One people, OneFamily

Women from across Israel who lost loved ones to terror gather in Jerusalem for the OneFamily Women’s Empowerment Event.

Click to Read article published in Israel National News By: Sharon Altshul (JNS) & Arutz7 – July 28, 2023

OneFamily Event participants – JNS Photo

While there are those protesting the judicial reforms and asking if we are one people, there are a sadly large number of Israelis who have no doubt that they are one family, the family of the bereaved who have lost loved ones to terror.

And as the July heat beat down on a tent city erected by opponents of judicial reform in Jerusalem’s Sacher Park, not far from the Knesset and Israel’s Supreme Court, hundreds of women were gathering at the nearby Ramada Hotel to experience a different kind of warmth.

The Women’s Empowerment Event, conducted in Hebrew on Tuesday, is not one you want to be invited to attend. Each of the women there lost a son or a daughter, a father or a mother, or another close family member, in a terrorist attack or are dealing with terror victims with multiple, life-altering injuries.

The women came from across Israel, from Metulla and Beit Shean in the North, and from Arad, Beer Sheva and Sderot in the South. Not everyone was Jewish. There were secular, religious Zionist, haredi, Ashkenazi, Mizrachi, including Israeli born, Russian, American and Ethiopian women immigrants, 450 in number, filling the auditorium.

OneFamily Event participants – Courtesy

The OneFamily Together Organization, founded and headed by Chantal and Marc Belzberg and based in Jerusalem, has been hosting events for victims of terrorism for more than two decades. It was standing room only at this year’s Women’s Empowerment event, held as in the past ahead of Tisha B’Av, as the participants were treated to an impressive lineup of speakers.

I arrived during the morning buffet brunch, crowded with hundreds of women. While I knew several of the women, too many other faces were familiar as I recognized them from public photos or videos, from emotional funerals or shivah visits of government officials, after, in an instant, a terrorist turned these women’s world upside down with a bullet, knife, stone or car.

At the OneFamily Event – Courtesy

It was hard to find a comfortable spot to put down a small plate in the room filled with women munching vegetables, eating sandwiches and salad, drinking coffee, hugging each other like long-lost relatives, and pushing beautiful babies in strollers.

When I finally found a place to sit that morning, a woman asked me: “Whose mother are you?”

It has been years since anyone asked me that question. Surprised, slowly, “Efrat, Asher…,” I started to mumble in quizzical, hesitant response.
“I am the mother of Noam Raz,” she interrupted, leaving me in stunned silence.
I remembered the name. I could only muster a faint smile and nod my head.

Sgt. Maj. Raz, 47, of the Border Police’s elite Yamam counterterror unit, a student of Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, was killed by gunfire during an operation that included raids on terrorism suspects’ homes in Burqin, near Jenin, on May 15, 2022. The long list of his deeds as a volunteer EMT filled the news for days. He left behind his wife and six children. His widow also attended the event.

“Who was murdered in your family?”

One story shared is hard to believe:, “About a week ago I signed up for the annual women’s seminar called Female Empowerment organized by OneFamily, but in these days of destruction, I didn’t really find the strength to go to the conference. And then there is Nava from OneFamily calling and asking if I can bring a bereaved mother with me who also lives in Holon and should really participate.”

Ilana Shevach goes on to explain, “This morning, Mrs. Dora Abramov gets into my car. I turned to her and asked: ‘Dora, who was murdered in your family?’”

Ilana Shevach and Dora Abramov – Courtesy

Abramov responded, “My daughter Osnat was 17 years old when she was murdered in the [Karkur Junction] bus bombing attack [along with 13 other people] in 2002 by Nasser Jarrer, the leader of the ‘military’ wing of Hamas, the Izz-Din al-Qassam Brigades. And what happened to you?”

Osnat Hy”d – Courtesy

Rav Raziel Hy”d – Courtesy

Ahmed Nasser Jarrer, the 22-year-old son of Nasser Jarrer, murdered Raziel Shevah in 2018. Ahmed Jarrer was six years old when his father murdered Osnat. The Shevah family’s six children were orphaned by someone with a different kind of family legacy…
The two women embraced.
American-born Reena Robinson, the mother of one of the two IDF soldiers killed in the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002, summed up her experience: “Yesterday was powerful and meaningful. The speakers were all of a high caliber and gave good tips and concrete techniques for coping. It was also spiritually in keeping with the Nine Days [leading to Tisha B’Av] and the terrible conflict in the country [about judicial reform]. Spreading ahavat chinam [loving others freely without judgment].”
Socializing with women from all walks of life who share a common bond is very empowering, Robinson said.

“I reconnected with women I have met in the past and spent quality time with friends whom I am in touch with. I got to catch up with the mother of the soldier who was killed at the same time as Matanya. We haven’t seen each other since last year’s event and it was meaningful speaking with her yesterday.”

Staff Sgt. Matanya Robinson from Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi in the Beit She’an Valley was 22 when he was ambushed in the Jenin camp in April 2002.

A Day of Empowerment

For women whose sacrifice for the Jewish State is an irreplaceable loss, for whom getting up in the morning can be an act of strength, there is empowerment in meeting other women who simply understand, who do not need explanations. But in addition, each of the carefully chosen and well known speakers knew how to provide something unique and meaningful that the women could take away with them, whether that was a way of thinking, coping, increasing self awareness, practical steps to better well-being or just plain laughter.

Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi, in an inspiring talk that began the day, said emphatically: We the women have the power. We ae physically weaker but psychologically. stronger. We can make it.

Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi – OneFamily

Paula Rosenberg – OneFamily

Sivan Rahav-Meir – OneFamily

Next, educator and media personality, Michal Daliot stressed that how those who suffer bereavement continue their lives is not a given but a choice,that each one of them can make, She emphasized the need to understand each woman’s role in putting the pieces of the family together, while encouraging them to also find a personal crutch in doing something each one desires.

Holistic trainer Paula Rosenberg made everyone feel exhiliarated in an interactive talk on diet, well being. and how to achieve the mindfulness of happiness with a set of practical steps on how to get there, which she had the audience doing with her, along with an explanation of the physiological processes and foods containing hormones necessary for achieving a happy state of mind.

Standup artist Tsofia Getz had the audience laughing non-stop but, as a woman whose father was killed when she was eight years old and who has lost a daughter, she also knew how to use her one liners to give advice that would be taken: Don’t let everything hurt you, she said, don’t let everything get past your outer self and reach your heart, separate that which strengthens from that which weakens.

Sivan Rahav-Meir provided food for thought on a national and personal level. Why do the terrorists attack us randomly, not caring who it is they kill, she asked. Because they know we are one family. And we are, no matter what is happening not far from here. We must be consoled as a nation, the prophets said, comparing G-d’s consolation of His people to that of a mother’s.

Popular columnist Emily Amrusi, who emceed the event with her usual poise, related a parable about a lonely seed planted deep in the ground that eventually rises, breaks through the earth and becomes a fruit-bearing tree. The unspoken message – keep growing, keep climbing, reach toward the sun.

At the end of the day, there was a palpable feeling of renewed energies, and the lavish dairy supper served after the varied program ended was still another chance to feel pampered and cared for, to talk about what participants had heard and simply enjoy being together before each went their separate ways. As they left, each woman received a signed copy of Sivan Rahav-Meir’s latest book as a gift from OneFamily.

Supper at OneFamily Event – Courtesy

This wonderful day is only one of the many activities of OneFamily, which has four regional coordinators keeping in touch with bereaved families all across Israel and seeing to their needs, from tefillin for a bar mitzva to the week’s food for a family. The Arutz Sheva editor co-writing this article can attest to how a OneFamily coordinator, Nava, each week prepared the liquidized ground food her terror victim grandson could eat whle in the Beit Levenstein Rehabilitaion Center and delivered it. And just last week, a OneFamily retreat for terror widows and orphans took place in Tiberias and other orphans were flown to a summer camp in Toronto at no cost, accompanied by OneFamily teenage counselors.

The Jewish people, Chantal and Marc Belzberg’s organization proves daily, really are mishpacha achat, one family. Am Yisrael Chai.