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Shelters of Faith

Dear Friends,

As you know, much of Southern and Central Israel has been under threat from Islamic Jihad, with over 800 rockets fired at our apartments and homes over the past three days. All over Israel, parents have moved their children into the bomb shelter room to sleep. We do everything we can to not scare them, even to make the experience fun, but when the sirens go off and your kids ask you why, we have no choice but to tell them the truth, terrorists are trying to hurt us. Thankfully we can also tell them that the IDF is protecting Israel, in the sky and on every border.

Seventy-five years ago my father was six years old. With one of the rare times when we received support from the international community, Israel was declared a state, and the next day our day-old country was bombed and attacked by five surrounding armies. My grandfather was called to fight for Israel’s existence and he did so proudly. One day my dad came into the house and was told his Daddy wasn’t coming home. He had fallen as a hero in the War of Independence but this was not comprehensible to my six years old Dad. He just wanted to see his father again.

It is one of the greatest honors of my life that I served in the IDF as a commander just as my grandfather and father did before me. I have five amazing children and they will mark the fourth generation of our family serving in the IDF. Still, sometimes it’s just hard, especially when your children again have to sleep in the shelter and ask you why there are so many sirens. Please know, this will not deter us from the dream of having peace in our land. If the dream of Israel could be realized 75 years ago from the ashes of the Holocaust, then certainly the dream of peace in Israel can one day be realized as well. May it be soon.

Our BFL leader Snir in the shelter room with his son Erez and daughter Ofri

Rabbi Sacks once wrote, “Though Israel is a secular state, it’s very existence is a testimony to faith: the faith of a hundred generations that Jews would return; the faith that led the pioneers to rebuild a land against seemingly impossible odds, the faith that after the Holocaust the Jewish people could live again, the faith that continues to say: choose life”

Shabbat Shalom from Israel,

Yaniv

Ps. I also wanted to share that our BFL Medical Project was in full effect this week. First, BFL member Nati Azulay, who has been living with a large open hernia for years since his injury, traveled to NY, Chicago, and, Columbus and received great news on the possibility of closing the hernia! He is celebrating below with several of our BFL members after the good news.

Secondly, our BFL member Ben Spitzer, was recently operated on at Ohio State University to repair his arm which was shattered years ago by a bomb. Our amazing surgeon, Dr. Sousa, took muscles from Ben’s leg and essentially rebuilt his arm. We will hopefully see the success of this operation in the coming weeks.