The memory is that of our son Alex, z"l, killed in a battle with terrorists in Lebanon who were trying to make their way to attack northern villages in Israel. Alex was serving as a platoon commander in the Givati brigade of the Israel Defense Forces. The date was September 15, 1987, Alex's 25th birthday.
Each year in Israel, as it was yesterday, the nation mourns its fallen soldiers and civilians killed in acts of terror on the day before it celebrates the rebirth of the modern state in 1948.
It's almost 22 years since Alex was killed and yet on this memorial day, and the days following, those who came to know him continued to grow. The collection of Alex's letters and army journals was published in English 12 years ago. The Hebrew translation--page for page the same content--has been available for a little more than a year. And because of them, Alex is known to educators who invite the family to speak to young Jews.
Our son Daniel talked about Alex at a nighttime outdoor ceremony at Jerusalem's Ammunition Hill. Hundreds of young adult Jews from English-speaking countries who have been spending a year in Israel with MASA grants heard seven siblings of fallen soldiers speak about their brothers and sisters. That same night I met with some 15 or so students from Pardes who are spending a year or more studying Jewish texts. I told about our family's decisions, about Alex's life and death. Most important was to read some of Alex's words and those of others about him and to show the quarter hour DVD about Alex. Then to talk together about life choices, his and ours and theirs.
The next day began with a ceremony at the high school Alex attended when he was a boy in Jerusalem. They read the 70 names of their graduates who had died in Israel's wars and two girls gave readings by Alex and by his brother at the time of Alex's death. An hour later we stood by Alex's grave at the military cemetery at Mt. Herzl when the nationwide siren brings everything to a halt for two minutes, even cars on the road whose drivers get out and stand silently. That same afternoon, Max and I spoke to about 80 16-17-year-old Australians and New Zealanders at the Rabin Hostel in Jerusalem. They had just come from a week in Poland visiting the death camps and learning from survivors about the Holocaust. They arrived in time to experience Israel's remembrance of its soldiers whose lives were given to protect the young nation. They were a remarkably serious and attentive group, listening to Alex's story, raising their own dilemmas, speaking seriously with us as they considered their own Jewish lives and what they would make of them.
Still to come is our visit next week to Israeli Bar Ilan University students who will have read Alex's book in an English course. From these young adults we can expect probing questions and challenges. Life in Israel can be joyous but raises serious questions about responsibility to self and nation. Because Alex grappled with these questions, they engage with him through us.
Shortly thereafter we travel to the center of the country to meet with American Jewish Day School seniors who come for their last semester to experience Israel. Again we are the Alex surrogates, telling his story, reading his words and hoping that they will be inspired, as he was to build lives, with Jewish meaning.
(see www.alexsinger.org)
2 comments:
Yesterday morning, we were sitting around the kitchen table and the kids asked about the Yizkor candle we had lit on the counter. I then told them about Alex and while I was visibly choked up, they were engaged in the story and asked some very good questions. He lives on in my memory and is now an influence on the next generation.
As an adult, Alex was committed to make his life meaningful, and you have continued to make his life meaningful to so many - - of different ages, from different countries, but all with a common interest in Israel and Judaism. Your work during these past twenty years makes it possible for Alex’s life to be an inspiration, particularly but not exclusively, to the youth in the two countries that you and Alex lived and loved. For that, all who know you and Alex, either directly or indirectly, are grateful.
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