In this issue: The full recording of this morning's tour of the Nova festival site with David Sussman, and where to find each part of it. Rabbi Leo Dee in Atlanta on Thursday, October 22. And a duck on a Magen David Adom blood mobile in Tel Aviv.
Three years ago this morning, Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel. They murdered about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages into Gaza. Hundreds of them were at the Nova music festival, dancing in a field near Re'im when the sun came up.
Today we went back to that field together. Thank you to everyone who joined us this morning for the tour of the Nova festival site with David Sussman. We promised everyone who registered the recording, and here it is.
If you joined us live, you can go back over anything you missed. If you couldn't make it, the whole tour is here. Pass it on to anyone who should see it: your kids, your rabbi, a friend who's never heard what happened at Nova.
We opened the morning with a prayer. Here is part of it, to carry with you:
Our Father in heaven. Remember the men, women and children who were murdered on October 7th, at Nova, in the kibbutzim, in the towns along the border. May their memory be a blessing.
Comfort the families who lost them. Send a complete healing to everyone wounded that day, in body and in spirit. Watch over the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, and bring every one of them home safe.
God gives strength to His people; God blesses His people with peace.
And say their names. Every person murdered at Nova had a name and a face. Pick one this week, learn who they were, and tell someone about them.
We kept this morning free so anyone could come, but bringing David to you live from the Nova site isn't free. If it meant something to you, a gift helps us cover it and bring you the next one.
Were you with us this morning? Tell us how it landed, in two minutes. You don't have to give your name.
Thank you for remembering October 7 with us. Am Yisrael chai.
— Cheryl Dorchinsky,
Founder & Executive Director,
Atlanta Israel Coalition
What the tour covered
Three years to the day, David took us live across the Nova festival site and through the communities along the Gaza border that were attacked at dawn that Shabbat. Cheryl opened the morning with a prayer for Israel and for the victims.
If you want a particular part, here is where it sits in the recording:
0:00 Welcome, Cheryl Dorchinsky 1:46 A prayer for Israel and for the victims 3:12 The Nova festival site, with David Sussman 1:15:02 Closing
David has been guiding AIC audiences since 2020: two tours of the Old City that December, two five-part virtual series after them, and all ten days of AIC's first in-person mission in November 2022.
And if you want to go further back, here is our earlier walk through the Nova site.
In person · Free to attend · Toco Hills
From Darkness to Light: Rabbi Leo Dee in Atlanta
Thu, Oct 22 · Doors 7:20 PM · Program 7:45 PM · Toco Hills
On April 7, 2023, Rabbi Leo Dee's wife Lucy and their daughters Maia and Rina were murdered in a terror attack in the Jordan Valley. He has spent the years since talking to Jewish communities around the world about what a person does the next morning, and the morning after that.
He is coming to Atlanta with his wife, Aliza. It is free to attend, and we send you the address in Toco Hills when you register.
MITZVAHS THAT FLOAT
Left on a Magen David Adom blood mobile in Tel Aviv
A Quacker left this one aboard a Magen David Adom blood mobile in Tel Aviv. Last they heard, it was still there, waiting for whoever spots it first.
On AIC's last mission, Cheryl, Uri and Modi all rolled up their sleeves for Magen David Adom too. Modi gave so generously he passed out. (He's fine. The juice and cookies helped.)
Ducks keep turning up all over Israel: under the Chagall windows in Jerusalem, next to a blessing in a hotel lobby in Netanya, and at the Michael Levin Base barbecue in Jerusalem, where a bar mitzvah project hid them all over as a thank-you.
Heading to Israel? Take a few with you and hide them. Every duck carries a QR code back to the map, so you get to see where yours lands.
Left along the way in Israel: under the Chagall windows, Jerusalem · a hotel lobby, Netanya · a bar mitzvah project barbecue, Jerusalem