Sunday Mar 30, 2008

Not bearing the details

Posted by Sherri Mandell

I am at the sulfur baths at a hotel at the Dead Sea with my husband. We are trying to relax. It's been a very difficult couples of weeks.-- the terrorist attack at Mercaz ha Rav Yeshiva and a beautiful young child - Hilleli - in our community who is hovering between death and life from an accident at the nursery school where she was choked by a curtain.

We have one night to relax, unwind. I used to be very good at going on vacation. I could chill out in a minute. But now, ever since my son's murder by terrorists six years ago, I find it hard to unwind. Working helps me because I don't have space for my mind to wander. Empty time fills me with the chill stark terror of what we've lived through - losing our 13 year old son, Koby, an 8th grader when he went hiking instead of going to school. Instead terrorists beat him and his friend Yosef Ish Ran to death

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Monday Dec 10, 2007

Tiki Barber, Koby and me

Posted by Seth Mandell

Last Tuesday evening as The Koby Mandell Humanitarian Award dinner was reaching its finale Master of Ceremonies Ben Brafman called out. "And now I would like to introduce Seth Mandell and Tiki Barber!" Applause.

I walked to the podium and looked out over the crowd. Close to 400 friends and supporters of Camp Koby and our other healing programs for those who have lost immediate family members to terror in Israel were sitting in the audience.

Frankly, all I could think about was how it came to pass that I was standing up there with one of the premiere sports figures of the generation. "Wow", I said to the assembly, "Tiki Barber and Seth Mandell, Seth Mandell and Tiki Barber in the same breath. There's no way this would have happened without Koby."

Tiki Barber to whom I was about to present the Koby Mandell Humanitarian Award is the most successful running back in the history of the New York Giants football team. After retiring from football last year he is currently a regular on the Today Show, the most popular morning TV show on television.

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About this blog

Heart-Earned Wisdom Seth and Sherri Mandell on living with loss, establishing the Koby Mandell foundation, spritual healing and becoming authors.

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Ken Besig, Kiryat Arba, Israel: Dear Mr. Ben Ami, When was the last time there was a demonstration against the Kassam rocket attacks on Sderot in Haifa, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem? Well, there haven't been any. All your self righteous talk of how "close knit" Israeli society is is just that, hot air. Moreover, your rather strange criticism of a Jew in Chicago who dares comment on Israeli government policy just goes to show what I stated, in modern Israel most Israelis are selfish, superficial, and only care about themselves, and the rest of the country can go hang.

Ben Ami: From Roz-Chicago, USA: "How do we convince our secular leaders, who are largely devoid of Jewish values, to do what is right." Firstly, Roz, as long as you write from Chicago, these are not your "secular leaders". Come to Israel and share the danger and risk with us, and we will then listen to what you have to say. In particular, your claim that the Israel leadership is "devoid of Jewish values" demonstrates a remarkable degree of ignorance. There are much more "Jewish values" in the leadership of Israel than in people who send us their advice from the comfort of their Chicago homes.

Roz-Chicago, USA: The Mandells are absolutely right, based on common sense, and the Torah's perspective. But the families of captive Israelis, understandably, feel that any price to redeem their beloved captives is not too high. From an emotional stance, we can empathize, but the Torah/Chazal well understood that following an emotional perspective wiil only lead to further, and greater, trouble. But how do we convince our secular leaders, who are largely devoid of Jewish values, to do what is right, and have the courage to face, and strengthen, the grieving families while saying no to them?

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