Author: Richmond Jewish Day School

Members of ZAKA identification, extraction and rescue team search through the destruction in a Gaza Envelope community following the Oct. 7 attacks. (photo from ZAKA)

The annual Yom Hazikaron ceremony, marking Israel’s day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, took place May 12 at Temple Sholom. It was an unprecedentedly poignant ceremony, with hundreds of in-person attendees and hundreds more attending virtually, many of whom lost loved ones on Oct. 7 and in the war that began that day.

Dikla and Etsik Mizrachi, parents of Ben Mizrachi, the young Vancouver man murdered while heroically providing medical aid to others at the Nova music festival, both spoke.

“This Yom Hazikaron is different,” said Dikla Mizrachi. “This Yom Hazikaron, I can’t think of the many lives that we’ve lost. My heart can’t take the burden. The weight of my grief is too heavy to bear. This Yom Hazikaron, I can only think of one special boy, a boy who had big dreams, life ambitions.” 

Ben grew up in Vancouver, she said, attended Vancouver Hebrew Academy and then King David High School. 

“Ben was so proud of who he was,” his mother told the packed synagogue. “He was proud to be a Jew, he was proud to be Israeli. He had his mind set that, after high school, he would go to Israel and learn in a pre-army Mechina program to prepare him for the IDF. He couldn’t imagine himself doing anything else. And he didn’t. He did it all.” 

Ben Mizrachi served three years in the parachute unit and completed a paramedic course.   

“On Oct. 7, at the young age of 22, Ben was brutally taken from this world at the Nova festival in Re’im,” his mother said. “But he was not taken without a fight. His personality and moral core would not allow it. He did not run away to save himself when he had the chance. He showed tremendous courage and bravery as he tried to save others. 

“We do not know everything about the last hours of Ben’s life. But we have been able to piece together some of them. What we know is that, from 6:30 a.m. to 8:10 a.m., Ben was under attack. We know that he and Itai Bausi, a friend from his kibbutz who went with him to Nova, made a choice to leave the safety of their car and their chance to flee. We know they made this choice in order to render aid to the injured,” she said. 

Two brothers who survived the music festival attack have shared the story of how Ben used his medical skills to attend to the injuries of a young woman and then, with three other young men, transported her on a stretcher to the medical tent, holding her at hip level to avoid snipers. 

“We know after they deposited the woman the boys then separated to run in different directions to escape their attackers,” said Dikla Mizrachi. “We know from the last voicemail message Itai’s girlfriend received from him that he was shot in his back and his leg. We know from both the phones that Itai called Ben multiple times but there was no response and we know that Ben died a hero, as did Itai.

“This past Oct. 7, our life as a family and our life as a Jewish nation changed forever,” she said. “Our collective hearts are completely shattered. Today, we are all in mourning. We all have soldiers in Gaza. We all have 132 hostages in Gaza. We all have evacuees from the north scattered all over the country. We are all suffering together.” 

She told the audience that, at her son’s shiva, an army friend of Ben’s told her that he had lost a cousin in 2021, in Operation Guardian of the Walls. 

“That year, on Yom Hazikaron, Ben had called him and said, ‘I know it’s your first Yom Hazikaron, so if you need or want to talk to someone, I’m here for you,’” she recounted. “This was Ben, thinking about others at every moment and being so sensitive.”

Addressing her late son, she said: “Ben, this is my first Yom Hazikaron and I need you. 

“I need you to help our family choose life each day and give us strength. I know that you are still with us, but can you please send us a sign very soon, a sign that you are OK and in a good and peaceful place? Ben, we will do our best to live our lives according to your values, to be there for others, as you always were, and to cherish the things you loved. We love you. We think about you and we miss you every day a bit more.”

Later in the evening, Ben’s father, Etsik, said Kaddish for his son.

Geoffrey Druker, who has led the annual event for years, noted that this year was different.

“We have within our community families who lost loved ones in the past seven months, lost a son, a father, a brother, a sister, cousins, extended family, and friends,” he said. “Tonight, with our bereaved families here and worldwide, we remember our fallen in the establishment and the defence of the state of Israel, and all who have been murdered in terrorist attacks. We remember them all.”

Members of the BC Jewish community lit candles and spoke about those they have lost. A montage of photographs remembered friends and family of locals, from 1948 to recent months. Druker shared individual stories, a microcosm of the many stories of tragedy and heroism from Oct. 7 and the months since.

He told of the five members of the Kutz family of Kfar Aza – father Aviv, 54, mother Livnat, 49, and sons Rotem, 19, Yonatan, 17, and Yiftach, 15 – who were found hugging each other on a bed, father Aviv trying to provide a protective embrace.

In all, 64 members of Kfar Aza were murdered, and 13 soldiers killed in the battles on Kfar Aza. Among these residents was Mordechai Modi Amir. 

“Modi was a creative person, always thinking outside the box,” Druker said. “So, when they built his secure room, he decided to add a small shower room, a room within a room, with its own door. At 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7 – when the red alert siren went off, Modi, his two daughters and granddaughter entered the safe room.

“When they heard shots close by, and voices speaking Arabic, he told his daughters and granddaughter to enter the tiny shower room and to remain quiet as he closed the door behind them. He then stood waiting in front of the shower room door,” Druker said. “He most likely thought, when the terrorists enter the safe room, they will see a man standing by the wall, they will shoot him, and move on. A member of Kfar Aza later said: ‘Modi was shot several times and fell to the floor. He most likely, in his last seconds alive, saw the terrorist leave, knowing he saved his family.’ And, indeed, 13 hours later, his three family members left the tiny shower room alive, and survived.”

Vancouverite Amnon Kones and his family lived on Kfar Aza for 20 years and knew many of those killed. He lit a candle of remembrance, as did Sam Heller, who lived there during his military service as a lone soldier.

Adi Vital-Kaploun, an Israeli-Canadian who lived on Kibbutz Holit, was a relative of Vancouver residents Jason Rivers and Helen Heacock Rivers.

“Her husband was away that weekend,” Druker explained. “When Adi realized terrorists had infiltrated her kibbutz, she phoned her husband and asked how to operate his weapon, to defend her children.

“By some miracle, Adi persuaded the terrorists to allow her two young boys, Negev, 3-and-a-half, and Eshel, 6 months old, to be kept by her neighbour, Avital. Adi was shot and murdered in her home, and her body booby-trapped by the terrorists,” said Druker. “The Hamas terrorists then marched Adi’s neighbour, Avital, who was carrying Negev and Eshel, towards Gaza. At the Gaza border, for some unknown reason, they were released, and they survived, though 3-and-a-half-year-old Negev had been shot in the foot.”

Noam Caplan and Kessem Keidar, members of Habonim Dror Camp Miriam, lost family members and a friend on Oct. 7. Caplan spoke of his cousin, Maya Puder, 25, who was murdered at the Nova festival. Keidar remembered her cousin’s uncle, Amit Vax (Wachs), who was murdered in Netiv HaAsara. 

“When he was killed, he was not aware that his brother Igal Vax was murdered earlier, while he too was fighting the terrorists on the other side of the moshav,” said Keidar.

The pair lit candles in memory of these victims, as well as Vivian Silver, another Canadian-Israeli, who lived on Kibbutz Be’eri.

It is estimated that about 120 people were murdered on Kibbutz Be’eri, among them Sylvia Ohayon. Dalia Ohayon lit a candle in memory of her sister.

Five members of the Bira family were murdered on the kibbutz: Oron Bira, 52, and his wife, Yasmin Laura Bira, 51, and their daughters Tahir, 22, and Tahel, 15, along with Oron’s elder brother, Tal, 62. Yahav, Oron and Yasmin’s son, was in another house, and is the sole survivor. 

Navah Jacobs, a member of the extended Bira family, lit a candle in their memory.

Vancouverite Hofit Sabi recalled her cousin, Yinon Tamir, a 20-year-old paratrooper killed in action in the Gaza Strip in November, having earlier served among the first responders at Kibbutz Be’eri.

“Before going into Gaza, a few weeks after the battle of Be’eri, another comrade told of how Yinon comforted and guided him through his fears and anxieties to go into Gaza,” said Sabi. “Yinon promised that he would stay by his side and protect him, and he did, until his death. Yinon’s courage and leadership qualities shone through.”

Tamir had told his mother that he saw things at Be’eri that he could never unsee and that he felt a profound sense of privilege to serve and protect the right “to live as free people in our homeland.”

Itzhak Ben Bassat, a colonel nicknamed Benba, had just returned from vacation abroad at the end of a storied military career when he received a message to head for Be’eri on Oct. 7. He fought there for two days, securing the kibbutz, and survived. He died in battle two months later, age 44. His sister, Hamutal Ben Bassat, lit a candle in memory of her brother.

Nicky Wasserman Fried, whose uncle Aaron Fried died in the 1948 War of Independence, lit a candle in his memory and told the audience of casualties in Vancouver’s partnership region in northern Israel.

“Three IDF soldiers from our region were killed fighting Hamas as they infiltrated our communities surrounding Gaza on Oct. 7,” Fried said. “Since Oct. 7, an additional seven soldiers and three civilians have been killed.”

Cantor Yaacov Orzech chanted El Moleh Rachamim. The Clore & Roll Ensemble, who were the featured entertainers at the next evening’s Yom Ha’atzmaut event, performed, as did singers Mayan Molland, Shir Barzel and the Meitar Choir. Shir Barzel played piano. 

The ceremony was presented by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver and the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.