JANUARY 4 • 2024 | 7
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hostages are fully onboard with 
the IDF’s operations, despite 
understandably conflicting 
views.
The work of volunteers from 
the south and the north who 
have come together to pro-
vide respite for IDF soldiers is 
impressive beyond words. 
The thumping of techno 
music fills the air in a festive 
atmosphere at Gilad Junction, 
where soldiers can be refreshed 
with food, snacks, soft drinks, 
massages, showers, haircuts, 
books — whatever they need. 
Volunteers can pack boxes with 
IDF-approved knee guards, 
special jackets, homemade 
cakes, cookies, candy and more.
In Tel Aviv, retired Israeli 
ambassadors have set up their 
own command center to “speak 
for and on behalf of” the 
hostages, who cannot speak 
for themselves. The newly 
renamed Hostage Square is 
a place where, among other 
activities, parents of hostages 
can share details of the harrow-
ing experiences of their sons 
and daughters still held captive.
Parents of Nova festival 
victims share memories of 
the event held in the name of 
peace. One father describes 
the odd combination of suf-
fering and joy he experienced 
when he heard that his son was 
alive after being told he had 
likely died. The hope that cuts 
through the pain is extraor-
dinary. Another father shows 
up daily at the Tel Aviv Expo’s 
recreation of the Nova grounds, 
including tents, clothes, actual 
vehicles and portable toilets 
— bullet holes and all. These 
are evidence of the life that has 
survived the monstrous slaugh-
ter of 1,200 souls.
Israelis are pulling together 
in extraordinary ways. Hotels 
throughout the country are 
making space for families evac-
uated from their homes. One 
seaside high-rise hotel in Tel 
Aviv brought in four new wash-

ing machines and dryers just 
to facilitate cleaning clothes. 
Other spaces keep children 
cheerfully busy. Countless 
vacant apartments have been 
made available to other evac-
uees. It’s not uncommon for 
individuals simply to hand over 
the keys to perfect strangers.
The three-day World Zionist 
Organization mission includes 
a shivah call in Yanuh-Jatt, 
where we met the Druze family 
of Alim Abdallah, a hero who 
courageously fought and died 
for his country. We visit a near-
by facility where Druze seam-
stresses sew 11,000 uniforms 
and patches a month for the 
IDF. The pain and gratitude are 
felt everywhere.
Then there’s Rabbi Doron 
Perez, executive chair of World 
Mizrachi and a WZO board 
member whose family experi-
enced the collision of one son’s 
wedding and the news that 
another son had been taken 
hostage. Rabbi Perez relates 
how, at one moment, the family 
prayed for his son Daniel and 
the next moment celebrated a 
very happy wedding.
“For those three minutes it 
was very, very, very painful,” 
Rabbi Perez recalls in a soft 
voice.
But of the wedding, he says, 
“
A close friend said it was the 
holiest, saddest, happiest and 
most inspirational event. I 
learned it’s possible to have 
such incredible angst, pain and 
worry; and it’s also possible to 
have incredible blessing and 
gratitude. Human beings are 
much stronger than we think 
we are. And the Jewish spirit is 
much stronger than we think 
it is, as we have had to struggle 
with such impossible dichot-
omies from the beginning of 
time.” 

Charles Kaufman is immediate past 

president of B’nai B’rith International.

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