Passover is our time of joy and liberation. It’s a time of release, of going forth from bondage to freedom. It’s a time of hope, a time of “l’shana haba’a b’Yerushalayim!”
This makes the tragic loss this week of the Gershovitz family all the more heartbreaking. Vladimir Gershovitz, the family patriarch, had just come home from the hospital after an extended stay. The family was together when the Iranian ballistic missile struck their apartment building in Haifa. Several of the floors collapsed, crushing the family in their first-floor dwelling.
In addition to Vladimir, his wife Lena, their only son, Dima, and his wife, Lucille-Jane, were all killed.
This one family’s story is in many ways the story of our people. The parents immigrated from Ukraine in the early 1990s. They wanted to live in dignity and freedom in their ancestral homeland. And they did. They built a beautiful life there.
Vladimir was an engineer and Lena was an acting and voice coach, revered by her students. Dima, who spoke 11 languages, was a software developer who met Lucille-Jane on a trip to the Philippines. They fell in love and married soon after.
I have a personal connection to Lena: she was the acting and voice coach of our dear friend, Hadar Peled.
I caught up with Hadar this week between her runs to the shelter as missiles continued to rain down from Iran.
Hadar told me that Lena was a fantastic teacher, but what made her truly special was the way she treated her students. She told me about a student who wanted to learn how to sing despite her breathing difficulties related to severe asthma. Lena worked with her over more than three years, slowly helping her build up her stamina until she was able to share arias at a recital and proudly announce that thanks to Lena’s guidance and her own determination, her asthma was nearly gone.
Lena’s motto was: “Your character is your destiny and hard work is pure happiness.”
הָאוֹפִי שֶׁלְּךָ הוּא הַגּוֹרָל שֶׁלְּךָ. וַעֲבוֹדָה קָשָׁה הִיא אוֹשֶׁר צָרוּף.
This tragic and senseless loss was no accident, no collateral damage. The Iranian regime is deliberately targeting civilians, a war crime. Together with Hezbollah in Lebanon, they are attempting to terrorize an entire nation, including Palestinian Israelis, some of whom are Christian, most of whom are Muslim, and others Druze. Hundreds and hundreds of these missiles have been fired on Israel. Were it not for Israel’s air defenses and its extensive infrastructure of shelters, the casualties would probably be in the tens of thousands instead of the 23 killed so far, may their memories be blessings.
As Passover comes to a close, let us not forget how our seder ends: “Now we are in bondage. Next year we will be free people! Now we are here. In the year to come, we will celebrate in Jerusalem.”
God willing, next year we can celebrate in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and Haifa without worrying about moving the seder to a bomb shelter.
And perhaps next year, Jews living in Iran will celebrate their Judaism openly, freely, and without fear.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoshi