It was nearly a quarter century ago, following a deadly Jerusalem pizzeria bombing, that a New York immigrant family decided to assist Israeli victims of terror or those who lost loved ones in terrorist attacks in Israel.
Twenty-four years after the August 2001 attack on the Sbarro eatery in central Jerusalem, which killed 16 people, including seven children, the Israeli organization OneFamily has, over the past year, been working to help more people than in the other 23 years combined.
“The need is huge,” Marc Belzberg, 71, who co-founded the organization with his wife Chantal, told JNS on Sunday. “There is a tsunami of pain and loss.”
A feeling of ‘home’
The hundreds of children and teenagers who gathered on Sunday at a national park for an evening musical concert in Modi’in in central Israel looked at first glance like any other summer-camp outing. However, all these kids shared something in common: bereavement at a young age. The event was the culmination of weeklong summer camp for the kids and their slightly older counselors, who assist them throughout the year.
“It is not for naught that the organization is called OneFamily,” said Clil Cohen, 17, whose father, Ohad Cohen, was killed on Oct. 7, 2023. “I come here and I feel at home.”
“Here it is a very familial atmosphere,” offered Nadav Mesh, 16, whose father, Uriya, was also killed during the war against Hamas. “You can speak about things that you can’t with other people, and this helps me a lot.”
Or Morali, 11, whose mother was killed at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, said, “People here really understand what I am going through unlike those at school, because everyone who is here went through the same things as me.”
“We’re escorting people through life,” said Belzberg. “The unique aspect is that it helps people who went through what you went through in a way that no psychologist can.”
Over the last quarter century, the organization, which was one of five Israeli NGOs awarded the Genesis Prize last year, has helped thousands of bereaved families, investing nearly $90 million in various assistance programs, including immediate and ongoing counseling, trauma and PTSD rehab programs, and thrice yearly camps.
The group operates on a $10 million annual budget, with most of the funds coming from donations from Canada, the United States, England and France, and about 20% from Israel.
A greater good
“Being here makes you understand that there is some greater good in life and that is giving to another,” said counselor Shira Zifrani, 20. “Specifically at this period, especially with what we are going through, this gives added significance,” concurred counselor Taliya Harel, 20. “More than what I am giving this gives to me,” added Nitzan Peretz, 19 a fellow counselor.
An extended family
At the event, Belzberg is quickly surrounded by scores of children who could be his own grandchildren, who know him by name, and who, in a mix of Hebrew and a little English, share with him their latest news, and their favorite artists.
What started 24 years ago as a personal family decision with the cancellation of the Belzbergs’ daughter planned bat mitzvah party—which coincided with the Sbarro attack—instead visiting the wounded from the attack, has developed into a new, larger family united as one.
