They Just Want to Kill Us (Article# 99B) 12/4/08

As I prepared to leave the USA and ran my last minute errands, I heard the initial reports of terrorist activity in Mumbai, India. Immersed as I was in my own activities, I did not follow the news closely. It was not until I was at minyan that I heard about the attack on the chabad house, and with the confusion and chaos that went on – it was only after I had returned home and was watching CNN a few minutes before Shabbat began that we heard reports of the killing of the people in the chabad house.

Much will be written and said about these tragic events. The Israeli government will certainly use the funerals as a “see what victims we are” platform (they won’t necessarily be wrong). Yet this particular attack, pointed at a “Jewish” target tugs at the heart of the average Israeli in a more personal way than other people. For several reasons.

We are after all, a country that is sadly all too familiar with the sight of a baby screaming for his missing mother or father. We experience such tragedies with a frequency that would not be tolerated in the USA or other major nations. Yet that is a story for another day.

We are also the country upon whom our enemies have drawn a large target and would gleefully obliterate if they could. We know what it means to have people infiltrate our cities and homes and seek to murder and maim. Their goal is not to make a point other than attempting to make us so miserable that we would do anything to appease them. And appeasement hasn’t worked. But that too is for another time.

It is the specific target, a Chabad house, which has struck a cord here. Jews from many countries are certainly familiar with Chabad. Many of those who come from other countries (not Israel) and travel on business or pleasure have come to recognize that they can find a minyan and often a meal in the most remote of places – simply by seeking out the local Chabad house representatives. Israelis, even many secular ones and those who are not observant but still consider themselves to be traditional, identify with the Chabad network as a home away from home as well.

Many Israelis, upon completing their military or national service and before entering University or the workplace, take a months long trip of discovery. They travel to various places worldwide and armed with their backpacks they seek to experience whatever the world has to offer. A vast majority of these youth are not religious and are quite comfortable traveling in the remote countryside.

As they travel and reach major cities, they will invariably find themselves drawn to the local Chabad house where they are always welcomed with a smile and warm greeting. Be it for a minute, a meal or even a Shabbat, Israelis come to Chabad for that brief taste of home, reconnecting with their identity as Jews – religious or not.

To deliberately target such a place (and make no mistake – the Chabad House was deliberately targeted) reminds all of us here in Israel just how much we are hated. It reminds we who live in the Jewish State that no matter where we go in the world and how much kindness we dispense, that our enemies seek nothing less than our total annihilation and obliteration. It sometimes takes a tragedy such as this to remind us, no matter what our backgrounds or beliefs, to reach across boundaries and grieve as one people and one nation for the loss of so many precious lives, Jew and non Jew alike.

I often bemoan the lack of Achdut that is displayed here in Israel. I am disappointed that we can no longer seem to bond together as one Jewish nation with tolerance and love for one another, no matter what our differences. It is unfortunate that it takes such a tragedy to force us to find some common ground.

So today Israel is transfixed by the images and stunned by the savagery. Yet, we also know too familiarly what happens after the cameras turn off and the world is no longer watching. We know what it means to raise orphans. We have consoled countless parents who have buried their children before their time. We have rebuilt and will continue to do so. We understand that we must never allow terrorism to win.

That sense of “I will never let you defeat me” was reflected by Rav Metzger in his eulogy and by Shimon Peres in his, but it was most strikingly demonstrated by Rivkah Holtzberg’s parents’ decision to be the new Directors of the Mumbai Chabad. Their commitment, to continue to do good despite the pain and harm they have suffered, is what our nation is all about.