Why Ron Arad Matters to Me

by Rachel Dzanashvili

In 1986, Ron Arad, a Lieutenant Colonel in the IDF Air Force was captured in Lebanon after ejecting from his plane. He was captured by the Shiite terrorist group Amal, who held him hostage for over a year, before selling him like cattle to Iran in 1988. Little is known about his whereabouts since. Some maintain hope he is still being held captive, while some believe he was tortured to death by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard...

Some of you might wonder why a New Yorker like me, living thousands of miles away and not even alive during these tragic events is haunted with pain and consumed with fury whenever she hears his name or sees his picture...

Ron Arad left behind his wife Tami and their newborn daughter Yuval, and since that day, Yuval Arad has grown up without a father. I know the pain of that loss, from losing my father to lung cancer in 2001. But while I have been able to bury and mourn my father, Yuval Arad can do neither. All she can do is acknowledge that her father is dead and will never be given back to her family for a proper burial, or that he is alive somewhere as a captive.

Everyday I take the bus to college, I pass the cemetery where i buried my father. I have that peace of mind Yuval will never have, and I cannot imagine the kind of pain it conjures, to have a father taken, to be left nothing other than photographs, but never to know the fate of a father who loved you.

After this summer's war in Lebanon, a videotape of Arad ( most likely made in the late 80's) was broadcast to the public. The first images of Arad (emaciated and solemn) in almost 20 years were in my opinion, not only meant to open up old wounds for Arad's family, but to taunt the family's of Israel's latest captive soldiers: Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Can we allow them and their families to suffer the same cruelty that Arad's family has suffered?

Tomorrow, we celebrate Passover. We sit down at our family tables to recite the haggadah and re-tell the famous Exodus from Egypt, but while we celebrate our redemption form the house of bondage, we must not forget the bondage of the Israeli soldiers whom will not be able to be with their loved and most importantly, be free.

So before we sit down to our Seder's and eat and drink, let us say this prayer for them. It is the least we can do until one day "THY CHILDREN SHALL COME AGAIN TO THEIR OWN BORDER ( Jeremiah 31:17)."

Prayer for the Soldiers: http://www.banim.org/en/prayer_en.html