Most of us expect miracles at Chanukah and our
senses are attuned to noticing them. For the Rubin family, however, their
miracle happened after Chanukah was over. It was in 2001, a period in Israel
that was marked by almost daily terror attacks. In the month of December alone
a total of thirty-seven Israelis were murdered and over two hundred and fifty
injured. There had been three major terror attacks and Hamas had claimed
responsibility for all of them.
The Rubin family, like most Israeli families, was
trying their best to deal with the terror and still lead normal lives. Chanukah
had the five children home for the whole week. On the last day, December 17th,
David Rubin had a dentist appointment in Jerusalem, an hour drive from his home
in Shiloh. Being a good father and supportive husband, he asked his wife, Lisa,
if she wanted him to take any of the children with him. She probably would have
sent all of them and enjoyed some quiet time but the three oldest, ages seven
through thirteen had their own plans. The five-year-old declined the outing
stating, “If there are Arabs on the road I’m not going.” That left
three-year-old Ruby. He was happy to have special time with his father.
While they were gone Lisa took time to put the house
back together. The sun had set and it was dark out. Chanukah was over. She was cleaning the menorahs when the phone
rang.
“Where is your husband?” The emergency dispatcher
asked without preamble.
“He’s on the way home from Jerusalem.”
“Okay.” He hung up giving no explanation.
Lisa knew something was wrong and was overcome with
a heavy feeling of dread. Although she did not put her thoughts into words,
even in her mind, she thought her husband and son were dead. What she did not
know was that David had, indeed, been attacked and was frantically pressing the
emergency call button in his car. Since he was in a spot without good reception,
security was having a hard time locating him.
A few seconds later the phone rang again. Thankfully
it was David!
“We were shot at but we’re okay. We’re going to the
hospital.”
They were not okay, but Lisa’s main emotion was one
of thanksgiving. They were alive! Just moments later the Shiloh security head
appeared at her door. “I’m taking you to the hospital,” he announced. A
neighbor came over to stay with the children.
Once at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem Lisa saw the report
of the attack on the news. She stayed calm repeating to herself, “They are
alive. They will be okay.” It became her mantra. Her husband and son were already
in surgery. The head of Public Relations took her to his office so she could
call her family. She also found out the details of the attack.
When they were about twenty minutes from home David
heard the popping of gunshots. From his right forty-nine bullets came shooting
at his car. He was shot in the leg, but miraculously it was his left leg, and
he didn’t need it to drive his automatic transition. The engine had also been
shot but somehow, by another miracle, he was able to restart it and drive to the
village of Ofra, ten minutes away. He knew once there he would have help. As he
drove into the village the motor died and was only restarted when a new motor
was installed. It was inside the gates
of Ofra that David discovered Ruby had also been shot. The bullet that hit his
son’s neck was amazingly just a fraction of an inch away from murdering the
three-year-old.
David and Ruby were in the hospital for two and a
half weeks. Lisa spent that time shuttling between David in the orthopedic
ward, Ruby in pediatric intensive care, and her four children at home. There
was a big support group made up of relatives, friends, and neighbors. Lisa kept
repeating her mantra over and over. She was so grateful. No one knew better
than she how many terror victims had not survived. At that time she was working
with the local council arranging tours to meet with those whose lives had been
turned upside down by Arab violence.
David and Ruby had the dubious honor of being the
thousandth terror victim in the fifteen months of the Oslo war. Initially the
PR head wanted to protect the Rubins from the press but that was exactly what David
did not want. He wanted the world to know what had happened to him. He wanted
everyone to see the personal face of Arab terror. Then and there he began a new
career. Instead of teaching high school English he became a lecturer and
fundraiser for the Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund. He oversees all sorts of
local projects that serve the children in the area. Unfortunately, Ruby is not
the only child who was a victim of terror. In truth, all the children are
victims. Even if they have not been hurt in a terror attack they know someone
who was.
Lisa supports David in his work and her career also
took a change. She went from visiting terror victims to planning visits and
events in Israel. Many of her tourists, under her influence, make helping
terror victims part of their itinerary. Ruby recovered from his injury and
close call with death. He developed normally and loved playing roller hockey. About
a year before his Bar Mitzvah he discovered the joys of learning Torah and
became a serious student.
Unfortunately, terror did not end for the Rubin
family when David and Ruby came home from the hospital eleven years ago. It
continued five months later when two boys from the neighborhood were murdered
in two separate terror attacks. With each subsequent attack, be it from rocks,
bullets, missiles, or bombs, the trauma is reopened and they have to deal with
it anew. There was more trauma when their second son spent six nights in jail
as a punishment for protesting Ariel Sharon’s misguided peace plan. The then
Prime Minister’s dispersion of thousands of Jews from their homes in Gush Katif
and northern Shomron did not bring peace. Rather it brought the opposite, The
Second Lebanon War a year later. Two years after that was the Cast Lead
Offensive in response to the continued barrage of rockets into southern Israel.
This time it was their oldest son who, as an Israeli soldier, put himself in
danger to protect the Jewish people.
The Arab terror does not go away. They change their
method of operation from time to time but their underlying message never
wavers. They are committed to the destruction of Israel, the tiny Jewish
country surrounded by twenty-two Arab kingdoms. Now their latest attack was the
vote to give the “Palestinian Authority” observer status in the United Nations.
The Rubin family is pleased that the Israeli
government’s response is one of building. They pray that Israel will continue
to build and grow until the time our enemies finally realize that we are here
to stay. Then there will be another miracle.
The third Holy Temple will be rebuilt and we will have true peace.
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