What do you do when your beliefs and living where you do places your child in mortal danger? Some people would change their beliefs or move. Others would not, aware in some dim recesses of the mind that others think they are shirking their parental duty and risking the lives of their children. But what if it’s about your principles: about living in Eretz HaKodesh, the Holy Land?
We were proud of our 18-year-old son when he went out and got his first real job without any clout or help from us. But we were surprised to hear he’d gotten a job as a busboy at Greg, a café at Canion Harim, the mall at the Gush Etzion Junction. We’d expected he’d get a job locally, in our town of Efrat, or perhaps something in Jerusalem.
The issue was immediately apparent: how would he get to and from work? Especially when he stayed to close up, late at night? Would his job prove to be a liability, with my husband always driving him there and back, on call for this exclusive purpose?
Because while we feel safe enough at home, the Gush Etzion Junction is a known hotspot for terror. It’s not far from where the three boys were kidnapped and murdered, and Dalia Lemkusstabbed to death. It’s where Ezra Schwartz and my children’s beloved teacher Rabbi Yaakov Don were killed. And it’s where Ari Fuldwas murdered only a week ago.
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| Where Ari Fuld (HY”D) collapsed, the glass door shattering on impact. |
There have been other incidents. Stabbings and ramming attacks. And I always know when one is happening, because I can hear the sirens of the multiple ambulances and security vehicles speeding toward the scene. I can hear them in my living room. It’s a trick, something about the way the sound carries. And yet, we live that close, though we might as well be very far away: close enough to hear, far enough away to feel safe from harm.
I have never bought into the idea that the only place Jews are safe is in Eretz Yisrael. On the one hand, I know that statistically, even the Gush Etzion Junction is safer than a New York street corner. But that is cold comfort. The fact is, terror does strike at the Junction and has. On numerous occasions. I’d be a fool to pretend otherwise.
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| Makeshift memorial to Ari Fuld (HY”D) on the spot of the terror attack that took his life. |
But I have always believed that Jews should live in every part of Eretz Yisrael. Use it or lose it. This personal precept was, in fact, something I shared with Ari Fuld, something I mentioned to a colleague who asked me for a personal anecdote about Ari for an article she was writing:
There was a pro-Israel bloggers meet-up last year. It was in “East” Jerusalem and anyway, I don’t drive, so I asked if I could get a ride with Ari.
He took a route to Jerusalem that I hadn’t taken since maybe the 1st intifada, a road considered “dangerous.”
I was surprised and pleased. We talked about that, how important it is to travel in parts of Israel that are even dangerous. We had a meeting of minds on the subject.
I don’t have too many friends who get that. So I knew he was the real deal.
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