Standing at the podium at an exclusive dinner event in a Manhattan Marriott hotel, Sheri Ben Aroya talked about her life, and how it changed one ordinary day with a terror attack that left her paralyzed down the right side of her body. Since that day 10 years ago, the Israeli woman has needed dozens of operations, but continues to persevere.
“It’s true that it was hard. It is hard, but I never give up,” the 30-year-old told the crowd in Hebrew, explaining how she got rid of her wheelchair and then her walking sticks as she pushed herself toward recovery. “I’m giving myself my targets and I achieve them.”
She was one of several presenters at the candlelit buffet dinner, a special event on the itinerary for Ben Aroya and nine peers who landed last week at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport as part of Belev Echad, a joint effort by the Chabad-Lubavitch Israel Center of the Upper East Side and the Chabad Terror Victims Project that brings Israel’s wounded to the United States for a relaxing trip and a chance to inspire Jewish communities. The Marriott event gave New York business leaders a chance to spend time with the remarkable young ladies, while a Sabbath afternoon program on Saturday hosted by Congregation Orach Chaim saw Israel Consul General Ido Aharoni and the visiting women speak about the challenges their country faces in the years ahead.
At the Marriott, the room was silent as Ben Aroya spoke about what her own future holds.
“As an optimistic woman, I know better days will come,” she said, emphasizing that the fact that others tried to rob her of her life gave her an added impetus to succeed. “G‑d willing, I’ll be able to build a house in Israel with healthy kids, and enjoy life. And it will be my answer to those who tried to kill me.”
Hila Lustig, 30, her voice trembling, talked about her job as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces’ education corps, and the 2002 attack that riddled her with bullets while she was eating lunch. She was sitting at a plastic table on the sidewalk, she recalled. Two weeks later, she woke up to find that two of her friends had been killed.
“I was hospitalized for a very long time,” she said. “I was hit in both of my legs, both of my hands and my abdomen.”
Still, she decided to press on with her life and got a B.A. in social work. Today she works with children in her chosen field.
Lustig, who over the past few days has toured Battery Park, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, been shopping at the Jersey Gardens Mall, and strolled along Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller Center, spoke about the impact the trip has had on herself and the other women, and what it meant to be able to inspire Jewish Americans.
“I think it’s a big mitzvah, what you are doing for us,” she said, “and how it’s so important to you what’s going on in Israel and what’s happening to us.”
Community member and real estate developer Erez Itzhaki took the podium to thank the young women, and, turning to them, told them in Hebrew that he’d be giving them each an iPad. His announcement was met with gasps of delight from the table of visitors.
Dr. Ruby Gelman, who attends the Upper East Side Chabad House, said she came out to support the cause.
“It’s bringing people together under the umbrella of solidarity with Israel,” said Gelman, adding that as a professional woman, it was particularly significant to meet spirited young women who have triumphed in the face of such adversity. “Having the women here has been very inspiring to me.”
Upper East Side resident Lauren Kolker said she strongly identifies with the guests, and how so many of them were just going about their everyday lives when tragedy struck.
“They’re beautiful and young, and could be any one of us,” she said. “And the fact that there’s so much hope in their faces really puts everything in perspective for me.”
Shay Zach, who grew up in Israel and was himself an IDF soldier, was touched deeply by the young women’s stories. Having friends who themselves were wounded or lost, he said he would do anything to appreciate the wounded soldiers and people who gave part of their lives for Israel.
And Mark Freud, who came to meet the a group of soldiers last year, said it’s important for American Jews to understand the sacrifices being made abroad.
“Often we take for granted the freedoms that we have here,” he said.
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