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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