On the outdoor terrace of the Leonardo Plaza Jerusalem, tables were set and music filled the air. Hundreds of widows and orphans gathered together for the closing banquet of Chabad’s Terror Victims Project’s Summer of Hope & Healing.
It was meant to be a celebration.
And it was.
But as the evening unfolded, it became something much more.
One by one, widows rose from their tables and walked to the microphone.
They spoke about their husbands.
They shared memories of the men they loved and the fathers their children had lost—stories that brought tears, smiles and laughter. For a few moments, each husband and father was once again at the center of the room, remembered with love and pride.
But then, almost every woman spoke about something else.
They spoke about Chabad’s Terror Victims Project.
They spoke about how CTVP had been there for them, and about these extraordinary few days they had just experienced with their children.
Again and again, the women said that they did not take any of it for granted.
Every detail had been thought through. Everything they could possibly need was there. From morning until night, the mothers and their children were surrounded by people whose only concern was to give them the best possible experience—to allow them to relax, to breathe, to laugh, to enjoy their children, and to regain some of the strength that everyday life demands of them.
And as the banquet continued, something remarkable filled the room.
There was profound sadness, because the men they loved were missing.
There was tremendous pride as the women spoke about who their husbands had been.
There was gratitude for everything that had been done for them.
And there was joy, real joy, as mothers watched their children dance and celebrate around them.
These were not women who had forgotten their pain for a few days. Their husbands and their memories were present throughout the evening.
But they had been given something precious: time and space to rest, to rejuvenate, to gather strength, and to prepare themselves and their children to begin a new year.