From the chuppah to the skies over Iran

Some years ago the late Joe Krycer who made aliyah with his family after having led JNF Victoria for many years, took it upon himself to assist the then budding community of Sderot located literally on the bor- der of the Gaza strip. In that context he began to work with Rabbi Dovid Fendel, an American oleh who was dean of the Hesder yeshivah located in the city. (Hesder yeshivot are those which combine intensive Torah study with army service; in this case also assisting town residents with meeting their needs.)

On my visit to Sderot in to see the realities of border life I was introduced to Rabi Dovid Fendel – a key personality in the town as well as well as serving as rosh yeshivah. As I was taken around to tour the yeshivah and its surrounds, one of the most striking aspects of that facility was the multitude of shelters – located so that in case of necessity (this was before October 7 but a reality of border life) one could quickly access a shelter wherever you were at the time a siren was heard – on occasions giving barely a minute’s warning.

‘The mesirut nefesh shown by both the groom … and the bride … is a testament to the qu’iet heroism that sustains Am Yisrael.

Sadly on my most recent visit to Sderot in February 2024 when I travelled to Israel to see the horrific reality of what had happened just a few months earlier, what had been a thriving town was now just a shell of its former self, a focal point of the destruction wreaked by Hamas. The most striking feature was the now desolate site of the former police station.

The building in which so many had sought shelter on that terrible first day was now completely demolished – all within it at the time had died. (Many individual residents aside, also murdered on that terrible first day, that, being Simchat Torah, should have been a day of joy was a busload of defenceless pen- sioners who had been about to travel to the Dead Sea for a day of relaxation. Seeing the point where they were bru- tally murdered while alighting the bus brought home the horror the way no other action could.) I cannot leave this element of my story without mentioning that my visit was just one week after the much-publicised visit to Israel – but to Ramallah rather than Sderot – of Penny Wong, Australian Foreign Minister who declined to visit the locations of the atrocities in the south. For myself it was clear that the old adage of seeing is believing was crucial to an understand- ing of unimaginable horror – and it was that action (or inaction) by an official Australian representative that led me to be asked at three meetings with senior army officials: “Australia used to be our good friends – what happened to you”?