_(english).jpg "Taking the Spiritual Dive")
_(english).jpg "Genetic Screening for Breast Cancer Genes")
_(english).jpg "When Bad Things Happen")
_(english).jpg "Judaism and the 12-Step Program")
+.jpg "Knowledge and Wisdom")
+.jpg "Moshe, Miriam and Prophecy")
+.jpg "Don't Give Up")
My name is Aron Adler. I am 25 years old, was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Efrat, Israel. Though very busy, I don't view my life as unusual. Most of the time, I am just another Israeli citizen. During the day I work as a paramedic in Magen David Adom, Israel's national EMS service. At night, I'm in my first year of law school. I got married this October and am starting a new chapter of life together with my wonderful wife Shulamit.
A few weeks out of every year, I'm called up to the Israeli army to do my reserve duty. I serve as a paramedic in an IDF paratrooper unit. My squad is made up of others like me; people living normal lives who step up to serve when responsibility calls. The oldest in my squad is 58, a father of four girls and grandfather of two; there are two bankers, one engineer, a holistic healer, and my 24-year-old commander who is still trying to figure out what to do with his life. Most of the year we are just normal people living our lives, but for 15-20 days each year we are soldiers on the front lines preparing for a war that we hope we never have to fight.
This year, our reserve unit was stationed on the border between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip in an area called "Kerem Shalom." Above and beyond the "typical" things for which we train – war, terrorism, border infiltration, etc., this year we were confronted by a new challenge. Several years ago, a trend started of African refugees crossing the Egyptian border from Sinai into Israel to seek asylum from the atrocities in Darfur. What started out as a small number of men, women and children fleeing from the machetes of the Janjaweed and violent fundamentalists to seek a better life elsewhere, turned into an organized industry of human trafficking. In return for huge sums of money, sometimes entire life savings paid to Bedouin "guides," these refugees are promised to be transported from Sudan, Eritrea and other African countries through Egypt and the Sinai desert, into the safe haven of Israel.
We increasingly hear horror stories of the atrocities these refugees suffer on their way to freedom. They are subject to, and victims of extortion, rape, murder and even organ theft, their bodies left to rot in the desert. Then, if lucky, after surviving this gruesome experience whose prize is freedom, when only a barbed wire fence separates them from Israel and their goal, they must go through the final death run and try to evade the bullets of the Egyptian soldiers stationed along the border. Egypt's soldiers are ordered to shoot to kill anyone trying to cross the border OUT of Egypt and into Israel. It's an almost nightly event.
For those who finally get across the border, the first people they encounter are Israeli soldiers, people like me and those in my unit, who are tasked with a primary mission of defending the lives of the Israeli people. On one side of the border soldiers shoot to kill. On the other side, they know they will be treated with more respect than in any of the countries they crossed to get to this point.
The region where it all happens is highly sensitive and risky from a security point of view, an area stricken with terror at every turn. It's just a few miles south of the place where Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. And yet the Israeli soldiers who are confronted with these refugees do it not with rifles aimed at them, but with a helping hand and an open heart. The refugees are taken to a nearby IDF base, given clean clothes, a hot drink, food and medical attention. They are finally safe.
Even though I live in Israel and am aware through media reports of the events that take place on the Egyptian border, I never understood the intensity and complexity of the scenario until I experienced it myself.
In the course of the past few nights, I have witnessed much. At 9 p.m. last night, the first reports came in of gunfire heard from the Egyptian border. Minutes later, IDF scouts spotted small groups of people trying to get across the fence. In the period of about one hour, we picked up 13 men - cold, barefoot, dehydrated - some wearing nothing except underpants. Their bodies were covered with lacerations and other wounds. We gathered them in a room, gave them blankets, tea and treated their wounds. I don't speak a word of their language, but the look on their faces said it all and reminded me once again why I am so proud to be a Jew and an Israeli. Sadly, it was later determined that the gunshots we heard were deadly, killing three others fleeing for their lives.
During the 350 days a year when I am not on active duty, when I am just another man trying to get by, the people tasked with doing this amazing job, this amazing deed, the people witnessing these events, are mostly young Israeli soldiers just out of high school, serving their compulsory time in the IDF, some only 18 years old.
The refugees flooding into Israel are a heavy burden on our small country. More than 100,000 refugees have fled this way, and hundreds more cross the border every month. The social, economic and humanitarian issues created by this influx of refugees are immense. There are serious security consequences for Israel as well. This influx of African refugees poses a crisis for Israel. Israel has yet to come up with the solutions required to deal with this crisis effectively, balancing its' sensitive social, economic and security issues, at the same time striving to care for the refugees.
I don't have the answers to these complex problems which desperately need to be resolved. I'm not writing these words with the intention of taking a political position or a tactical stand on the issue.
Israel has put politics aside to take the ethical humane path, as so often before.
I am writing to tell you and the entire world what's really happening down here on the Egyptian/Israeli border. And to tell you that despite all the serious problems created by this national crisis, these refugees have no reason to fear us. Because they know, as the entire world needs to know, that Israel has not shut its eyes to their suffering and pain. Israel has not looked the other way. The State of Israel has put politics aside to take the ethical and humane path as it has so often done before, in every instance of human suffering and natural disasters around the globe. We Jews know only too well about suffering and pain. The Jewish people have been there. We have been the refugees and the persecuted so many times, over thousands of years, all over the world.
Today, when African refugees flood our borders in search of freedom and better lives, and some for fear of their lives, it is particularly noteworthy how Israel deals with them, despite the enormous strain it puts on our country on so many levels.
Our young and thriving Jewish people and country, built from the ashes of the Holocaust, do not turn their backs on humanity. Though I already knew that, this week I once again experienced it firsthand. I am overwhelmed with emotion and immensely proud to be a member of this nation.
With love of Israel,
Aron Adler, writing from the Israel/Gaza/Egyptian border
_(english).jpg "Every Soldier a Hero")
_(english).jpg "Rise Up from the Ashes")
(49) declan carroll, December 10, 2011 11:03 AM
Hello from Dublin, Ireland. I read your letter & I am deeply touched by it. Many thanks for the wonderful work you are doing & your letter ought to be printed in every newspaper around the world. Take care & best wishes for the future. Declan.
(48) Lynn Morgenstein, December 5, 2011 4:12 AM
Dear Aron, your letter touched me to the core. I'm overwhelmed with emotion myself and am grateful that there are people like you and others in the IDF unit who make this world a better place. May you be safe! God bless!
(47) Frederica Steller, December 1, 2011 9:22 PM
First of all, Mazel Tov on your wedding and marriage! I'm half Jewish; but, I love Israel and all the Jewish people. Just wish to say two things: Thanks for all you & the IDF does; I'm adding all of you to my ongoing prayer list. May God bless & protect you all!
(46) Josh, December 1, 2011 4:05 PM
We must do the ethical & humane thing - but not more!
Aron's letter was right on target. He spoke about the Jewish people's and Israels ethical and humane values. This is how we must behave. But that should be the limit. The African refugees should not be able to get "further" into Israel. The govt needs to setup facilities in the Negev near the Egyptian border to humanely house these refugees until they can be safely repatriated. It is our moral and ethical obligation to do that. Israel should demand assistance from other countries, the International Red Cross, and from the UN to cover the costs. After all, these organizations are so concerned with human rights (Yeah, right). The acceptance of the refugees into Israeli cities is a looming disaster for Israel.
(45) Shoshana, December 1, 2011 10:34 AM
really beautiful, touchling, overwhelmilng
And Lenore asked, what happened to them in Israel. So come to Tel Aviv and see. Ah, Tel Aviv. Once a beautiful Jewish city. Now half of it is these African Black Moslem Arabs. Infitrating at the rate of 4000 a month. (four thousand). A low class and dangerous people, making life for the Jews unbearable. Mosques going up all over the place. But so what? Anyway Hertzl wanted to settle the Jews in Africa. So now they're resettling Africa in Israel. Really beautiful. And now the Jewish residents of black Tel Aviv want to resettle these Africans in North Tel Aviv, where the rich, open-minded and tolerent left-wingers reside. After all , they are all for this infiltration and one of the big causes of it. But alas, they won't tolerate them in THEIR neighborhood for one day. P.S. Please don't misunderstand me, I really think that the Israeli soldiers were one-hundred percent right to give these people water, food, clothing and medical treatment. It was the only thing to do and they are really to be praised for it. P.P.S. So what to do now? First close the boarder between Israel and Egypt and stop the infiltration. And in some way get the ones here already out of the country. (You see them with their baby carriages already Starting a second generation. ) And to where? It's beyond me. Maybe the good old USA.? It is a big country and they won't bother anybody too much. Here, we might just become the minority, G-d forbid. Ah! So touching. So beautiful.