By MYRON LOVE Last October 7 began as a normal Shabbat for Shmuel Junger. As usual, the longtime resident of the community of Zufim (population about 2,500) in Samaria was at shul studying Talmud with his chevruta (study partner).  It was only after they finished that they learned that all hell had been unleashed.
“Everyone was on their phones,” he recalled.  “A daughter of friends was at the Nova Festival.  She had texted her parents that she was in hiding.  A week went by and there was no word from her.  She was among the 1,300 who were murdered.”
Junger was in Winnipeg on Tuesday, July 23, in his role as the new Israel executive director of Christian Zionist Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFOIC) Heartland,  an organization that connects supportive Christians with the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria – the ancient Biblical heartland. He spoke at Christian Zionist Faith Temple, which is led by Pastor Rudy Fidel and his wife, Gina, both strong supporters of Israel.
“Israel is not the same country that it was before October 7,” Junger observed.  “People are heartbroken.  The trauma is almost of the same magnitude as that which is experienced by Holocaust survivors.”
It is ironic, he noted, that the attack happened in the south.  Judea and Samaria, he pointed out, have long been considered to be the most dangerous areas to live in for Israelis – living cheek by jowl with Palestinians and having to be on constant alert for terrorist attacks.
So how was it that the attack was allowed to happen?  “Hamas pulled the wool over our eyes,” Junger said. “They had been preparing for two years. No one realized who we are dealing with.”
He showed an interview with a Hamas spokesperson who stated that the Israeli weakness is that they love life whereas the Palestinians worship death.
And it is not only the large number of people murdered that has roiled Israel, Junger continued.   “There are also the more than 300 Israeli soldiers who have fallen in battle, the 350,000 reserves who were called up – resulting in labour shortages, and the 250,000 Israelis who were evacuated from their homes in the north and have been internally displaced for months now because the constant Hezbollah missile fire makes it too dangerous for them to return.”
On the other hand, Junger spoke of the thousands of Israeli reservists who flocked back to Israel from all over the world immediately after the October 7 attack.
He also spoke of the individual heroes of that dreadful day who risked their lives to save others in danger – in particular Elhanan Kalmanson, a father of five from Hebron who, after learning of the attack, jumped into his truck with his brother Menachem, drove into the heart of the flames – Kibbutz Beeri – and managed to bring out more than 100 kibbutz members to safety before Elhanan was himself shot and killed.
Junger then showed a video of Hadas Lowenstein talking about her husband Elisha. a tank operator who fell in battle in Gaza in December.  In a moving tribute to him, the mother of six painted a picture of a remarkable man, a Torah scholar who had translated the works of  the late Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, as well as a modern man who kept himself physically fit.
“He was the love of my life,” she said. “We were planning a wonderful life together.  He died for Kiddush haShem.  Our response has to be that we love life.”
Junger pointed out that, despite the challenges the country is facing, Israelis are a resilient people.  He also noted that the Jewish people in the Land of Israel have had to deal with the threat of attack from their Arab neighbours for decades even before the State of Israel was established.  He recounted the story of the Hebron pogrom of 1929 – and how his own family was affected.
(To remind readers, the pogrom was an attack on the ancient Jewish community is the Samarian town. Arabs murdered almost 70 Jews with the remaining 435 forced to leave.)
Among those affected, Junger noted, were his wife’s baba, Esther Slonim.  She and her brother were the only two members of their family to survive that massacre.
“For centuries, our people had always dreamed of one day returning to the Holy Land,” he remarked.   “Wherever we wandered, there was a deep-rooted longing in every Jewish soul that we would return.”
Israel is the realization of the Biblical prophecy of the ingathering of the Jewish people from exile.  Junger noted that his own family – as well as his wife’s family – epitomize the Jewish journey in exile and return.   His zaida relocated from Europe to Columbia where he became Rudolpho Rudy.   Rudolpho at some point went to Palestine to find a bride to take back to Columbia, where Junger’s father was born.
His mother was born in Tunis and grew up in France. 
His parents met in the United States and eventually made aliyah.
“I was born in Israel,” he said.
Shmuel Junger pointed out to his audience that he is among more than 500,000 Israelis who are now living in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (a.k.a. the “West Bank”) and reclaiming our Biblical heartland.
“We are doing God’s work,” he said.  “The Torah is replete with references to places such as Shilo, Bethlehem, Shechem,  Beth El and Hebron – all of which are in Judea and Samaria.
“The events of the Six-day war in June 1967 were a step forward in the realization of God’s prophecy.”
Still – living amidst often hostile Arab neighbours, the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria have to be ever on the alert.  To that end, one of the requests that Junger had of supporters of CFOIC was funding to purchase advanced security cameras for the Jewish communities in the region – cameras that can differentiate in the dark between potential human intruders and animals.
He is furthering asking CFOIC for funding to provide for children of fathers who have been killed or wounded in the fighting so that those children might enjoy a camping experience or other forms of respite.
At the conclusion of Junger’s presentation, Rudy Fidel indicated his congregation’s enthusiastic willingness to help.  In just the past two months, these friends of Israel and the Jewish people, Fidel reported, have already contributed $10,000 to the Jewish Child and Family Service, $700 to the Jewish National Fund and $1,400 to Emunah Women – which supports education and social welfare in Israel.
Readers who may want to contribute to Christian Friends of Israeli Communities Heartland can go to cfoic.com.