The crowd moved to a local park to sing and hear a few speakers. Rav Nir Vargon, the rabbi of Ramat Shalom Synagogue, opened the program. He reminded the crowd of where Beit Shemesh was just a little over a year ago. Our municipal elections had been invalidated by the courts due to many incidents of voter fraud. The re-election, full of mudslinging and divisiveness, had just concluded.
On the heels of the re-election, our boys were kidnapped. During those long eighteen days before the boys’ bodies were found, Beit Shemesh, and indeed all of Israel, united in concern for the boys and their families.
Rav Vargon recalled, “It was at the Ne’imi Mall – the site of heated political rallies – that the citizens of Beit Shemesh of all stripes came out for prayer gatherings, to recite tehillim together, and to pray for the safe return of Eyal, Naftali, and Gilad.”
The boys came from nationalist religious families, but synagogues across the spectrum recited special prayers for them. The question was asked of a local charedi rabbi if it was permissible to say tehillim on Shabbat for the boys. He responded, “It’s not only permissible. It’s required of all of us!”
Naftali Fraenkel’s sister Ayala spoke about her brother, who was a regular kid, who loved sports and music. Another girl read a letter written to Gilad Shaer by a member of the youth group where he was a counselor. “You told us not to hate people not like us,” she read. “You told us we should love them. But you’re not here. And we need you. We need your smile. You didn’t come because you had to be in yeshiva, right? It can’t be that you are not coming back to us. We need you. We miss you.”
Yael Van Dyke, the principal of Ulpanat Gila, a nationalist religious girls’ high school, took the microphone to conclude the morning, calling for solidarity. She praised the principal of Magen Avot, one of the charedi elementary schools, who came out to represent her school and the charedi sector at the rally.
The singing of Hatikva was accompanied by a recording, and, at its conclusion, Mrs. Van Dyke called on everyone to join in Ani Ma’amin. But there was no recording, and she did not want to sing into the microphone by herself. A quick thinking rav from the Gila middle school took the microphone and led the crowd in song.
Shlukerim, popular Israeli plastic-encased icicles, were distributed along with bumper stickers featuring a drawing of children holding hands and a photograph of the three boys with the caption, “In Beit Shemesh we give a hand to unity for the Children of Israel.”
I feel, as I think we all do, that when we lost “our boys” we lost a part of our own family. The rally in Beit Shemesh, and the gatherings around Israel and around the world, serve to remind us that we really are all one family, Beit Yisrael.
