"On Memorial Day it is appropriate to wear the flower on the garment, not just a picture of it" | Israel today

In September 2003, she was killed in a terrorist attack at Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem, Nava Applebaum, together with her father David. • 18 years later, their family heads an organization that worked on developing a growing method that could replace the familiar sticker with the Maccabim blood flower on Memorial Day.

• "The first flower my children recognized was the blood of the Maccabees. This beautiful and humble flower symbolizes so much."

  Shabi and Natan Spiro with Ariel Marsky

  Photo: 

  Gideon Markovich

"Just as on a woman's day you will not present your loved one with a plastic flower, and certainly not a sticker with a photo of a flower, so on Memorial Day the flower itself should be worn on the garment. It is very common in England and the British Commonwealth, where everyone wears the poppy for a whole week. Says Natan Spiro, 38, one of the founders of the Blood of the Maccabees, a resident of Alon, married and a father of two, a real estate attorney.

This beautiful and humble flower symbolizes so much. " 

The idea of ​​reviving the symbol of memory by wearing a real flower of the blood of the Maccabees, has been nesting in Nathan for years.

Those who helped him fulfill his dream are Shabi Spiro, his younger brother, and Ariel Marsky.

The three founded the association together about four years ago.

They looked for a donor, but when they did not find one, they invested considerable sums and thousands of hours of volunteering out of their own pockets.

Since then, in preparation for Remembrance Day, they have been mobilizing for a kind of reserve and operating the logistical arrangement of picking flowers, drying them, transporting them, packing them and distributing them.

Shabi (Shmuel Shabtai) Spiro, 33, a mentor by profession, a resident of Nokdim, married and a father of five, serves as the association's general manager, and since then Corona has been working part-time there. We meet on Monday morning this week. 10th grade students at Eldad High School in Netanya gather excitedly Under the olive trees in the school yard.This is the first time this year that they are not in capsules, finally returning to the frame after months of learning in black

squares.The

school has made a decision in principle to welcome students in voluntary value activities, rather than regular learning.

Teacher Congratulations Rata-Brenner , Who organized the activity, warmly welcomes the boys and girls and scatters them around the tables. In the center of the table are plastic boxes from which gray stems with a reddish inflorescence peek out. Shavei opens the meeting with a short lecture. The first.

"My grandparents then visited England. When they heard that Danny, who was a relative of theirs, had been killed, they immediately booked plane tickets to Israel. They were afraid that no one would be at the funeral. In Israel they made the decision to make aliyah. They returned to the US and within a year The extended family, the Spiro-Applebaum tribe, immigrated to Israel.

My parents also immigrated to Karnei Shomron with two children.

I am the first son born in the country.

You could say that I gained thanks to Danny Haz. "

"A good legend from any fact"

The uncles, Debra and David Applebaum, also immigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem.

Nava, the cousin of Nathan and Shavei, was the first Sabra in the tribal Apple branch.

David, the father, a physician who specializes in emergency medicine and the treatment of multiple casualties, founded the TRM Medical Service and was the director of the emergency room at Shaare Zedek Hospital.

On Tuesday evening, September 2003, the family worked on the final preparations for the wedding of 20-year-old Nava to her heartthrob, Hanan.

Less than 24 hours before the wedding, at 11 at night, David and his daughter Nava jumped into Cafe Hillel in Emek Refaim in Jerusalem.

He invited her for a father-daughter talk just before the wedding.

A suicide bomber who blew himself up, murdered the bride and her father the doctor, who was immediately identified at the scene by MDA personnel who knew him well. Along with them, five other people were killed.  

"At the time I was a kind of 15-year-old boy. I wandered between frames." Shave number. "The last stop was a school for dropouts.

But even there the principal who really liked me asked me to leave because I am adversely affecting the other students.

On the night of the attack, I was sitting in Karnei Shomron with friends outside.

My mother called and asked me to come home immediately to sing Psalms about Uncle David, because there was a terrorist attack.

I ran home.

I remember long minutes of trying to figure out what happened, until my mom got the news that David had been killed.

I broke down in tears.

"We decided to go to Jerusalem and went through a human facility to pick up Natan, who was on a course on behalf of the army. Only when we arrived in Jerusalem were we informed that Nava was also killed in the attack. My mother dropped us off at Applebaum's house and asked us to fix it. The house was empty. The family ran to the hospital. I remember the table. And on it the notes with the names of the guests and the table numbers. More than that I do not remember. Each attack has its own shock waves and ripples that it creates. I am not a whole family, but as a cousin, as a second circle, this event changed my life. At first I crashed and reached the bottom, until I met "A friend who caught me and today is my wife. In the end, this attack grew me and put me back in the groove."

Shabi tells the students the legend of the Maccabim blood flower - wherever a Maccabi warrior's blood drop fell, where the flower sprouted.

"Sometimes a legend is better than any factual description. Growing out of bereavement, that's the Israeli ethos. That's my personal story, and in fact ours, because there is no Israeli who has not lost a relative or brother or neighbor. This message has led us to revive this humble flower and what That it symbolizes. "  

At the end of the lecture, the boys and girls thread the flowers into the circle of pins and put them in tiny, transparent boxes.

From there, they will be transferred to bereaved families and clients on the association's website. 

From Karnei Shomron to the Golan Heights

from Netanya, we encrypt Moshav Kerem Maharal, which is burning in spring green, where Ariel and Natan are waiting for us. At Zeraim Mitzion Farm, the wildflower nursery in Israel, The blood of the Maccabees. "When Nathan turned to us, he asked us to help and guide him to grow the blood of the Maccabees.

He said his wife really likes the flower and he wants to grow it in the garden.

For some reason in the first stage they were afraid to reveal their plan to us, "Hila recalls with a smile.

" We tried to grow the plant from seeds and we saw that the growth rate is so low, 0.1 percent, that thousands of seeds grow only a few flowers.

In the end, we managed to grow the flower in greenhouses using the method of splitting tubers. "The difficulties continued to emerge along the way. This year, pigs and moles hit the greenhouses, and the volatile weather did not improve with the bloom.

" Last year, despite all the corona difficulties, 40,000 pins With flowers.

Our original target this year was 120,000, but because of all the damage we will only be able to distribute 60,000, "explains Natan." But at least we included our working methods.

"Last year, my house was 'nationalized', all the packaging and the ordering center were inside. 

" "This year, the community center in Karnei Shomron has joined the mission and 90 percent of the packaging is done voluntarily by families who received home kits and by the youth," Shabi adds.

"This week I moved to the parents' house in Karnei Shomron to operate all this complex array. My wife is used to it from my work as a guide and guide in the Taglit project. By the way, we are closing the site for reservations this coming Saturday night at ten at night, so we have enough time to prepare. "To the distribution points. Last year we left it open until the last minute, but then we got very involved. I sent my brother on Memorial Day itself to a whole family in the Golan, because they asked for the flowers." 

Growing up from the disaster,

the third rib in the group is, as mentioned, Ariel Marsky, 38, a real estate attorney, married and a father of five.

He immigrated to Israel at the age of two from South Africa.

His parents, who were among the founders of Efrat, befriended the Spiro-Applebaum families.

When he was 20 he met Shira Applebaum, Nava's younger sister.

They became a couple when Shira was a 17-year-old high school student and he is a young fighter appointed to a brigade commander

.

We received a warning about a 'hot hammer', meaning a suicide bomber who was about to leave his home at any moment with an explosive belt.

We arrived at the house in al-Azaria and interrogated the terrorist's wife.

We heard the echoes of the explosion, and a little later Shira called me.

She heard the explosion and ran barefoot to Hillel Cafe, which is two minutes from their house.

From there she called me agitated and said there was an attack and her father was injured.

We realized we had missed the terrorist and the operation was interrupted.

"The brigade commander immediately drove me to the hospital. We left the terrorist's house straight to the horrific results of his actions." 

Nathan and Shabi are shocked by the story that Ariel reveals for the first time.

The Spiro-Baum tribe, as they call themselves, are close and cohesive, but do not talk much about that nightmare.

Even telling their story now is not easy for them.

In previous years, we were not interviewed, because they did not want to link the Maccabim Blood Association to their personal story.

"It was important to us that the Maccabim Blood Association not be named after a specific person, but remain something state and national, connecting everyone," says Natan.

"The association was not established in memory of David and Nava." 

"The association is not identified with this or that fall, but the story of Nava and David is definitely something that pushed us to do something," Ariel explains.

"It's part of our story and the family message. Deborah is a woman full of joy of life, busy volunteering and studying Torah. Whoever meets her has a hard time believing she has lost a daughter and a husband. Already at seven she gathered the children and asked them to think about how they grow and grow from the disaster.

" Something from the character of Dad or Nava and will continue with it.

This is the idea of ​​the blood of the Maccabees - to grow out of bereavement.

By the way, my office is located today in the same building where the attack took place.

I first asked Debra and Shira if this was something that would bother them.

They immediately replied, on the contrary, that it was actually a good idea, that it would now come out of the same place well. " 

Connecting to land and history

In the past year, the Maccabim Blood Association is a member of 20 commemorative associations and accompanies bereaved families, with the goal of raising money from the public Towards Memorial Day. ”The bereaved families who approach us receive the flower pin for free.

"Various organizations and individuals purchase the flower through our website," Shabi explains.

"Each flower pin costs 18 shekels.

Only ten shekels go to finance our expenses, even though we have not really been able to cover them yet.

The remaining eight shekels can be purchased by any buyer to which association he wants to donate.

The associations are very diverse - from "One Family", through an association for locating the victims of unknown individuals, to an association to commemorate Zidane Saif, the Druze policeman who fought a terrorist in a synagogue on Mount Nof. "

This year he also joined Jewish organizations around the world.

"Along with the flower and the brooch, this year the bereaved families will also receive a letter of support from Jews around the world. This is a kind of international embrace from Jewish communities around the world," Ariel adds. 

What is your dream for the future?

Where do you aspire to develop? 

Nathan: "In England there is no person who leaves the house without a poppy. It is a dignified thing with presence. We strive there, to revive this humble national flower, to bring it back to the center of Remembrance Day. On Independence Day the whole country flags, on Remembrance Day the whole country will be flowers. The living flower symbolizes the connection to the land and the connection to our history.

"We are beginning to distribute the flowers on Holocaust Day, so that people will go with them from Holocaust Day to Independence Day, turning it into ten days of thanksgiving and resurrection.

Memorial Day is like a secular or civil Yom Kippur.

This is almost the last undisputed day.

It is also a day of soul-searching.

We ask ourselves on this day - are we walking the path for which the dead fell?

Were they proud of us? "

Ariel:" The flower is a symbol that can unite the Jewish people.

"Some communities abroad are less sympathetic to Independence Day and the hoisting of the Israeli flag. For Memorial Day and a symbol of growth out of bereavement, everyone is connected. Today we are still in the distribution stage in Israel, but the goal is for every Jew in the world to wear a flower and a pin and proudly connect with Judaism and Israel." 

Shabi: "Another dream is to establish professional greenhouses, offices and a visitor center in the Jerusalem Corridor, in connection with a story about the pioneers of Jerusalem. The project is still far from achieving these goals. We are at the beginning, but there are many small successes. Everyone who reacts and gets excited, every family Touching her, it's a success.We did not anticipate how complex the project would be and how many complications would be on the way, but the truth is that it also provides more than we thought it would.During this time I work 16 hours a day, and then I also dream of flowers at night.In the middle of logistics I get messages "From bereaved families or just from someone who was touched by the idea. I read the messages and start crying."