Seeking deeper ties, group brings Gaza-area security squads into American homes
‘Project 24’ initiative says thanks by flying 185 members of emergency teams and their families to Jewish communities in New York area and south Florida for some R&R and more
Reporter at The Times of Israel
NEW YORK — Nearly 200 members of local emergency response teams that defended their communities on October 7 arrived in the US on Sunday for a visit aimed at boosting ties between Israelis and American Jewish communities.
The 185 members of the armed units and their families, comprising 721 people in all, are being hosted at the homes of supporters spread across 32 Jewish communities in New York, New Jersey and Florida that sponsored the so-called mega-mission.
The initiative is the largest to date for Project 24, a nonprofit founded in the aftermath of October 7. The Tel Aviv-based organization is currently fielding a dozen projects centered on building bonds between Israelis and American Jews.
Programs include bringing Israeli students to the US for summer camps and basketball tours, as well as ways for donors to support Israeli military couples and other causes.
“This mega-mission is focused on the civil first responders and their families because we haven’t so far focused on them,” said Project 24 co-founder and CEO Daniel Gradus.
Throughout the week, participants will engage in a combination of community gatherings, leisure activities, and encounters designed to strengthen ties between US Jews and Israelis, Gradus told The Times of Israel.
“We are taking all these heroes from the southern kibbutzim and moshavim together with their families and kids and we found for each one of them a family to host them in the United States,” said Gradus.
Early Sunday morning, a bus filled with visiting Israelis pulled up to the Mid Island Jewish Community Center in Long Island, New York. Marlie Cohen, a JCC executive involved in the mission, said host families and others greeted the group with a hero’s welcome when they arrived outside the JCC.
“The community was here to meet them and everyone was hugging and cheering as they got off the bus,” said Cohen. “Hosting these families was a natural next step in being on the frontlines of supporting Israel since October 7 and always,” she said.
Israelis from Kibbutz Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Sufa are being hosted by families affiliated with Mid Island JCC, said Cohen. This week, participants will learn about immigration at Ellis Island, participate in axe-throwing, and — for adults only — go on a pub crawl in New York City.
The youngest participant on Project 24’s so-called “Thanks4Giving” mega-mission is 4 months old, while the oldest is 86, said Gradus. Several dozen widows and orphans are among the group, as well as grandparents. One participant came with an emotional support dog.
“When you [serve] with your friend, there is a sense that you are fighting for your home. For everything that home symbolizes to us — because the kibbutz is home,” said Imri Bonim, a member of the Kibbutz Re’im emergency response team, known as a kita konenut in Hebrew.
“We are fighting for the place where we raise our children. We are fighting for the petting zoo, for the soccer field, for education, for culture. It’s a fight for home in the broadest sense but also for the smallest things,” said Bonim, who was in the US with Project 24.
‘A lot of guilt they left their families’
The “Thanks4Giving” mission was catalyzed after the October 7 atrocities when Gradus’s young son asked his dad whether he would stay home during a crisis or leave his family to protect the community as a member of the emergency team.
It was a gut-wrenching decision that many who came on the trip were forced to answer on October 7.
“Imagine what it is not to be at home when terrorists come into the house? It’s a big decision. And what happens to all the families left behind in the safe rooms,” said Gradus.
These disturbing thoughts led the activist to focus on civil first responders from October 7 and how to recognize them in a big way, he said.
“We have people who were fighting the terrorists so many hours and then they came home to see everyone murdered,” said Gradus. “They have a lot of guilt that they left the family. Some of the first responders in the emergency classes, sometimes five or ten of them were in front of dozens of Hamas terrorists,” he said.
Through the funding model established by Project 24, each of the 32 host communities raised funds for the airfare of delegates from a specific Israeli kibbutz or moshav. For example, New York’s Larchmont community raised funds to bring civil first responders and their families — totaling 34 people — from Kibbutz Be’eri.
In matching with American host families, Project 24 played matchmaker for the 185 Israeli families, finding them hosts based on various factors in the hopes of facilitating lifelong relationships, Gradus said.
The model of giving home hospitality to visiting Israelis — including strangers — was once commonplace in the US, said Gradus. However, that culture has been largely gone out of style, making deep connections during such encounters rarer.
“Each community is doing the home-hosting the way Americans know how to do best,” said Gradus. “We are going back to the roots with home-hosting like this. That amount of bonding is something we don’t do anymore,” he said.
Over a week of events and gatherings in the New York area and south Florida, Gradus expects the 721 Israelis on the trip to engage 12,000 Israel supporters at events and gatherings.
Importantly, said Gradus, “Thanks4Giving” is not focused on retelling what took place on October 7. Rather, the mission — which will host public community galas in New York City and Miami on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively — is designed to thank Israeli volunteer first responders and their families.
“We brought the mitzvah all the way to people’s doorsteps,” said Gradus, using the word for a good deed. “These families will be able to create relationships that last forever.”
