THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IN NAHARIYA,

 THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IN NAHARIYA,

There is an on-going cost to keep us Israelis safe and free... And the people of Nahariya have not gone unscathed.

On this Tuesday evening, May 3rd we will begin observing Remembrance Day, יום זיכרון.  At 8 PM a siren will go off. and another one on Wednesday at 11 AM, during which the country stands still for a moment of silence and remembrance for the fallen soldiers of the IDF and the victims of terror attacks.  May their memory be for a blessing.

In 2016 there was a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv. Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on patrons at the Max Brenner Cafe in the Sarona Market, killing four people and injuring seven others.

The attack was horrific, but the paradigm is not a new one.  While the slaughter was going on at Tel Aviv’s Sarona market, I was with a group of English speaking Olim in Nahariya.  We had gathered by an apartment building located at 19 Balfour Street.  In 1974 this building was also the site of a terrorist attack in which a mother and her two children aged 5 and 12 were murdered.

There were about two dozen of us Olim.  We walked around the building led by Motti Zarenkin who lost his wife, son and daughter that tearful night in 1974.  Motti began his story.  He took us to the rear of the building and showed us the first floor apartment where he and his family had lived some 42 years ago.  Motti pointed out two windows: a bedroom window through which his wife and children tried to make their escape and a bathroom window where he had started to climb through before being shot and severely wounded.

In 1974 there had been a series of terrorist raids in the Galilee.  It made sense for Israelis to have a plan in place in the event that their home became under attack.  The same is true today. The Zarenkin family had such a plan.  If under attack, Motti would lock the front door and then the family would escape through a bedroom window.   

The Zarenkins lived on the first floor of the building.  Late on the night of June 23, the concussion of a grenade and the sound of small arms fire quickly brought Motti to the terrifying truth that the building was under attack. He feared that the terrorists would break into his apartment, but he and his wife had planned for this frightening reality and so he ran to secure the front door. 

While Motti was locking the front door, his wife, son and daughter were exiting the apartment as planned on a rope previously woven from sheets.  They reached the ground and began running toward the street.  But they were spotted and a grenade killed all three of them.  Motti did not know this; he thought that he had saved his family.  When he tried to escape the apartment as well, through a bathroom window, he was shot.  Wounded, Motti climbed back into his apartment, where he hid until found by soldiers.

Motti was taken to the hospital and was being prepared for surgery.  This was the first of nine surgeries over a three month period.  Just before he went under the anesthesia, his brother-in-law told him that his wife and children had been killed.  “What will you do”, his brother-in-law asked?  “I will get through this and make a new life”, Motti responded. 

And although it is impossible to put yourself in his shoes, that’s what Motti did.  There is another piece to Motti’s story.  In 1979, Nahariya once again was under attack.  This time a mother lost her only infant child.  It was a terrible thing.  The mother was beyond reconciliation.  She would not able to speak or be with anyone.  Her grief was unimaginable.  Motti was asked to approach her which he did.  She knew who he was and what unspeakable agony he had gone through.  The mother and Motti spoke.  Like Motti, despite her tragedy she persevered.  Today she has a growing family.  Motti had saved her.

Motti moved to Haifa.  He built a new family, even grandchildren.  This was the first time that Motti chose to tell his story. It was beyond riveting. We were honored to have been selected to hear his story.  Motti was truly a man; resolute, a role model for all us Jews, and he makes me proud to be an Israeli. Moti passed away in 2020.

The terrorists who attacked the market in Tel Aviv were members of Hamas. They did not come from the sea as they did in 1974 and 1979.  They came from a town near Beersheba.  They are evil.  Hamas and Fatah are evil.  And as we have learned, sad but true; evil will not cure itself.

To the families of the slain Israelis in Tel Aviv: May the Almighty comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

For Motti’s deceased wife and children: Peace be upon them; May the memory of the Holy ones be for a blessing, and May Hashem avenge their blood.

--------------------------------------------------