March 2025
Dear Friend of Israel,
As a student of the Bible, I have learned all too well that it takes time to truly understand the deeper meaning and purpose behind many of its commandments. Understandably, as human beings living in the modern day and age, it is hard for many of us to connect with the rituals and laws of the Torah. I remember that after my own son was born, I was suddenly able to grasp the immense test that Abraham faced when God commanded him to bring Isaac up to Mount Moriah for an offering. I noticed that as soon as you have a child of your own, everything changes. You reflect. You empathize. You understand what a challenge it must have been for Abraham.
Similarly, when I spent several years in Hong Kong serving as an educator for the local Jewish community, I understood, ever so slightly, what it meant to be “a stranger in a strange land.” And yet, my experience was just a fraction of what our ancestors experienced as slaves in Egypt or what prior generations of Jews endured in exile.
While writing this letter to you, I found myself reflecting on one of the most challenging commandments in the Bible: To remember to destroy Amalek. I have always considered myself a man of peace and a gentle person at that. As a soldier, whenever I had to act forcefully, I did so in the most minimal manner possible. With such a personality, it should come as no surprise that I always found it difficult to connect with this specific commandment. However, as soon as we, in Israel, received an unidentified body and the corpses of the beautiful red-haired baby and toddler, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, I suddenly gained a new appreciation and understanding of the commandment to wipe out the memory of Amalek. There was no greater sign of the need to annihilate the barbarians responsible for the murder of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas.
The terrorists of Hamas did not fully comprehend the ramifications of meting out such acts of cruelty and barbarism against the eternal nation that is the Jewish people. For centuries and millennia, we have survived persecutions, pogroms and the Holocaust; Yet we rose from the ashes, triumphed and returned to our ancestral land. Now, we have an obligation to fulfill the commandment to wipe out the memory of Amalek by making certain that the evil barbarians of Hamas have no future or even so much as a footnote in history. In doing so, we ensure that those who seek to erase us will themselves be erased. Together with you, I bless us to do whatever we can to never forget nor allow such evil to rise again.
May God continue to shower His blessings on you!
Shmuel Junger
Executive Director
P.S. Thank you for standing so resolutely with Israel. I know you have cried tears with us as we have received our dead for burial. Please make a donation today to help feed a hungry child in Kochav Yaakov and honor the memory of Kfir and Ariel Bibas.
Please note that our office number has changed! The 800 number is no longer in service. You can always reach us (the American office) at the regular office number: 719-683-2041.
