New York—OneFamily, an Israeli organization that aids victims of terrorist attacks, recently held an event in Manhattan to show solidarity with Israel. “Continue the Unity” was hosted by Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, an Orthodox synagogue on the Upper East Side. In attendance were Rachelle Fraenkel and Iris Yifrach, two of the mothers of the three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and murdered this past summer.
Rabbi Gideon Black, the representative of the Jewish Learning Initiative at NYU, opened with why he had been chosen to lead the program. Less than a year after surviving an attack on Ben Yehuda Street, Rabbi Black and his cousin Yoni were travelling when explosives were set off by a Hamas terrorist on their bus. Yoni was struck by a metal bolt and passed away soon after. “Ripped apart with grief over the loss of my best friend and cousin… I was also aware of just how lucky I was to survive,” Rabbi Black said. “Logic would dictate that he be standing here today telling you about me, not me telling you all about him.”
Ambassador Daniel Ayalon addressed the crowd on behalf of the state of Israel. About the kidnapped teenagers, Ayalon said, “The three boys… were all our boys, and they died on Kiddush Hashem, and did not die in vain. And they are now in the shrines of the Tzadikim… who are guarding us throughout the generations.”
Marc Belzberg, the founder and chairman of OneFamily, addressed the audience about the organization’s origins and its guiding principles. The organization was begun when his daughter Michal’s bat mitzvah plans were derailed by a terrorist attack on her twelfth birthday, and she decided that instead of having a party, it was more important to help the many victims. As for OneFamily’s philosophy, it has to do with the concepts that Belzberg says make the Jewish nation unique. “We’re the only people in the world that has a sense of obligation and responsibility, one for the other… We are a family. There is no other family on the face of the Earth as ancient and as large as the family of the Jewish people.”
After a short film about the organization and its accomplishments, Iris Yifrach and Rachelle Fraenkel were introduced. Yifrach spoke from prepared remarks, thanking the audience for its support and retelling the story of how the world “united in praying for the return of the boys.” Speaking of her son, she said, “His whole life, Eyal always thought of others. He helped everywhere he could, and really loved each and every person with whom he connected. And Am Yisrael loved him in return.” She closed with a heart-wrenching message to her son, about how much she misses him, and promised him that “we will not give up; we will continue in the way that you began. They took your body, but they didn’t take your soul.”
Rabbi Black then held a Q and A session with Fraenkel. About how she has coped with the sorrow, she said, “We’re totally not alone… there’s so much support from day one” both from Israel and around the world. After discussing the actions of other families who are also coping with bereavement, she said, “My choice is to feel sadness but not to become my sadness, to feel pain but not to become my pain, and to try to feel the whole spectrum.” Fraenkel doesn’t want any one emotion or loss to completely take over her life. “We have so much blessing in our lives and we try not to lose sight of that; to be happy when we’re happy and to cry when we cry.”
Rabbi Black also asked her about the challenges she faced in regards to helping her other children cope with the crisis when it first began. “I think the biggest challenge at the time was being optimistic and joking around about how hilarious it was going to be when Naftali comes back and sees everything that’s going on,” and yet to still express to them that “we don’t know how this is going to turn out.”
Alex Agus, a senior at Ramaz Upper School who attended, was amazed by “the way that [Fraenkel] channeled all of her sorrow and despair into uniting the Jewish nation around her and around… the three boys; it’s amazing to me how she is able to be so strong and not let what should have gotten to her… get to her.”
By Oren Oppenheim
