This was sent to a Board Member at the Holocaust Museum and Cohen Education Center of Naples:
Hi all. Been a while since we had contact, and with everything going on now- I wanted to reach out to you and share a little of what we’ve been going through. It’s taken me a while to even digest things… but here goes:
Its simply devastating what has happened here – and as we uncover more and more of the stories, the heart breaks again into thousands of tiny shards and the tears keep rolling down, one by one and then with a huge torrent. We so far have buried 3 boys from our town – and know so many more from elsewhere. And each time I read or watch another survivor account, I weep in jolts, and the only Jewish text that comes to me is the verse from Lamentations that we read on Tisha b’av –
עיני עיני יורדה מים –
My eyes, my eyes drip water….
All of us, as Jews, are part of the same story wherever we are – and the barbarism of evil is raising its head in many places.
On a physical level my family and I are OK. But we are in pain and my kids are scared. My 3 boys have all moved into our safe room and they sleep there. My 11 yr old asked my wife last night as she was singing him to sleep – “you’ll make sure that I’m safe, right?” Last night my 14 yr old daughter came to sleep in our room.
We have spared our kids many of the details but they are aware of the general situation, especially our 14 yr old. There is no school for them. All men between 20 and 40 are nowhere to be seen as they have all been drafted. From our small shul community of 100 or so families – 80 men and women have been called up to serve.
I have nieces and nephews all called up in the army and so many kids of friends of ours. And two families that we know well are missing kids – one who was at the rave; and one who was a soldier on one of the bases that were run over. And the stories – Oh My G!d, the stories that are coming out – simply acts of barbarians! It’s been horrific – literally stories of the holocaust that I shared at Yad Vashem – have been documented at Kibbutz Beeri; Kfar Azza, Netiv Ha’asara and others. I have been weeping as I read and especially watch the testimonies of the few survivors; or of the heroes who come in afterwards to clear the bodies. One of my wife’s work colleagues was held hostage in the dining room of their kibbutz for over 8 hours – and she is one of the lucky ones who are actually still alive!
My 19 yr old nephew who is not yet drafted, needed to do something – so many of his friends are already in the army fighting. So for two nights running, together with 30 or so other young men, he went to Mt Herzl – our national military cemetery – and for hours, they were digging new graves for all the fallen who will be buried. He said to me that he dug 6-7 graves – between them they dug 150-180 new graves each night! The heart breaks!
I saluted him there and then!
We, on the other hand, had 2 weddings to go to last week. One is postponed because the groom is a commander leading his troops in battle. So who knows when that will be. The other was moved from the wedding hall and took place in the car park outside the bride’s parents home with only a handful of people. Just before the groom broke the glass, the bride read out a prayer that she had written – basically saying that if the Chuppa is a place that G!d listens to prayers, then she has just one prayer – “I pray for the soldiers; I pray for the captured; I prayed for good to overcome evil and I pray for peace to come over Israel! I don’t think there was a dry eye at that moment – and then the band played a prayer for the soldiers of Israel. By that time, I was finished!
And then I took the family to stand on the streets as we gave honor to another family from our town who were on their way to Mt Herzl to bury their son who died fighting protecting us.
And today – literally hundreds of people turned unfortunately a mincha service at one of the families in our neighborhood sitting Shiva for their son who was killed in duty.there were so many of us, the service had to be conducted in the street as there simply was no place in their home.
And as I drove back home, my kids, together with older teens, were standing on the street corner waving flags, singing songs and handing out treats in an attempt to raise the morale just before Shabbat comes in.
And with the quiet before the storm, we are aware that what was will not be – and that means so many of our soldiers will be going into Gaza in these next few days – and the loss of life is going to mount. 😢
And yet, how in the face of such evil,; can we not act? After the Holocaust we said: Never Again! – and that was erased when Hamas swept into and perpetrated their vile acts! Not only killing and maiming; but kidnapping hostages of all ages. One of those hostages is the son of friends of ours. Please use your influence to let the world that you interact with know the truth of this barbarism planned and conducted against us!
If you can like, share, etc this post about Hersh Goldberg Polin who has been abducted by Hamas, that would be appreciated- https://www.facebook.com/savehershgp
parishionersforjustice.com 