On Sunday 12 October, under the looming spectre of the return of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, the community was privileged to welcome Yonatan Haber and Shir David to address us as part of their “Stories of Resilience” tour delivered by StandWithUs UK.
Yonatan and Shir spoke movingly about their experiences on October 7th. Yonatan was deployed to Kibbutz Kfar Aza where he went door to door, battling Hamas terrorists and rescuing civilians. He spoke movingly about what he learned from this experience, and his subsequent 300 days of service, and gave the community a mission to spread the truth about Israel.
Aged 20, Shir was at the Nova Festival when she and her best friend Esther escaped when they heard rocket fire. They jumped into a car with a barman at the festival, Ori Arad, and sped away from the site. Shir spoke movingly about her horrifying experience, which included seeing Hamas murder Ori in front of her eyes. She spoke poignantly about her determination to continue Ori’s legacy.
Following their enrapturing testimonies and questions from the community, the audience joined together in prayer and song for Israel, and lit candles for the communities in southern Israel that were destroyed on October 7th.
This was a tremendously moving, symbolic and insightful evening.
Zak Wagman
