Why We Came. Why We Wouldn't Turn Around To Leave
April 17
Re'im Forest, Site of Nova Music Festival
To commemorate the one year anniversary of October 7, I am releasing a series of blogs throughout the month that capture my April Jewish National Fund volunteer mission to Israel.
Note that I reference Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who at the time was still alive, but as we’ve all learned by now, was sadly killed on August 29.
There are still over 100 hostages in Gaza, and it's day 389 that they are in captivity.
These first appeared on social media.
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I've educated myself a lot on Israel over the last year, and I thought I knew all the nuances of October 7th.
Then I stepped foot in Re'im Forest and learned from our remarkable tour guide that the SuperNova Festival massacre wasn't in the original attack plans for Hamas. Despite all the intelligence they gathered, the terrorists who were paragliding in had their sights set on kibbutzim and towns like Sderot and Ashkelon.
From the air they noticed the cars and large crowd of The Nova Tribe—the young Jews, Arabs, and Bedouins who follow Nova Festivals all over the world—and descended upon them.
370 civilians, peaceniks with deep empathy for Gazans and who’ve always advocated for a two-state solution, were murdered and many more wounded. Young women were bound to the trees in the pictures below and raped. 40 hostages were taken.
Our guide told us to just walk and feel. Dazing through, I was time warped to Dachau 27 years ago, the first and only death camp I've visited. This felt different. This Shoah (Hebrew for “destruction”) was perpetrated not just during my lifetime but only six months ago. Each tree I touched told the story of someone I never knew, and the flapping sound of Israeli flags waving in memoriam seemed like a chorus of their voices.
This is why we came: to honor our Jewish dead and to remind ourselves—in the words of Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who's son, Hersh was taken hostage and remains in captivity—that "Hope is mandatory."
We Will Dance Again.
We were each given a Yahrzeit candle to light in memory of a victim. I lit mine for her. יהי זכרה לברכה (may her memory and all the victims' memories be for a blessing).
IV bag from an ambulance
Wreckage from an ambulance
About the Author, David Telisman
I am a Writer and Content Creator, and I work with businesses to inspire their customers to buy from them. I believe that my clients deserve to feel proud of how their content marketing looks and what it says, and I deliver by providing expert copywriting and marketing solutions.
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Oct 29, 2024 by
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