Today Sam and I are driving north to Chattanooga. It is 5:30 am and the roads are beginning to feel frenetic with commuters heading to work. Trucks steadily occupy the right lane. Things feel orderly and predictable in the early morning darkness. There still is no hint of the nearby sunrise. In the next hour the landscape will come into view but for now the fields around us are shrouded in a foggy mist.
We are reading memorial stories of the people from our region who have died. The stories have been gathered as we prepare for Yom Hazikaron (the day Israel commemorates fallen soldiers and victims of terror in Israel and abroad). Our friend Ravid translated the accounts of over twenty victims of terror and fallen soldiers and it takes a real effort to read them. I can only imagine how gross she felt reading, translating, proofreading, and passing them along to us.
We want to create a community expression of commemoration and solace.
Art by Zoya Cherkassky
I read aloud to Sam who is driving:
Tamar Sandy, 20 years old, from Pardes Hanna. Daughter of Ran and Adi Samet, and sister of Noi and Nadav.
Tamar attended the "Nova" nature party in Re'im on October 7, 2023, during the terrorist attack in the south. She managed to escape to a shelter near Kibbutz Be’eri, but her traces disappeared from there until the family received the bitter news that Tamar was murdered by Hamas terrorists.
Her family and friends then wrote:
Tamar loved the sea. She was a surfing instructor at the "My Wave" association, where she guided youth at risk, teaching them to confront the challenges of the sea and waves.
Sarit, a family friend, wrote: "How much beauty and sensitivity there is in you. How much music you poured from your heart through your fingers on the guitar and ukulele, reaching the hearts of those around you. It was one of your great details, expressing yourself through music, touching through music, loving through music."
Liati, her friend, wrote: "A beautiful girl with a free spirit. Yellow curls and eyes as blue as the sea."
In the "My Wave" association, they wrote: "An amazing service soldier, a guide full of sensitivity, giving, and joy of life, a child of the sea and freedom. There are no words to describe the loss."
Liron Zahav wrote: "I loved your calmness, your gentleness, and your talent to float like a fairy and create a sense of home. Also, the initiatives you took. Know that you built a community without planning, and it is very encouraging for me to see women coming through your creativity - your trailblazing way - consistently documenting and adopting a lot of courage, the items that arrived at the store. How much love in one girl."
May her memory be blessed.
I don’t know what time of the morning Tamar was kidnapped but I imagine the light could have been like this. I do know the landscape of the Nova site and can imagine it during the first hour of morning light. I have walked around Kibbutz Be’eri just a short way down the road. I know the roads and fields she traversed to escape her kidnappers and was subsequently murdered. I cannot imagine the smells the sounds the assault of evil that enveloped Tamar that morning.
As I write the sky is faintly becoming lighter. Tamar in the early morning hours of Oct 7th bravely escaped the insanity of the Nova event. She found shelter and at some point that shelter was breached and she died at the hands of terrorists.
Liron Zahav wrote: "I loved your calmness, your gentleness, and your talent to float like a fairy and create a sense of home. Also, the initiatives you took. Know that you built a community without planning”
I imagine from that tribute that Tamar’s life was of creation and love. She spent her short life building shelters that nurtured the souls of others.
Terror only succeeds if its evil acts create fear. Was Tamar an enemy of the terrorists?
Spending these early morning hours “with” Tamar I cannot fathom the depravity of her murder. But I can resolve to honor her spirit and keep writing.
Soon we will be seeing our Israeli friends from the P2G partnership who are gathering for our regional partnership meeting.
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