation from Federation CJA in Montreal, who were visiting the North as part of UIA Federations Canada’s pan-Canadian initiative to invest $20 million from the October 2023 emergency campaign in the North.

The federations of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, as well as representatives of the smaller federations, will each invest $5 million in the region. 

The involvement of Toronto and Montreal, who already have P2G partnerships with other Israeli communities in the South of Israel, signals the importance of the North to Israel’s survival and strength.

“This is Zionism 2.0,” says Raikin. “We need to develop the borders of Israel. We need to define that this is a Zionist mission. There will be people to whom this appeals, and they will be the first to come.”

The challenges are immense. About half of the 67,500 residents who were evacuated in October 2023 have returned home. But fewer than 10 per cent have returned to Metulla, where 60 per cent of the homes were damaged or destroyed. 

Metulla’s HaNadiv School – partnered with the Ottawa Jewish Community School – was severely damaged and will not reopen until July at the earliest. The Canada Centre, famous for its hockey and skating programs, was also damaged.

There is much uncertainty about how many more evacuees will return.

After living for months in hotels, where schools and daycares were quickly established, many evacuees moved to other communities with better education and medical facilities that they are reluctant to abandon.

Others worry about security, and feel that they have been abandoned by the Israeli government. They have lived through the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and its aftermath, when UN Resolution 1701 to push Hezbollah forces north of the Litani River (29 km north of the border with Israel) was never properly enforced.

Signs displaying “1701 or 07.10” indicate this frustration, and the fear that history will repeat itself if the government does not take more decisive action.

Data from the Regional Knowledge Centre and from Raikin’s research paint a grim picture of the challenges of life in the North.

Almost half the workers are earning minimum wage or less. Almost 70 per cent of residents don’t have a post-secondary degree. There are fewer doctors per capita than in other regions, a lower life expectancy and higher than average morbidity from cancer and diabetes.

Although being evacuated was stressful, research shows that those who remained in their communities – which essentially became the “front lines” of the war – experienced a significant decline in quality of life.

“Significant, groundbreaking and transformative investment is required across all quality of life indicators to enhance the region’s attractiveness,” concluded director Yifat Koren Zimran.

But we saw so many positive signs, as well as concrete plans to revitalize the region and attract new residents.
Tel Hai College, long the main engine for growth in the region, will soon become the University of the Galilee, which will attract students and researchers who are more likely to remain in the North.

The college is recruiting 100 new professors and researchers. We met a group of young researchers at Tel Hai’s Hula Valley campus who left higher profile jobs in the centre of Israel because of the opportunities for bird, wildlife and water research in the Hula.

Mashabim, the community stress prevention centre that is based in Kiryat Shmona but whose programs and models for dealing with trauma and resilience are used throughout Israel and in disaster and war zones worldwide, was quick to mobilize and expand its services.

Two days after the war, Mashabim opened 43 centres to help Northern residents, and dramatically expanded its resources. It now serves half a million people along the Northern conflict line, and has more than 450 psychologists, social workers and other specialists on staff or on call.

It offers in-person and virtual services in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English.

The hydrotherapy pool in Mevo’ot HaHermon, which was started with $60,000 in seed money from Atlantic Canada 25 years ago and became the cornerstone of a rehabilitation and education campus that serves the entire region, sustained significant damage.

But Mayor Benny Ben-Movhar is already lining up government funds to rebuild. And far from waiting for the war to end, he and his team built a new middle school and high school that are ready for returning students.

Metulla mayor David Azulay never left the border community during the war. He was the first to contact anyone whose home was damaged, fed abandoned goldfish and unlocked 48 safes to retrieve valuables of those who left in a hurry.

At the end of our tour of Metulla, we had one of those magical moments that epitomized the strength and resiliency of our partners. 

In a house that used to contain a music museum, where half the roof was blown off, we crowded into the undamaged part of the building to hear 84-year-old Zammi Ravid perform Autumn Leaves, Al Kol Eleh and several classical pieces on a grand piano.

True partnership doesn’t always need words.