When Edie and Allen Rau visited Kibbutz Carmia, there was an instant connection.

“There was just something about the place,” recounted Edie. “I felt the warmth of the people we met and I just thought, ‘What can we do?’”

Upon returning to Cincinnati, Edie and Allen began speaking with Tzach Shmuely, our outgoing Community Shaliach, about ways to help. Soon, the couple was sitting down with leaders from Carmia and representatives from JAFI, going over a wish list for the kibbutz, which sits within a few miles of the Gaza border.

Carmia is Jewish Cincinnati’s sister community in Israel. And while spared a direct attack by Hamas on October 7, the community was evacuated for nearly a year, has suffered numerous missile scares, and, more recently, has come to the aid of neighbors in the north. The disruptions have been hardest for Carmia’s youngest inhabitants.

“Part of what this is, is restoring some sense of normalcy,” said Edie, “restoring some sense of how things used to be or how things could be following the devastation.”

What the Raus stepped into wasn't built overnight. The friendship with Carmia, the shaliach who connected them, the Jewish Agency partners at the table: that's the standing infrastructure of Jewish Cincinnati, held up year after year by thousands of families who give. It's the reason a conversation over coffee could become a food truck near the Gaza border in a matter of months.

The food truck was opened and dedicated on May 19 and has already become a staple of community gatherings.

Ofir is one of the teens learning about entrepreneurship, financing, and food service by working at the food truck nearly every day this summer. “It’s a place where we become more independent,” she said.

That feeling is exactly what Allen Rau was hoping to bring to the project. “That's what we were looking for,” he said. “It's got to be meaningful.”

After learning about what Edie and Allen had helped fund, their friend Beverly Shapero also got in touch with Tzach, curious about how her family could make a difference. It didn't take long to identify the need for more bomb shelters at a youth center in Safed.

For Edie and Allen, bringing a little normalcy to their friends in Carmia felt great. Inspiring others to find their own way to help in Israel felt even better.

“It's kind of that simple,” said Edie. “You can point to something and say it made a difference.”