"Rockfor is a band I grew up on," says Avigdor Gavish (39) about the joint performance with the mythological band last Friday.
"I had the privilege of meeting them and doing something with them."
On Friday, Avigdor, a bereaved son and brother from one of the worst attacks in the second intifada, somewhat fulfilled his mother's will, and took another step towards a musical career.
"It was a week after I enlisted. I did not even have a weapon," Gavish recalled that horrible night when he killed his two parents, his brother and grandfather in one of the most tragic attacks in the second intifada.
On the evening of the first holiday of Pesach 2002, just a day after the deadly attack on the Park Hotel, a terrorist broke into the Gavish family home in Elon Moreh in Samaria and opened fire, killing Avigdor's two parents - David and Rachel, his grandfather Yitzhak and his brother Avraham, who was an officer in the Tech Regiment. L. In one moment Avigdor, a young warrior who had made his first steps in the Magellan unit, lost an essential part of his family. "I went back to the army, it was a kind of incubator for me."
Avigdor Gavish at an achievement fund event on Friday, Photo: Private
For Gavish, despite the horrific attack, combat service was part of his upbringing and he did not intend to give up in any way.
"My father was in the Shaked patrol in the 1970s and was seriously wounded in the war of attrition, Avraham was in the General Staff patrol, and my two other brothers were in the Yael patrol and the Golani patrol.
My mother said that I might go to the IDF Orchestra, because from the age of zero I played the piano, at her urging, but it did not work for her. , And then went out for citizenship. "When I went out I began to encounter life itself, and deal with that loss face to face."
After the army, Avigdor began to study engineering, but during a trip to India he realized what his real purpose was - music.
"After the army I started studying engineering, which is a field that is very connected to me, but at some point in my trip to India I had more time to understand and deepen, and I realized that music beats in me all the time.
After graduating from engineering school he studied at the Psalm School for four years, and started his joint career.
Crystal family before the attack,
"I'm an engineer and a musician," he laughs.
"I can find a job five days a week and earn as an engineer, but my heart is not there, so I work to make a living from music."
So far he has released two albums, and now he is working on a third album that is expected to be released soon, and is much more personal.
"The next album is going to be songs from our house, that we used to sing together - my dad and the others. It's the soundtrack that accompanied me for the first twenty years of my life, and now we'll record the album - me and my brothers together. It gives us the strength to face what we went through, to live. "Living in joy and in a place of faith, even though it was very challenging. I did not beautify reality, but everything we absorbed at home gives us a lot of strength to choose every time in life."
Rockfor Band performing, Photo: Private
He says that to some extent it is his mother's will.
"I did not see myself as a musician when I was growing up, but my mother directed me there and knew it was my way. I see it in the things she wrote to me and that remained after her death, among other things."
Two years ago, Gavish married Ayelet Dickstein, who also lost her family members in a particularly severe attack during the second intifada.
In July 2002, four months after the murder in Elon Moreh, terrorists opened fire on a vehicle belonging to the Dickstein family at the Zif junction, in the southern Hebron hills.
The parents - Hannah and Yossi, and 9-year-old Shoval, were murdered.
Sgt. Elazar Leibowitz was also killed in the attack. Ayelet, who was in the car, survived. The young couple had a baby last February. "I do not look at Ayelet as having a story similar to mine.
I met someone, fell in love and married her.
"True, we have a common denominator and a way that everyone goes through on their own and a way that we go through together, but beyond that it is the story of a man who met a woman."
The performance on Friday was part of a special achievement fund event, which awards scholarships to lone soldiers and fighters.
"The foundation provides scholarships to soldiers, most of whom are from abroad, exceptional cases in Israel such as ultra-Orthodox soldiers who left home, or in very rare cases - soldiers like me." The Rockfor band also participated in the event Chris Headfield, one of the most decorated astronauts in the world - and the first ever to perform a spacewalk.
The show, photo: private
"When we established the Achievement Fund, we just wanted to say thank you to those who contributed so much to Israel, to those who immigrated and volunteered to serve in the IDF and to those who sacrificed for the state the most precious of all," says Aviv Bushinsky, director of the Achievement Fund. "Over the years, in the foundation's 15 years of operation, we have seen that these are not only people who deserve thanks but those who embody potential for excellence and leadership in Israeli society. .
"On Friday we had a special connection that connects all these unique qualities. We hosted Chris Hadfield, a Canadian national hero who was a fighter pilot, astronaut and gifted player - excellent in his own right and on the Israeli side - alumni of the foundation: former soldiers: NASA "Avigdor Gavish, who lost almost his entire family in the terrorist attack in Elon Moreh. I am happy to head a foundation that not only nurtures the future generation, but also already reaps the fruits. A clean profit for all learning."
The Roquefort band said they were excited about joining the lone soldiers.
"The Rockfor band has been active in Israel and around the world for the past three decades and has performed in various and varied settings in Israel and around the world. This time, as the band's representatives, we were happy to take part in the special event Musically, therefore, touches us on the professional side, giving us an opportunity to share a stage with a representative of the future generation and applaud him proudly.