Gunfire, explosions constant during Lewisburg man's volunteer trip to Israel

Mar. 1—LEWISBURG — Explosions and gunfire constantly rang out during David Jacobson's time in Israel in February.

Jacobson, of Lewisburg, spent 10 days in Israel volunteering his time working on farms, planting trees and creating care packages with 180 people from across the United States through the Jewish National Fund, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Jacobson, a 53-year-old Jewish man who lived in Israel as a teenager, still has family and friends who live in the Middle Eastern country.

"The first boom we heard, I thought what the heck was that, and so did all the other Americans who were there," said Jacobson, a technology consultant and software developer through his own business, American Technology Partners. "To a certain extent, I got used to it. They said it was Israeli bombs, Hamas is not coming here, they have not been there since Oct. 7. I took it at face value and continued working, with a level of intensity."

The Associated Press reported that 85 percent of the territory's 2.3 million people have been displaced since Israel launched its war in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 cross-border attack that left some 1,200 dead. More than 30,000 people in Gaza have died in the war, according to the territory's Health Ministry last week, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, while another 70,000 have been wounded. News agencies have reported that an estimated 10,000 farmworkers have left since Oct. 7.

"I'm glad I went," Jacobson said. "The people of Israel are in terrible pain as a country. Oct. 7 is on everybody's mind, almost all the time. It's the only thing that people talk about."

Picking fruit, planting trees

Jacobson left Feb. 8 and returned on Feb. 18. He was part of 100 volunteers who stayed in a hotel along the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv, which is approximately 45 miles north of the Gaza Strip.

The volunteer projects included picking lemons near Be'eri and grapefruit near Gvulot. He said they picked seven tons of lemons, working five times slower than an average farmer.

They also created care packages and handed them out to soldiers, and planted trees outside Jerusalem. The trees were planted in honor of people who died on Oct. 7.

Jacobson planted a tree for Sami Keidar, a 70-year-old man with Parkinson's Disease who was killed while protecting his wife in his home in Kibbutz Be'eri. Keidar was unable to reach the safe room with his wife, but was shot while distracting Hamas terrorists.

The trip also included visits to a hospital in Be'er Sheva to talk to three doctors who treated patients following the Oct. 7 attack; to the Western Wall; and to the center of the plaza near the Tel Aviv Museum of Art that has been nicknamed "Hostage Square." It's here where residents have set up demonstrations to encourage the government to negotiate with Hamas to bring home Israeli hostages.

Jacobson picked up several t-shirts here with the phrase "Bring them home now" on the front and "Hostages and Missing Families Forum." He plans to give them to friends and family.

Feeling vibrations

Jacobson visited the site of the Supernova Music Festival where 400 people were killed on Oct. 7, including a 24-year-old friend of the Jacobson family. The site has hundreds of memorials to the deceased, but he was not able to find one for the friend.

"It's very close to the border," said Jacobson. "There happened to be a tank battalion and machine gun fire. Not only was it incredibly deafening when they shot shells, but you could feel the vibrations throughout your body. It was pretty intense."

Jacobson planned to visit friends in Jerusalem, but their grandson, who was two years into his military service, died due to spinal meningitis. Instead, Jacobson attended the funeral with thousands of other people.

"It was just waves of not only crying, but sobs and moaning of men and women," he said. "It was just terrible. It made me realize how much pain the whole country is in. This is just one person, but people have been through this so many times. So many people have died on both sides."

Israelis deserve to live in peace, said Jacobson.

"They don't deserve to live with people coming and killing civilians in their homes, with the threat of missiles at any point," he said. "I don't agree with everything Israel does, but I feel like they deserve to live in peace."

Visiting family

When Jacobson was in eighth grade, his father took a job working in Israel in a suburb of Tel Aviv and they lived there several years until Jacobson's sophomore year. He and his family have made several trips back since, the last being approximately 10 years ago.

Jacobson moved to the Valley when his wife Shari Jacobson took a job at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove and they moved to a home outside Lewisburg approximately 18 years ago. His son Nick Jacobson is seeking the Democratic nomination in the race for the 85th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

While in Israel, Jacobson visited family and celebrated the 10th birthday of a distant cousin.

The Jewish National Fund is a philanthropic organization that supports "critical environmental and nation-building activities in Israel's north and south as it develops new communities in the Negev and Galilee, connects the next generation to Israel, and creates infrastructure and programs that support ecology, people with disabilities, and heritage site preservation, all while running a fully accredited study abroad experience through its Alexander Muss High School in Israel."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.