Rebuilding lives: JDC's lifeline for Israel’s displaced, traumatized, and front-line communities

It has been 10 months since Lilian Ben Harush, 76, from the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, was evacuated to a hotel in Netanya with her husband, Jacob. “We never imagined a situation like this,” says Lilian, one of the 60,000 evacuees from northern Israel. “There was a lot of uncertainty. I only took a small bag because I thought we would be back in a week. We arrived at the hotel, where the staff warmly received us, just like Israelis do.”

But staying in a hotel for 10 months is not easy. Days can be long and difficult for people who are displaced, especially for the elderly, who are grappling with the loss of their homes, social circles, and care networks. They are at increased risk of mobility and cognitive decline, isolation, depression, and illness related to stress.

That’s when the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), known as “The Joint,” stepped in to help Lilian and Jacob. With more than a century of expertise in improving the lives of the vulnerable in Israeli society, JDC partnered with the Israeli government to provide rehabilitative and recreational activities for evacuee seniors and those living under fire. These efforts help create routine and meaningful engagement, promote wellness, and give the elderly stability.

This is part of JDC’s post-October 7 emergency operation. The organization immediately began providing life-saving aid and resilience-building efforts that have directly assisted hundreds of thousands of the hardest-hit Israelis, helping them to heal and rebuild their lives.

At the hotel, Lilian and Jacob found a variety of activities designed for displaced seniors. Jacob’s decision to attend the activities encouraged Lilian to join him. “We connected with everyone here, and the activities give us air and an opportunity to smile and laugh, even for a short time,” says Lilian. “There are many different classes that change according to our needs and requests. I can’t imagine my life here without this.”

Sadly, Jacob passed away during their stay at the hotel. During the shiva and the days that followed, Lilian’s newfound community and activities provided comfort and support, giving her the resilience she needed to be engaged in life and society.

As the war in northern Israel continues, JDC has expanded its humanitarian response to meet the needs of Israelis under constant fire. This includes the distribution of tens of thousands of relief kits with food and emergency equipment; deploying dozens of emergency community caseworkers across the North to care for the elderly and people with disabilities; and providing mental health and resilience support through various programs.

This builds on JDC’s emergency response for people in the North since October 7, which has included trauma and social support for evacuees; the delivery of life-saving provisions and first-aid supplies for vulnerable populations; and crisis training and services for local emergency response units in more than 60 municipalities in the North, home to both Arabs and Jews. JDC has leveraged its vast response in southern Israel, adapting aid models to fit the needs of the hardest-hit Israelis in the North.

Israel’s mental health crisis has worsened since October 7. Indeed, so many Israelis were in great need of mental health, post-trauma, and resilience solutions that JDC, which has decades of experience in the mental health sphere, created a whole new set of solutions for Israelis like Zion Saadia, a 63-year-old teacher.

“Every soldier who dies takes me back to the 2006 Second Lebanon War, when my eldest son was killed,” says Zion, whose son, Liran Saadia, fell in battle in Lebanon. Adding to this trauma, Zion has been living with his wife in a small hotel room since October 7, away from the only life he knew.

As the war continues, so does the extended stay of tens of thousands of evacuees in hotels. While hotel staff do their best to provide these displaced people with an alternative home, the noise, commotion, and sensory overload take their toll after such a long time. In light of this, JDC developed Quiet Rooms.

Quiet Rooms – reduced-stimulus spaces that are calming and offer self-regulation sensory tools – decrease anxiety and mental stress, and help people regain a sense of balance and direction. The program was created by JDC together with the Ministry of Health, and it is operated by the Beit Issie Shapiro Association.

“Sometimes you want quiet. You sit in the lobby, and there are children’s activities; they run and shout, and you can’t tell anyone off because this is their home, too,” says Zion. “But with news of every soldier who dies, I’m in a state of extreme anxiety and tension. That’s when I need the Quiet Room.”

Among the relaxation tools in the room are soft bean bags, dimmed lighting, and weighted blankets. There are also VR glasses and related software, donated by XRHealth, that create a soothing virtual environment. “When I come here, I disengage from the outside world,” says Zion. “You can be with dolphins, in a forest with birds, or surrounded by snowy mountains. The half hour that I’m here helps me relax. When I leave here, I feel completely new.” Quiet Rooms have proved so effective that some evacuees who returned to their kibbutzim have created these calming spaces. JDC is now piloting this model within a hospital and a community center.

“It was supposed to be a joyous Shabbat,” Lilach Dahari says about October 7. “It was the twins’ first time at home after a month in the NICU. We went to sleep and woke up to an unimaginable reality.” Lilach, 45, is a mother of five, living in Ofakim, a city just outside the Gaza envelope that was attacked on October 7 and lost 52 residents in one neighborhood. “We woke up to sirens and decided to go to my sister-in-law’s because she has a safe room,” Lilach recounts. But when she saw the fighting outside, Lilach and her family had to stay home.

Afterwards, they were evacuated to hotels at the Dead Sea and Eilat. After two and a half months, they decided to return home. But the sights and smells she experienced on October 7 remained etched in Lilach’s mind, making it difficult for her to function, particularly at night. She found help for her recovery right in her neighborhood through activities offered by a new community resilience center established by JDC.

The resilience center provides counseling services, wellness training, and public events fostering residents’ sense of safety, such as neighborhood gatherings and events for children. This is just one part of JDC’s holistic, long-term strategic initiative called Reviving the Spirit, or Mashiv HaRuach in Hebrew.

Mashiv HaRuach is helping hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in front-line communities like Ofakim, Ashkelon, and Rahat in the South, and Nahariya in the North, restore their sense of stability and safety, ensuring that cities have the resources to promote healing, create a stable infrastructure, and foster community resilience for all. “Mashiv HaRuach connected us as a community, which I was never part of since I moved here,” Lilach says. “Thank you for seeing us and for how much good you did for me, for my family, and for the neighbors here. I will cherish this forever.”

The brutal attack on October 7 created the need to provide social support to millions of people who had not required assistance before. One of them is Jenny Aloni, 53, a special education teacher. On that Saturday, Jenny and her family from Ofakim woke up to fighting in their city. Her husband, Doron, an Israel Police commander, was battling terrorists nearby, and their soldier son, Eran, was guarding the family’s home with his weapon, making sure his mother and sister were safe. Their other son, Amit, was at the Supernova music festival.

As the family hid at home, Jenny was desperately trying to stay in touch with Amit as he was fleeing the Supernova grounds. Doron decided to go to rescue his son from the festival but encountered dozens of terrorists along the way and eventually was wounded by a grenade.

Amit found a hiding place in a barn and survived the horrors. Doron underwent surgery and recovered. A short time later, the family went to Eilat to get away from the difficult memories and to celebrate their youngest daughter’s birthday. That night, the army came to inform them that Eran, who so bravely protected his family in their home, fell in battle in northern Gaza. This was the breaking point for Jenny. “Since then, day is not day, night is not night, and life is not life,” Jenny laments. “For 28 years, I worked in special education, but I simply couldn’t go back. It was just too much for me.”

Jenny realized that she needed to recover, so she and joined JDC’s Back on Track program. Developed by JDC, the NATAL Association, and the Israeli government, the program helps people who survived October 7 or were harmed in battle rejoin the workforce and restart their lives. The program, which is currently serving more than 100 people in six municipalities and three hospitals, provides individualized career guidance tailored to the person’s particular needs.

It utilizes trauma-informed career coaching designed to keep the trainee on a path to a particular goal.“My weekly meetings with Hadas, the program coordinator, are my blessed times. I work with her on coping with the loss and where I’m going from here in terms of career,” Jenny says.

With the program’s support, Jenny began to reexamine her career path and is on the brink of a new beginning in jewelry-making. “In my dreams, I want to intertwine Eran’s memory in my new endeavor, a piece of him in everything I make. I haven’t given up on employment, but I just need to do it at my own pace and create something new from the pain of the past.”

Efforts to help Israelis like Jenny are made possible by the Jewish Federations and tens of thousands of foundations, families, corporations, and individual donors who support JDC’s post-October 7 emergency response work. Since its founding in 1914 to aid starving Jews in Jerusalem impacted by the outbreak of WWI, JDC has invested more than NIS 10 billion to improve the lives of Israel’s most vulnerable, to close social gaps, and to ensure opportunity for all Israelis.

“There is no shortage of pain in Israel today, as millions of people have been forever changed by the October 7 attacks and the ongoing war,” says JDC CEO Ariel Zwang. “For Jenny, Zion, Lilach, and Lilian, and hundreds of thousands more who are traumatized, displaced, newly unemployed, and living in front-line cities across Israel, JDC is there.

We are standing shoulder to shoulder with them, with the tools and innovative know-how to lift people when they face hopelessness and despair. There is a long road ahead and much work to do, but we’re dedicated to ensuring that Israelis have a future that is bright and strong.”■