JERUSALEM (VINnews) — For the nearly 20 charedi families who lost family members in battle or in the Nova music festival massacre, a new challenge has arisen: How do they perpetuate their loved ones in a way that both respects them but also respects the way of life which their parents follow and which was diametrically opposed to their own.
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Journalist Yair Ettinger, a member of the Israel Democracy Institute and the Shalom Hartman Institute who focuses on the charedi community, visited several parents of former charedim to see how they are perpetuating their children’s legacy.
Tzivya Krasnitzky, whose son Yaakov died a hero’s death fending off terrorists in Nahal Oz, says that she is proud of her son despite his leaving the charedi mode of life. Yaakov joined a commando unit of the Border Police and studied for university entry, even after he had been described by his teachers as “The next Gadol Hador.”
She describes her son in glowing terms, says she loved him even more after his death, says she had prayed that he would sanctify G-d’s name but never dreamed it would happen in this way and has no regrets about her support for him. Tzivya says she is comforted by the thought that, even after leaving the chareidi way of life, her son reached a place which is “so high I could never have dreamed of it for him.”
Members of the Yotzim LeShinui organization for former charedim consider themselves a community and maintain strong social contacts. Nadav Rosenblatt, the head of the organization, says that the complex situation with the fallen member’s families can vary from acceptance to total rejection and exclusion, especially in light of the choice made by some to do army service, considered anathema in charedi circles.
David Mittleman, a Golani machine gun expert, was adopted by a foster family after leaving his charedi background. David fell in battle while stopping the terrorists from entering kibbutz Kissufim on October 7th. His parents requested that he be buried in a regular civilian burial with no military honors or mention. The foster family from Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim said that they understand and respect the parents’ decision to call him “murdered” on his grave, although stating that he was killed in battle with terrorists.
The second reason the parents did a civilian burial was to prevent Halanas Hameis (leaving the dead unburied) as the IDF was too busy with funerals to perform a ceremony for two days afterwards. The foster family prepared a special pendant with Kriyas Shma and David’s name to be worn by IDF soldiers and distributed 13,000 of these pendants in his memory.
They are all Kedoshim now.
What’s the question harav gusttman ztl said everyone on of the soldiers are KIDDOSHIM!!!!!!
“The next gadol hador”
Stop lying to kids.
Rather, emphasize the real qualities the young man has, instead of giving him false hopes that will cause him to drop the Derech as soon as he realizes it will never happen…
@YehudaDov I can’t even format my words I am shaking from your article What kind of article what kind of question is this? It’s
insensitive and even cruel. It’s incredibly sad even devastating that the family lost precious time with their son because of their differences. According to Rav Amar the Chayalim are the holiest they risk their lives to protect the Jewish people. He will be remembered as being valiant courageous and defending Am Yisroel.
I’m trying to wrap my head around why a child should be treated any differently just because he’s not frum. Hashem gave him challenges and we each have our own. We don’t know what life wants from him, which challenges he went through, where the system may have failed him, people may have hurt him, how dare anyone throw their son away if their son doesn’t take upon himself the Yoke of religion it’s sad this is even an article.
Heart wrenching.
Israel Democracy Institute and the Shalom Hartman Institute are very anti charadi institutions. They are not out to help Charadim in any for or manner.
This is extremely divisive
There is much more to this story,the article is condensed,a lot more stories are circulating here in Israel about this.
בקיצור,for what “yotsim lechinoui” did-booking purposedly in this day hundreds of Nova כרטיסים for their adepts,they should be prosecuted.
What precisely is a “kadosh”, and why is it of value that we establish who is/not a kadosh? Does it affect shiva/sheloshim behavior? Does he or she get a special title instead of just Z”L?
Divisive article.
Don’t see the point.
The article gives us two examples, and decided to build a theory off it.
Pure click bait.
The fact that so many Yeshiva boys join the army proves that the Yeshiva lifestyle teaches its kids to be connected to the Jewish people. Instead of thanking the frum world for this contribution, the article maligns the frum world.
Stop this.
These boys are all Kedoshim. Their families will grieve in their own way. They paid the ultimate price for their idealism and for protecting Klal Yisrael.
Their self sacrifice for Israel is a reflection fo their connection to Klal Yisrael, despite their level of observance.
We need to do our part and pray for their safety, and also that Hashem grants wisdom to the Jewish leadership to value the life of a soldier, not just a hostage, and to value the life of a Jewish young man more than they value being liked by world opinion.
May G-d protect the chayalim and Klal Yisrael and destroy Hamas and all the Reshaim around the world. AMen.
Unfortunately there’s nothing to be proud of. The parents are not to blame it’s the person itself that to blame for choosing the life style the choice.
Reading these comments, it’s pretty simple to see why our enemies are killing us.
Those most affiliated with the Torah world can’t figure out a way to speak kindly of the dead, or to each other.
Oh well.
When will the non-religious understand that, like them, the religious have sincerely held beliefs that they strongly adhere to. If you were to say to a non-religious mother that there was nothing wrong with her son seeking psychiatric therapy because he was queer and that it was good that he had decided to shake off his errant sodomite behaviour, how would she received that?