Day Eight

One week ago, 41 Americans stepped off the plane at Ben Gurion airport and were welcomed to Israel by the Israeli members of Bus 17 singing “salaam,” a song of peace in both Arabic and Hebrew. Fast forward a week and for our second and final Shabbat together, our group sang “salaam” and other favorite songs for a unique and beautiful service that perfectly captured the spirit of our journey together. 

This morning,  we spent five hours on Har Herzl, the national cemetery of Israel. We were introduced to the importance of the place by Noa and Ellie, the two Israelis in our group who are still serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Throughout our tour, each of the seven Israelis told us their stories of serving in the military and how war and conflict truly shapes the Israeli experience. 

The most powerful point of the day was when Dvir gave us his personal testimony. Up to this point, we only knew basic facts about Dvir, simply because he only speaks Hebrew and we are very much an  English-speaking crowd. That darn language barrier. Cut to an extremely beautiful day in Jerusalem, with our group gathered around one of the graves in the new section of Har Herzl. Dvir starts speaking in Hebrew, and tells us that we are standing at his cousin’s grave. 

During the next 10 minutes, we stood riveted as he spoke. Dvir’s cousin was fighting in the war in Gaza two years ago, when he was shot by terrorists. Dvir had one day to attend his cousin`s funeral and mourn his passing before he had to go into Gaza himself to fight. Right before he left his family, his grandmother told him that she cannot afford to lose another grandchild. 

As I listened to Dvir’s experience, I looked over at my own cousin and brother, who are on Birthright with me. I broke down, and couldn’t even begin to imagine what Dvir went through and what it was like to lose someone so close to him. My cousin was able to come to my side and comfort me, yet there is no one there to do the same for Dvir. 

What a day, what a journey.