In advance of the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av and the second year when the day will be marked amid war and the continued captivity of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, World Mizrachi is releasing three new videos in the “From 9 Av to 7 October—From Their Pain, A Call for Unity” miniseries featuring the families of Israeli hostages Daniel Perez, Ori Danino and Elyakim Libman.
The videos, which build upon the videos from last year featuring the families of Moshe and Eliad Ohayon, and Binyamin Airley, will be available online for private or communal viewing and will specifically focus on themes of national unity, which Jewish tradition teaches can only be countered by “selfless love.”
The latest video series is complemented by Mizrachi’s annual program titled “Kinot on Location,” which features commentary from the very sites described in the kinot, or “elegies.”
Rabbi Doron Perez, World Mizrachi executive chairman, stated: “Our goal is to ensure that our programming relates to the spirit and meaning of the day. Tisha B’Av is not only a day of mourning but also of yearning, where it uniquely combines the idea of both loss and hope, from the very places where so much Jewish blood was spilled over history, to our current painful trials of family members lost since Oct. 7.”
The organization will also be releasing the story of how Perez and his wife, Shelley, applied their personal tragedy of the murder of their son at the hands of Hamas on that Black Shabbat to highlight a global project encouraging Jews the world over to yearn for the rebuilding of the Temple. The video, produced by Rabbi Yoel Gold, will be available for viewing at: Mizrachi.org/Bayit.
“The underlying message is that despite the immense pain we feel, both personally and nationally, we know that our mourning can and will be turned into yearning, so that we will ultimately be blessed with the return of the Beit Hamikdash, whose destruction we mark on this particularly poignant yet powerful day,” said Perez.
The videos are available online for private or communal viewing at: Mizrachi.org/9avunity.
