‘My heart is heavy’: Adelaide man’s heartbreaking decision in Israel

Adelaide man Ori was visiting his parents in Israel when Hamas terrorists attacked, his sleeping four-year-old son lying beside him.

The “shrill sound of rocket attack sirens’’ woke up Adelaide man Ori on October 7 as a barrage of Hamas rockets reined down on the town of Rehovot where he was visiting his parents.

Rehovot is a university town about 40km from Gaza, which gives its residents about 40 seconds to prepare from when the sirens sounds to when the rockets hit. Ori’s four-year-old son was sleeping beside him as the alarm sounded.

“I was faced with an unimaginable decision, should I wake up my four-year-old son lying innocently beside me and run to the bathroom, the least exposed part of the house, or let him sleep blissfully ignorant?’’ Ori told a vigil held at the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation on Sunday.

Ori, after the United with Israel: Adelaide Community Vigil in Glenside, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. Picture: Matt Loxton

“I convinced myself I was okay during the gut wrenching sounds of hundreds of explosions in the not-so-distant sky. I studied my trembling hands as our house shook from nearby impacts,’’ the 45-year-old said.

Ori let his child sleep. But later he would teach the boy how to take cover outdoors.

“I smiled, albeit weakly, watching him do arts and crafts in a neighbourhood bomb shelter. And I held it together sprinting with my child in my arms to find sanctuary in a concrete stairwell of a new building nearby,’’ he said.

Ori and his son left Israel to return home to Adelaide after saying goodbye to his family.

“My heart heavy with the unspoken truth that it might be a final farewell,’’ he said.

It was sombre ceremony as Adelaide’s Jewish community spoke of their fears and sorrows since the Hamas attack on Israel.

Foreign minister Penny Wong and Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham attended, candles were lit for the dead, including one for Palestinians, prayers were offered and songs sung.

Norman Schueler, executive director of the Jewish Community Council of SA, said October 7 had been the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust.

“October the seventh is a date that will live in infamy, a date that saw our world changed forever,’’ Mr Schueler said.

Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky noted a rising tide of anti-semitism in recent years.

“In recent years, we’ve experienced the increasing dehumanisation of Jews, as the internet and conspiracy theorists blame us for everything from COVID-19 to 5G,’’ she said.

“We would love to throw our synagogue doors open to the world, but security concerns force us to pray behind the barriers and guards.’’

It was a view echoed by Anat Markus-Arnold who said Jews all over the world felt unsafe.

“Soon, we will be able to watch TV and social media and feel safe again,’’ she said.

We will be able to walk the street without feeling someone is watching, we won’t have to be the Israeli ambassador everywhere we go, but not now.’’

Originally published as ‘My heart is heavy’: Adelaide man’s heartbreaking decision in Israel