This week in honor of Passover, we welcome the coolest Rabbi I know (after Chaya Leah’s father of
), Rabbi Gavriel Bellino of NYC’s 6th street shul. I mean seriously, look how cool he is. Here he is looking like he’s about to punch Chaya Leah:
If you live in NYC you should absolutely check out 6th Street Shul (yes, this is Yael!) Its super welcoming and lowkey, and they throw some great parties. They also have the best Instagram account (operated by the Rabbi), and I frankly I knew I found my spiritual home when our producer Gabi found this Google review. It’s a match made in heaven.
We talk about being a born-and-bred NYC Rabbi, issues facing Judaism today, spirituality, Kosher sushi, gays, women and David Schwimmer.
Ok, ready for the heavy stuff? I’ll start with some great (I think) photos I took in Tel Aviv the last few days. My frieneds and family here always make fun of me that I’m a tourist taking a million photos, but there’s a certain beauty you can only see from the outside perhaps. I’ll be posting more on our Instagram and even doing a few lives there, so check it out.
Yesterday, my family and I drove an hour south to visit the Nova festival site and the town of Sderot. I was there last year with our good friend
, so I didn’t think it would hit me that hard, and yet... It’s been a year-and-a-half almost to the day, and I personally am still waiting to come out of the shock. This feels like the longest “sinking in” in history. I just don’t know if it’s even possible to take in all the stories, the faces, the heroism, the terror.
Our first stop was one of the many “shelters of death”, where many people who fled the Nova party hid on the side of the road. These mini-bunkers are made to protect you from rockets attacks, unfortunately they aren’t very useful against bloodthirsty terrorists. This is rough video, so watch with caution. All those white dots and the wall and holes are bullets. You will see many stickers commemorating the fallen - the entire country is covered with them. Everywhere you go young beauitful faces are smiling at you, usually with a catchphrase associated with the person, always something cheerful like “Everything will be great” or “Live life to the fullest”. Optimistic, simple messages that make perfect sense when you’re that young and have your whole life ahead of you.
At the Nova sites, they added a few “exhibits” for lack of a better word, like that of the young people who hid for hours in a dumpster before Hamas found them and opened fire, murdering 9 and leaving 4 wounded under the bodies and trash. You can now enter the dumpster, and the walls tell the stories of the people and their final photos and farewell messages to their families. You can feel the urgency and horror even without understanding the hebrew. Most of the converations end with one side begging to send an update that they are ok, sadly left unanswered.
What struck me the most is at the end it says almost as a side note that the terrorists were finally eliminated and the survivors rescued by a group of soldiers who had abandoned a military post about an hour-and-a-half away. I want you to think about that for a second. Nine men were watching the images on social media, and without waiting for an order, decided to risk going to prison (not to mention their lives) and just got up, left their post and drove over to save lives.
It’s impossible to overestimate how small the country is. We met the father of a beautiful young girl named Noa Englender (or “Nonush” as they called her) who comes there every week to tell anyone who wants to hear about his daughter and her boyfriend who were murdered that day. We gave him a hug and thanked him for introducing us to Noa.
I was looking at the wall of fallen police officers and a guy came up to me and started talkig to me. He told me he was a financial advisor for the police, and then he started pointing at the faces and saying how he helped this guy buy an apartment, this woman with her taxes, etc. Some families chose to use the memorial space to send a message to the world, like one family who asked people to do good deeds in memory of their son, Dor:
Check in on a friend, especially if they are going through a rough time.
Complete tasks fully.
Honor your parents.
I’ll let some of these photos speak for themselves, please take a minute to look at their faces and read a story or two. If many of their last hours remind you of the Holocaust, it’s because there’s nothing more fitting to compare it to. There are over 300 stories at this site alone, out of 1,200. So many pairs of siblings, couples and best friends. I don’t know who goes to a party with their brother or sister, but it makes you love these strangers even more.
“At 8:11 AM, Libby called her parents again. "Mom, they shot Adi in the head. She's lying dead next to me. They shot me in the stomach and the hand. I'm losing blood." That final call lasted eight minutes. Libby, understanding that it was time to say goodbye, spoke to each family member, one by one, in loving and composed silence. Yariv, who was like a father to her, told her to get out of the car and lie on the road, pretending to be dead. Libby managed to do this, lying on the yellow dividing line under the Re'im sign. She kept the phone under her ear and continued her goodbyes. "Mom, can you hear me? I love you, Mom." After eight minutes, Libby said, "They're coming to shoot me again." A barrage of gunfire was heard before Libby's voice was silenced forever.”
“Gaya and Romi hid for about four hours near Nahal Gerar. Gaya contacted Ben Shimoni, who worked with her and who was also at the party. Ben managed to get out of the area but returned several times, rescuing people from the party. At 9:55 a.m., Gaya told Ben that the shooting in the area had resumed and that he should not come back. Ben returned anyway, and at 10:04 a.m., Gaya told her father that Ben had picked them up; she asked her father to come and take them from Ashdod. Gaya's father left for Ashdod, but when he was still in the Rishon LeTzion area, Gaya called him again. Her father answered, but all he heard was Gaya's shouting that "terrorists are shooting at us..." He heard screams that lasted for a few seconds, followed by a silence that was broken only by Gaya's final breaths.... Gaya and Ben Shimoni were murdered by the gunfire. Romi Gonen and Ofir Tzarfati were wounded and kidnapped to Gaza. Gaya was 23 years and 11 months old when she was murdered.”
We letft the Nova site and drove through the “road of death” as it was called, which is now green and blooming, full of agriculture that the nearby communities and Kibbutzim insisted on growing again, as soon as they were able to. We then visited Sderot, where an intense battle took place that didn’t conclude until October 9th. Among the 50 slaughtered were a group of 13 retirees who had stopped to fix a flat tire on their way to the dead sea. In the middle of the tiny town was the police station, were officers fought bravely for days against the terrorists that tried to conquer it. Many lost their lives, and likely saved countless civilians by drawing the attention of the terrorists to that one spot. There is now a beautiful memorial there, complete with “original” bullet holes and the stories of the fallen. You can see how close the homes are to the station.
The memorial features different biblical saying and song lyrics, and also this quote from a 6-year-old-girl. This is what she asked the officers who resuced her and her baby sister from the car where they were hiding with the bodies of their parents:
In a sharp twist (that’s the theme in Israel) we stopped for Hummus at a local spot that had just reopened about a month ago, and overheard the staff sharing stories about their time in Tel Aviv, where they were relocated to for over a year and just returned back to “normal life”. I sent the photo to my friend Moshe who grew up here, and whose brother-in-law Omri Miran has been captive in Gaza for 549 days. He told me that the restaurant is co-owned by the son of hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel, who he had just spent some time in the US with in a tireless battle to advoacte for the release of Omri and the remaining 58 hostages. As I said, small place.
That’s it for today. More on Instagram so please check us out there, @askajewpod. We don’t post a ton but the more people trickle in, the more content you’ll get!
Wishing everyone of course a Happy Passover and Easter if you celebrate. I suspect you’ll be hearing from Chaya Leah before the holiday, and if not - well, nnow she’s on the hook. Peace.
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