In her weekly column, Orit Strouk reflects on a message from bereaved father Haim Habshush after his son Nave, killed in Lebanon, and argues that the proper response to loss is to keep building a life of mission, settlement, national service and Jewish identity. Habshush, from Adam in Binyamin, wrote that army officers came to bring the worst possible news, then said he would be happy to see people continue going on trips and living as normally as possible, because that is why Nave died, so Jews could keep living in the country “in safety, joy and calm.”
Strouk says that call has stayed with her since morning and connects it to the initiatives she oversees. She highlighted National Service Appreciation Week, which she said she has led for four years, praising the young women who care for the elderly, children without family support, people with disabilities, the ill, bereaved families and war wounded, and who keep farming alive in northern border communities under fire. She also said they support reservists’ families and even come to military assembly areas to fit glasses for soldiers.
She then praised mission-oriented community groups across the country, calling them “a nuclear power plant,” and marked 30 years for the Lod-based “Lodaim” settlement group, which she said doubled and quadrupled in size and helped the city grow and withstand the riots five years ago. She also noted a decade for Kedma, which sends young people to settle in the periphery and borders, combines this with Jewish learning, and connects them to the land, agriculture and local residents. Strouk said the group’s founder, Tehila Al, has just published a book, “Life on the Edge,” about the communities she created.
Finally, Strouk praised the organization “Zehut” and its affiliates for bringing Jewish identity programs into non-religious schools and said it has done so for four years with creativity and relevance. She closed by citing the biblical story of Miriam’s well, saying quiet, unpublicized daily service sustains the nation just as Miriam sustained Israel for 40 years. To Habshush, she wrote that alongside fighting in Lebanon and other fronts, Israelis will continue a meaningful, spirit-filled routine in Nave’s memory.
