ONE FAMILY

Although we parents and grandparents are proud of our youth, we can never forget that these youngsters of 18, 19, 20, have to put their life on the line so that the Jewish people can have an independent state of its own. This commitment – passed on from parents to son and daughter – is the existential equivalent of an unspoken answer to the question: “is there something you would give your life for?”

It is true that the procedures developed within the hospitals, community, etc., in order to deal with the many terror attacks, have become “routine procedures”…that is the only normalcy about them. But every attack creates grief and mourning, not only for the victims’ families, but for the whole nation.

When, all too often, Israel mourns another victim of Arab terrorism, everyone has long faces, softened voices, pained expressions. To live in Israel today is to be connected by radio and TV, phone and word of mouth. It is to take part in the tragedy of yet another lost life. We are all one family, mourners of one family. Abruptly slapped into reality. In such a small country we will all know, or are somehow connected, to a grieving family.

Rabbi Weiss wrote in the Jerusalem Post that people who have faced tragedy and death know better than anyone how precious life is – so, an amazing percentage of those who have suffered most have decided to ease the sufferings of others. To create new sparks of humanity where others were extinguished.

To name just a few…..

Rabbi Weiss’s wife directs the packaging and sending of food and gifts to IDF soldiers in the field, in memory of their son, Ari, killed in a raid on Hamas headquarters.

The family of teenager Malki Roth, who was among the several victims of the bombing of the Pizza parlour in 2001, has created the Malki Foundation, which supports families that have children with disabilities.

Thirteen-year old Koby Mandell was stoned to death by terrorists in 2001, together with his two friends, and the Mandell’s established a foundation in his name. They picked projects for the foundation to which Koby would have related. Koby loved to go hiking with his friends, and Camp Koby now hosts hundreds of terror victims and their families. Koby loved to laugh and tell jokes – hence “Comedy for Koby” which is the foundation’s largest twice-annual fund raiser.

The families of three teenage sons, who were kidnapped and murdered in 2014, established a unity project in their memories.

In memory of Shir Hajaj, the soldier killed in a terrorist attack in 2017, her family distributes food baskets to the needy.

Following the shocking murder last month of Ori Ansbacher, her mother asked that everyone do one small thing in Ori’s memory that will help to bring light to the world.

A People that can grieve for its dead, and rejoice in the living, and who can move forward into the future without forgetting either - is a people that cannot be defeated by bullets, or bombs,  hatred and evil.