Disability Advocate Visits Israel to Help Victims of Terror

Voices of Disability

The Oakland Press

By Jerry Wolffe, Staff Writer
June 26, 2010

Soldiers try not to think about it because it could paralyze them with fear.

It’s something they learn to live with while in a combat zone.

They suffer injuries, post traumatic stress disorder and sometimes are killed in action.

But they are different from civilians.

The ordinary people in such places as Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel don’t have the same training or medical help after they survive a missile or bomb attack as do soldiers.

In Jerusalem, there is an organization, One Family Fund, which began with the selfless act of a 12-year-old girl.

Michal Belzberg was preparing for her bat mitzvah in Jerusalem when a suicide bomber struck the crowded Sbarro restaurant in the city’s downtown, said Yehuda Poch, 39, the director of communications of One Family in an interview from Jerusalem.

The attack killed 15 and wounded 130 Jewish men, women, and children. It was the most deadly attack in Jerusalem since the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000.

In the wake of such sorrow and destruction, Belzberg felt she could not hold a celebration, so she canceled her bat mitzvah party in order to contribute the party’s funds to victims of the attack, Poch said.

Her family raised more than $100,000, but quickly realized that it was not enough to address the suffering of the growing number of Israelis affected by terror. In that moment, One Family was born, Poch says.

Attorney Richard Bernstein of Farmington Hills, a civil rights attorney for those with disabilities, visited One Family this week and met with many of the terrorist victims “to try and create a genuine sense of connection.”

“I told them that an invisible disability such as (post traumatic stress disorder) is equal to a physical disability in terms of how society sees someone,” said Bernstein, who is blind.

“Being there with members of One Family as a blind person who advocates for the rights of the disabled created a sense of credibility that encouraged them to share their stories. In sharing them, they learned others care and they are not alone.

“The most difficult part of their experience is a lot of these people were mothers who lost their children,” he added. “Often, they watched their children be killed.

“The mothers of victims also told me, as a young energetic man, that I reminded them of their lost child.

“Time will never heal the survivors’ wounds. When a person is in such an attack, they now will live with a crippling disability which is not physically identifiable,” he said.

One Family tries to teach that despite being a victim of terror or having a disability, life still has purpose, Poch said.

Many of the victims are underprivileged.

“They take buses to work, need jobs and struggle to get through the day,” he said. “Many survivors feel alone because of what happened to them.”

Since September 2000, 1,378 Israelis have been killed in terrorist attacks and another 17,000 have been wounded, he says.

In addition, 141 children have died and 981 children have been left orphaned by the attacks.

“We invited Bernstein to speak to victims of terror to give them encouragement,” Poch said.

“We need to let Americans know that these terrorist attacks are occurring and leaving people with lifelong psychological and physical disabilities.”

Just getting the victims’ stories into the American media could help heal many of the victims, he said.