Miriam Peretz, Israel Prize, Yom Ha'atzmaut 5778, 2018

Thanks to Gesher, the extraordinary speech Miriam Peretz gave at the Israel Prize,Yom Ha'atzmaut 5778, 2018 Ceremony has been translated into English. Now you can listen and understand it even if you don't know Hebrew. Read the subtitles.



Miriam Peretz has also told her life story, which was written up into a totally fascinating biography, which I highly recommend, Miriam's Song--The Story of Miriam Peretz by Smadar Shir. The translation is excellent.

Timeless: "A Club I Don’t Want to Join"

A friend of mine whose sibling was murdered a few years ago by Arab terrorists told me that when her mother came to comfort Rena Ariel, she was looked upon as a role model as bereaved mother and had the sad job to welcome the grieving Rena into "the club I don't want to join."

Amichai and Rena Ariel grieve at their daughter's funeral. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Over ten years ago, I wrote one of my early "musings" about this club. It may have had been before I was blogging. I did post it previously, here and here. But it's timeless:

Musings #13
May 22, 2003

A Club I Don’t Want to Join

The other night I was at a beautiful, joyous wedding. The bride was one of the younger daughters of people I have known since my teens. When she smiled I went back almost forty years, when I first knew her mother.

I knew quite a few people there, but not from our mutual past. These friends have something in common with the parents of the bride. They are all bereaved parents; one of their children was killed by Arab terrorists.

They are all members of a club I don’t want to join. The parents of the bride are veteran members. She befriends other parents whose children are killed to help them rejoin and regain “normal life.” Everyone could see the joy she, her husband and parents get from her surviving children and grandchildren.

The Arab terrorists murder and maim Jews. They cause great pain to the surviving family and friends, BUT THEY CANNOT DESTROY US. We are surviving, and we will always survive! We survived slavery in Egypt. We survived Haman in Persia. We survived the Greeks. We survived the Crusaders. We survived the Inquisition. We survived the Nazi Holocaust, and we will survived these murderers and all of their supporters.

I have no doubts.

Every generation has its challenges and its heroes.

Batya Medad
Shiloh