By Jeff Daube
JERUSALEM –On Wednesday, July 23, 30,000 of us came together as one on Mount Herzl to pay tribute to chayal boded (lone soldier) Max Steinberg z”l. Max had left his comfortable world in Los Angeles, CA to fight with the brave IDF Golanis, only to be killed in combat in the terror snake pit known as Gaza.
I imagine that much of our well informed ZOA family by now has read about the deeply moving ceremony and eulogies of Max’s military funeral. One detail I noticed missing from the accounts was the ironic warning at the funeral’s beginning, announced later too, that if we were to hear the air raid siren we should lie prostrate on the ground and protect our heads – the usual instructions when you find yourself with no shelter to run to. I wondered how this wall-to-wall crowd would be able to manage such a feat.
One speaker after another described an extraordinarily dedicated Jewish American Zionist hero, who had made up his mind to live a life of serving others, of serving Israel, the only kind of life in fact that he felt he could live. We heard from Max’s parents, siblings Jake and Paige, his childhood best friend and, finest of the fine, his new ‘Golanchik’ best friends. Rabbis, dignitaries (U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro, former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren) and leaders (MK Rabbi Dov Lipman, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat) also spoke poignantly and proudly about the noble ideals of this unusual 24-year-old.
The crowd seemed particularly touched by the repeated mentioning of Max’s eternal place in Jewish history and ultimate sacrifice for the Jewish future. When the Mourners Kaddish and other prayers were concluded, we joined in with a soulful Hatikva, to honor Max’s mission ensuring we remain “a free nation in our own land.”
There are times in Israel when we experience a situation so devastating that all we can say is ‘ain milim.’ Meaning, there are no words. When the bodies of three brutally murdered yeshiva students and then one Arab teenager were found a short few weeks ago, the overwhelming grief felt throughout Israel could only be expressed by those two words, ‘ain milim.’
Much as I might try to give you a sense of the funeral’s mood and proceedings, this truly was another ‘ain milim’ moment. I’m hoping my photos included here, and the many photos, videos and comments posted elsewhere, will give you an inkling of the incredible outpouring of love and caring I witnessed today from the Israeli people – all directed toward or inspired by the American stranger, who in an instant became an indistinguishable part of the greater Israel family whole.
Sgt. Max Steinberg, fellow American volunteer Sgt. Nissim Sean Carmeli z”l from Texas, who also fell in action on Sunday, and the lone soldier volunteers who fell in this and the many wars before deserve a special kind of recognition from our organization. They, together with their singularly courageous Israeli peers, have set an extremely high bar for the rest of us indeed.
There is great admiration here all around for the contributions of American Zionists to Israel’s continued safety not to mention Israel’s phenomenal growth despite the myriad international attempts to stifle that. I personally heard much gratitude from native Israelis especially today along these lines.
Even as our ZOA community mourns these great models of Zionist commitment, who gave all they had to fight Israel’s battles at their hottest, we also can take pride in ZOA’s own essential leading role: as a strategic asset in Israel’s softer but no less dangerous war against delegitimization.
May Israel’s amazing young defenders, with God’s help and our unflagging support, go from strength to strength.
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Daube is executive director of the Israel office of the Zionist Organization of America