Osnat Fox, JEWISHcolorado’s new Israel emissary, is a petite, dark-eyed woman whose graciousness mirrors the communal warmth that has embraced her from day one. ”Would you like anything to drink? Are you sure? Nothing?”
The 35-year-old shlicha smilingly shrugs off defeat, clears off the circular table in her office and relaxes. Like a hummingbird, she darts from professional to personal questions with complete candor.
Fox arrived in Denver this summer with her husband Shalom and their sons Shahar, 7, Sagi, 5, and Yogev, 2. She describes her new role as very exciting, challenging and amazing since the beginning.
Her fluid, rapid-fire English hails from Maryland, where she spent grades five, six and seven while her father, an immigrant to Israel from Poland, completed his PhD. She’s easy to understand, and wants to be understood.
“Israelis and American Jews live on different continents but were one family,” says Fox, who has a degree in psychology.
Some families are very close and get together whenever they can. Others remain separate and rarely talk to each other. Families are like that. You love them more; get mad at them more. These are very powerful emotions.
“If we want a better Jewish community in Israel, America and all over the world, we must interact,” she says. “The thought of a family that is disconnected really scares me, because I don’t think we could survive.”
Fox believes connections between Israelis and American Jewry must push beyond historical, religious and cultural similarities to one-on-one encounters.
”You can’t connect to an idea. You connect to people.”
Aliyah, once emissaries’ fundamental objective, has dropped on the priority scale. Besides, Israel isn’t for everyone.
“I love Israel and could never live in another country on a permanent basis,” Fox says. ”I miss it already, and I will be in Denver for three years. Israel is my home in every way, but its not the right place for all Jews.
“Israel definitely needs more people. The American Jewish community has been wonderful for us. We need more American Jews in Israel to advocate for religious pluralism and other issues.
“But living in a place is not the only way you can have an impact, especially in this age of social media and easy travel. If people want to make aliyah, of course I will help them. But it’s not my first goal.”
Like the three pillars of the world mentioned in Pirke Avot if one is lacking, the entire foundation collapses Fox has built her mission on three approaches: connecting, educating and advocating.
This paradigm is assisted JCC shlicha Michal Kotlyarov, 23, and shinshinim Oleg and Sivan, two 18-year-olds who postponed their military service to work with Denvers Jewish teens. (”I’m the old shlicha,” Fox laughs).
The connecting component promotes travel delegations to Israel and arranges for delegations to visit Denver. ”Studies have shown that young Jews know about Israel but don’t seem to care about it,” Fox says.
Current programs involve JEWISHcolorados partnership community Ramat HaNagev, the Lod Jewish Community Center, local activities and school twinnings.
Education encompasses history, culture, the land, people, society and Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Israel, in addition to clearing up misconceptions.
”A girl recently asked Sivan if she has her own camel,” Fox grins. ”Now, Sivan lives close to Tel Aviv. There is no camel in her backyard. We need to get rid of stereotypes.”
Advocating transforms knowledge into tangible action.
”One you are connected, you need to speak up,” Fox says. “Israel needs us to be very vocal in our support during this time. This involves social media and speaking to Jewish and non-Jewish groups.
“Israel is facing some really tough challenges,” she concedes. ”I’ve worked with human rights issues, gender inequality and civil rights in Israel. Our country is far from perfect; there’s a lot we need to fix.
”But we must realize how incredible Israel is, roll up our sleeves and make it even better. It’s about recognizing the importance of Israel to the Jewish world and democracies everywhere.”
Fox is overwhelmed by Denver Jewrys commitment to Israel. Its palpable, especially at the solidarity gathering for the Jewish state during the spate of fatal knifings.
”We hoped a couple hundred Jews would show up at Temple Emanuel last month,” she says. “Seven hundred people came! This was a real highlight for me. Theres a deep well of Jewish values and a powerful devotion to Israel in Denver.”
Fox was born in Haifa, a beautiful city where Jews and Arabs coexist, and spent her childhood and teenage years in Kinneret, a village on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Families in the Second Aliyah (1904-1914) settled in Hatzer Kinneret, she says. Kinneret was home to the major Zionists of the period, including A. D. Gordon, considered the father of Labor Zionism.
Osnat met Shalom while she was studying in Jerusalem at The Hebrew University, where she earned her psychology degree.
”We dated for three years,” she smiles. “Israelis take their time.” After marrying in 2007, the couple moved to Ramat HaNegev.
Fox, who earned an MA in education at Ben-Gurion University, proudly adds that their home is across the street from the graves of David and Paula Ben Gurion. “Right across the street!”
Although she loved teaching underprivileged high school students, she found herself looking for a vocation that grabbed her.
One evening, while Shalom and a friend were having a beer, the friend suggested that Osnat might make a terrific shlicha.
”I said, ‘that’s it!’ Fox exclaims now. Then the training commenced a 12-stage program consisting of several interviews, seminars and a psychological evaluation. ”From stage to stage, I loved it even more. That’s when I knew this was for me.”
Moving across the ocean was a considerable adjustment for Fox, who didn’t know many American Jews in Israel.
“I am very close to my parents and Shalom’s parents and our family,” she says. ”My kids are close to their grandparents and friends. Leaving all that behind was the biggest challenge.”
Fox vividly recalls facing Temple Sinai’s packed sanctuary on the High Holidays to recite the prayer for Israel in Hebrew. “Wow,” she sighs before inserting a melancholy sidebar.
”I have to tell you that we often feel isolated in Israel,” she says. ”We have so many things going on terrorist attacks, conflicts. We hear about the bad press we receive, and the BDS movement. It makes me feel very lonely.
“You’re left somewhere in the heart of the Middle East, fighting a war, and you don’t think anyone has your back.”
That evening, Rabbi Susan Rheins hugged her, as did the entire congregation. ”People love that I’m Israeli,” she says with awe.
Then it was time to recite the prayer that means so much to her.
”As I said the words, I felt like a true shaliach zibor — a messenger of the people. It was very special.”
Her three children accompanied her to services and promptly fell asleep. “They are so young,” she sighs.
“This was the first time I ever stood up in a synagogue and said something,” marvels Fox, who recited the same prayer at Temple Emanuel the next morning.
“The reception I’ve received from all the rabbis at Sinai, Emanuel, the HEA — everywhere — makes me feel so appreciated. I know that my country is loved.”
When Fox participated in a panel on Israeli army service in early November at Aish Denver, she became rather emotional. ”Yes,” she says quietly. “And I’ll tell you why.”
“People think the IDF is where 18-year-olds go for four years. It’s not like that. Shalom finished his IDF service at 23 and has been in the reserves ever since then.
“Every year, for a full month, he’s called up. We get this brown envelope in the mail saying you have to report to this place on that date. It doesn’t matter whats going on in your life: your wife is pregnant; its a busy time at work; you have university exams. You drop everything and leave.”
Apart from the predictable envelope that rips up their family’s rhythm, she has deeper concerns.
”The year that Shalom retires from reserve duty, my oldest child will go into the IDF,” Fox says.
”The minute I gave birth to a son, I knew he would have to have to fight. All Israeli mothers live with this.
”It’s very hard, but I will let my children go and become combat soldiers or whatever they choose to be. Neither Shalom nor I would ever stop them. But it’s equally difficult to explain how I can let my children do this.”
Fox mentions her grandfather, who fled pogroms in Kurdistan and made his way to Israel. He married a Holocaust survivor from the Netherlands who suffered from repeated nightmares.
”When his oldest grandchild was fighting in Lebanon in the 1990s and our soldiers were constantly dying, my grandfather was very worried,” she says.
”He told me, ’I have to understand that he might die. It’s something I must accept because this is why I left Kurdistan.’
“I was 12. I was shocked. How can Saba face the death of his grandchild? It stays with me to this day.
”I can’t think like that,” Fox says as a tear crosses her throat. ”I want to believe that everything will be OK and that G-d will guard my children.
“We would never have an Israel if we didn’t have a strong army. It’s the people’s army, not some detached, professional force. These are real people, with real moral values.”
Because Israel may never reach a plateau of peace — not in 10 or 20 or 30 years — her sons will fight. “I know well have to send them off to the army,” she says.
Fox lowers her head for a second. A resigned yet defiant acknowledgement of the greater good lifts it high.
Her role as shlicha marks a continuum in Fox’s prayer not only for Israel but all humanity. “When you are called, you must answer, ‘Hineni.’
“When the Second Lebanon War was raging,” she recalls. “mMost of Israel was under rocket attacks.
”I was between jobs, and it was unbearable to hear about what was happening. I couldn’t stay in Jerusalem and do nothing. I had to be there.”
Fox and a friend organized a carful of donations, drove up to Kiryat Shimona, picked up her sister on the way and started a program for Jewish kids in bomb shelters.
“We contacted many people: what did they need, who was willing to help us? Within two days, busloads of 60 volunteers, sometimes more, started arriving in Kiryat Shimona every day. They did whatever needed to be done.”
Fox’s father was on reserve duty at the same time. “My mother thought she was over the worst of it,” she says, referring to the potential danger he faced in the reserves. ”My father wasn’t exactly young.”
Now her husband was on reserve duty, two of her daughters were in Kiryat Shimona, and her youngest daughter was with the IDF in a heavily bombed region.
“But we had this sense of hineni — here I am. You do whatever’s necessary.”
Fox has always inhabited a troubled land. Yet she has close relationships with many Arabs and wishes she could cultivate Palestinian friends. However, this remains a pipe dream due to the PAs cruel and inhumane leadership.
”There are Palestinians who want to live in peace,” she says. “I’m sure that if they lived in an open society, they would choose peace. But it’s not an option. You are killed if you cooperate with the Israelis. So you take the violent path.”
As escalating attacks by ISIS threaten to encircle the globe, Israel is extending its protective arms to the Sinai.
“Ramat HaNegev is on the border of Egypt,” Fox says. The army has placed a unit of tanks in the region. Its the first time since 1955 that weve had tanks on the Egyptian border, even before there was peace with Egypt.
Israel is also amassing an elite force on the border in case of kidnappings, and relocating roads that pass sensitive areas.
”We are getting ready for whatever comes. ISIS is very scary.”
Delight fields the final query.
”Do women make better shlichim?”
“Oh I love that question,” Fox laughs. ”OK, I’ll tell you what I think, but I need to make sure I’m not falling into any holes here.
“First, I’m a big believer in the power of women. I’ve been involved in gender empowerment all my life. I know men and women have different talents, different gifts.
“Now that the boundaries between typically male and female traits are blurred — and it’s about time — there’s less of a distinction. But women traditionally care about connectedness, relationships. That’s what the shlichim business is all about.
“We connect to our kids and families, a role that requires partnership skills. Women are often better at this — but not always.”
JEWISHcolorado had specific ideas in mind for Denver’s new Israel emissary, she says. “A man could have been great in this job, as long as he was the best person for the community.
“This time,” Fox demurs, “it happens to be a woman.”
Andrea Jacobs may be reached at [email protected].
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
