Paul Ginsburg, KKL/JNF Head Forester, Northern Region:

We are all working 12- to 16-hr. days, crews on fire trucks and on the ground. Forests that have taken 50 years to grow, that saw two generations of foresters, are burning. All that we do is under the threat of Katyusha attacks. The work is stressful and heartbreaking but there is also real pride in what we're doing and terrific team spirit. We are tired but not broken. But, for the first time in the 20 years that I've been living here, I feel vulnerable.

Sharon Barhom, resident, Kibbutz Malkiyya on the Lebanese border:

Two weeks ago we decided we needed to get our children out of here. So we left the kibbutz, went to Tel Aviv, and a stranger opened their home to us. But we decided to go home despite the constant noise of bombing, because it's our home. It's not easy but we are so lucky to have such a great country, such great people and such a great army. We just want them all to come home safely.

As a mother you keep thinking whether what you're doing is the best thing for your children — that is the stress we live with — are we keeping them safe and secure? So was bringing them back here the best thing? I don't know but we can't leave home forever. This is a conflict for me. So we are in the bomb shelters, keeping the kids busy with activities.

As far as the economy goes, I ran the guest house here at the kibbutz—we have 44 rooms. They're all empty now. This conflict has been a death penalty for that. I don't think we can recover from this. We may need to find someone who has money to run it.

One more thing. Every day for the past four years we've been using the security roads that JNF built. I always thought of them as civilian roads, built for our safe travel. I never realized how important they are for the military and how they have helped the army travel without being seen by Hezbollah. Without these roads, I think the war would be even more dangerous. And what JNF is doing now is just overwhelming. We are living in fear but we know that there are people out there who want to help, who are helping. Thank you so much. You are doing holy work.

Art Silber, Treasurer, JNF, who just returned from a trip to Israel:

I just returned from Israel and I want to speak personally about my experience. I was staying in Haifa with relatives and we were on their porch having breakfast. We heard two explosions; the second one was the one that killed 8 people working in the railway station. The siren went off; it is a sound I will never forget. We ran down to the shelter—a concrete room 9 feet long and maybe 4 feet wide. It had a steel door that slammed loudly behind us and a pipe for air supply. Then we remembered that their mother was alone in her apartment, so we jumped in the car and drove through the streets to get her and bring her back.

Driving through the streets, you don't know whether a rocket is coming at you. I felt a sense of fear that I have never known and hope to never know again. We ran in and out of that shelter many times, coming up for breathers and running back down every time we heard a siren. I can't tell you what that felt like; I don't have words to express my fear.

There is no way we here in America can understand what it's like to be there, to hear a siren, to feel fear, to hear an explosion. What we're doing here really means a lot to them over there and I have been involved with JNF a long time and I really appreciate being able to say that.