“Nakba is not a protest against settlements. It is not about 67 borders. It is about 1948. It is the expression of agony for the very existence of Israel,” Israeli Consul General Ido Aharoni said at a breakfast Tuesday morning honoring a group of Israel’s wounded soldiers on a tour of New York City.

Referring to recent attempts by Arabs to breach Israel’s borders with Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, Aharoni pointed to the soldiers who bodily protected the citizens and the borders of Israel.

“We know the price you paid and will continue to pay for the rest of your lives.”

Dudi Saidoff, an officer with Israel’s border police, has been paying since 2004, when flying shrapnel struck him in the head as he intercepted an Arab terrorist pushing a baby stroller loaded with explosives.

After three brain surgeries and several years of intensive rehab, Dudi has regained the ability to walk and talk, albeit slowly and with effort. Today, he spends much of his time in therapy. He will do so for the rest of his life.

Israel’s wounded soldiers are not much talked about. Their youthful brawn and idealistic passion expended, they are now easy to forget. The threats and attacks against Israel are incessant. The army needs a fresh crop of able-bodied soldiers. Life moves on.

Now in its second year, B’lev Echad, sponsored by the Chabad Israel Center of New York City in coordination with the Chabad Terror Victims Program of Israel (CTVP), invites a group of Israel’s wounded soldiers on an elaborate vacation to the U.S. where they are wined and dined, and frequently reminded that their sacrifice is not forgotten.

“More than we can ever give them, they have given us,” said Rabbi Uriel Vigler of the Chabad Israel Center who raised $100,000 to cover the all-expenses paid 10-day tour that would “make them smile, give them a reason to feel some joy.”

B’lev Echad rolls out the red carpet for the heroes, treating them to a lively New York experience including visits to the city’s great landmarks and dinner in Manhattan’s fine kosher restaurants. The tour also includes an excursion to Washington D.C. with a private reception by Israel’s ambassador at the Israeli Embassy.

“The idea is to give these individuals who have given us so much, a chance to forget their daily grind of therapy and medical routines,” said Rabbi Menachem Kutner, director of CTVP, who is personally acquainted with the soldiers and the suffering they endure.

The soldiers—celebrities for a while at least—will return to New York for Shabbat on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where members of the area's many synagogues will turn out to greet them.

Dudi, like many of his fellow travelers—all of whom have sustained serious injuries, some permanently wheelchair-bound, many of them disfigured and in constant pain—exuded a general sense of good cheer. Though physical limitations and emotional ups and downs are now a fact of his life, he has no regrets about going to the Calandia checkpoint on that August day seven years ago.  

“I am glad that I took the fall instead of the children who would have been killed,” he said. “The terrorist had targeted a restaurant in Jerusalem, and many people would have been blown up had we not stopped him.”

Erez Itzhaki, an Israeli expat and a steering committe member of the Chabad Israel Center in NYC, recalled his own time in the IDF. The real-estate developer contrasted the banalities of life's small frustrations for people in ordinary circumstances with the extraordinary, constant struggles of the soldiers.

"You give me a perspective on life, on what's important and what to be grateful for."

Israel’s interim ambassador to the UN, Meron Reuben, referred to the challenge he faces in the diplomatic war against Israel at the UN, but credited the soldiers for effectively serving on the front lines to defend the Jewish homeland.

He expressed gratitude for Chabad’s work in celebrating these heroes with a program like B’lev Echad, proving “that the Jewish nation is of one heart.”

Photos by Bentzi Sasson