Bearing Witness From the Shoah to Nova | Solidarity Trip 2025 Testimony
After returning from the first Our Fight solidarity delegation to Israel, Wendy Earle writes that what struck her most was the commitment to remembering the dead, while deeply valuing life.
On Wednesday June 4th, at 7pm, Wendy and others who attended the solidarity trip will be sharing photos and reports of their experiences in Israel at an event in London and online. The event is free to join. You can book tickets for the live stream here:
If you would like to attend the London event in person, please contact us directly for details.
I really did not expect the emotional charge I experienced within 24 hours of being in Israel. But perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising; as soon as we landed in Tel Aviv–walking past ‘Bring Them Home’ placards for the hostages—we were hustled onto the train to Jerusalem to attend the Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Day) memorial event at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
Each stated their proudest achievement as their families...a life-affirming message of hope
The pre-recorded testimonies of six elderly survivors, played as each lit one of six torches in memory of the six million Jews killed in the Nazi death camps, conveyed the deep sense of loss experienced by each of them. Some were the sole survivors of their families and communities—entirely alone in a world torn apart by war. But each rebuilt their lives and each stated their proudest achievement as their families: their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, a sense of generations to come—a life-affirming message of hope.
The next day we returned to Yad Vashem for a guided tour, taking in the impressively informative but shocking museum, The Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations (celebrating non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews), the beautiful children’s memorial, and the National Memorial Hall for Fallen Soldiers–with its moving recitation of Holocaust victims’ names throughout Memorial Day.
What struck me most about the trip overall was this commitment to remembering the dead while deeply valuing life.
What struck me most about the trip overall was this commitment to remembering the dead while deeply valuing life. The knowledge and experience of death is so much a part of Israel’s existence, yet it’s rooted in a love of life, of being prepared to give your life to save the lives of others (exemplified by a young waiter we spoke to, who was working before returning for another tour of duty with IDF), and celebrating life–lives lived and the living.
This impression was repeatedly reinforced over the next few days of our too short visit: the layers of history in the ancient city of Jerusalem—a place where people had lived for thousands of years; the celebration of tradition at the Shabbat meal we were invited to be part of; the impressive Peres Centre for Peace and Innovation in Jaffa, where we saw both the gruelling photographs recording the events of October 7th and its aftermath, by Ziv Koren, and its impressive program supporting innovative and inventive Startups.
The day near the Gazan border was probably the most gruelling, meeting two October 7th survivors–one from one of the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas, and the other from the Nova massacre–and hearing their testimonies, both of them driving home the full horror of Hamas’ savagery and their killing spree.
But once again the spirit of life, the stoicism, the determination to repair, heal and continue their lives was inspiring. The commitment to memorialising the dead emphasised how much life is valued. Every single person killed by Hamas has their own personal memorial, so that their individual existence, their place in the world, does not go unmarked.
Many friends have assumed the tour was a carefully managed affair, with our group only being shown what the authorities want us to see. But the authorities were not involved in planning the tour. Of course it’s true that we met people who are very loyal to Israel; but we were able to move around freely, talk to anyone and observe for ourselves what kind of society Israel is. From the diversity of people we encountered first at Tel Aviv airport and throughout the trip, to the generous welcome given to us by everyone we met, to the fascinating, informative and intellectually challenging conference of the Jewish News Syndicate that we were able to attend, this visit to Israel strengthened my belief that Israel must not be left to fight for the future alone.
