Algemeiner.com: Jacob Kimchy- What Bulgaria Terror Victims and Their Families are Going Through

Jacob Kimchy, profiled recently by The Algemeiner created One Heart in 2006, a non-profit organization that provides psychological and emotional support to child victims of terror and trauma.

Kimchy’s father Rami Kimchy, was killed in a terrorist attack in Rishon Letzion, Israel ten years ago in the midst of the second Intifada. Today he spoke with The Algemeiner about the experience of terror victims and their families, and their struggle to cope with trauma and loss.

Speaking of how he felt when first hearing of the attack in Bulgaria, Koby said it reminded him of his own traumatic experiences, “its really hard” he said, “I just spoke to my mother and I asked her how she feels, she said that its really hard for her as well.

She has already seen all the images of what happened and people crying. We always wish that after an attack anywhere around the world that it will be the last terrorist attack (to occur).”

Read more – Via the Algemeiner.com

unitedwithisrael.org: Jacob Kimchy’s Journey From Terror Victim to Motivational Speaker

Contending with his own deep loss, the son of a terror victim finds new meaning in life by helping others deal with their grief.

Nearly 13 years ago, a Ukrainian woman and her Palestinian husband drove a suicide bomber to Rishon Lezion, a city in central Israel.

The suicide bomber entered a game club on the night of May 7, 2002, located on the third floor of a building, and detonated a suitcase full of explosives, complete with shrapnel and nails. Patrons at the club had been playing card games, slot machines and snooker as the explosion went off, causing part of the building to collapse.

Read more – 

nytimes.com: Wounded by Terrorism, Teenagers From 5 Nations Share Stories

Naor Abutbul, a burly 17-year-old Israeli, wrestled with his emotions. Emotions had the upper hand.

The young man was sitting on a bench at a storefront museum called the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, across Liberty Street from where the twin towers used to stand. In front of him was a wall filled with faces of the 9/11 fallen, looking forever happy in photos taken when long life seemed a given. Naor kept his head down. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the faces.

“It’s hard,” he said in Hebrew. Asked why, all he could do was repeat, “It’s hard.”

Enough said.

Ten years later, images of Sept. 11, which form the core of the visitor center, remain tough for many people. Boxes of tissues are on benches there for a reason.

Naor was more burdened than most. So were his 11 companions, most younger than he, most strangers to one another. They had come to New York from five countries, but had one thing in common. Whether from Israel, Northern Ireland, France, Spain or Liberia, each had been scarred by terrorism.

Naor’s mother, Hadas Abutbul, was ambushed by Palestinian gunmen and killed as she drove in the West Bank. That was on Nov. 9, 2001. Naor noted that Nov. 9 is rendered 9/11 in most countries, Israel included.

Quentin Area-darses and Malou Anglade, both 16, came from Paris. While on a group tour in Cairo two years ago, they were wounded by bombs hurled into a crowded market. Quentin still has shrapnel in his right leg.

Alberto Sánchez, 13, has struggled to bounce back after his mother, Trinidá Sánchez, became one of 191 people killed in the 2004 bombings of commuter trains in Madrid.

Clare Mailey, 14, survived a pipe-bomb attack in Belfast a decade ago. Terry Hardy, 18, descends from a long line of victims of political and religious violence in Northern Ireland. His grandfather, an aunt, three uncles and three cousins were murdered. Though the chaos has subsided, Terry said, he still lives “in fear of something happening again.”

There they were, a quorum of horror.

They had been brought to New York by One Heart Global, a nonprofit organization that seeks to help victims of terrorism who have lasting physical and psychological scars. It was founded a few years ago by Sarri Singer, an American, and Jacob Kimchy, an Israeli.

Ms. Singer was on a bus in Jerusalem in 2003 when a Palestinian suicide bomber disguised as an Orthodox Jew blew himself up. Sixteen people around her were killed. Her wounds were confined largely to a split clavicle and a low hissing in one ear that persists to this day. For Mr. Kimchy, One Heart Global was a way to honor his father, Rami Kimchy, killed in a 2002 terrorist attack in Rishon LeZiyyon, Israel.

Theirs is a club no one would wish to join. But they felt it was needed, Ms. Singer said, because “time doesn’t always heal.” A bombing occurs, funerals are held, political leaders express outrage and sympathy, news gatherers send their reports — and then the world goes about its business. But the pain can endure.

The thinking behind the teenagers’ visit this week was that they might benefit from sharing their stories. That made sense to them. “People can understand the feeling and the pain that I have,” Malou Anglade said, “because they have experienced the same thing.”

Their stay in the city has included meetings with the police commissioner and with ambassadors to the United Nations from Israel and Ireland. There were also timeouts for shopping and for watching TV shows like “Family Guy.” Teenagers are teenagers, no matter what their circumstances.

INEVITABLY, there was the stop at ground zero. They were led by a guiding force behind the visitor center, Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter whose firefighter son, Jonathan, died on Sept. 11. Only “nobody died from the terrorist attack,” Mr. Ielpi told them. “They were murdered.”

Like Naor, others in the group found it hard to put the nightmare of 9/11 in context with their own suffering.

“They carry the trauma, but don’t have the language to express it,” said Tricia Magee, who accompanied four teenagers from Northern Ireland. She is in charge of youth services at the Wave Trauma Center in Belfast.

“If you can’t get the words out, it can become a block, and be disruptive,” Ms. Magee said. “When you’re young, you think you’re the only one experiencing something like that.” Showing them that they are not alone, she said, can only do good.

Via www.nytimes.com

timesofisrael.com: Jacob Kimchy- On the 13th Anniversary of 9/11, Terrorism is More of a Reality than Ever

Thirteen years ago, the world stopped breathing as everyone watched in horror as the Twin Towers were attacked and fell, murdering 2,700 innocent people and leaving hundreds of thousands of victims in its wake and countless others in trauma.

The skyline of New York City changed forever that day, and despite the Freedom Tower standing tall and proud this year, the city has a scar which will remain there forever.

I was a student when it happened. My father called to tell me about the attacks. I rushed home and sat around the TV with my family watching the unimaginable. I remember my father’s words “the towers won’t fall. They are strong and will survive.” But that wasn’t how it ended, and minutes later we all cried as a new reality set in for the entire world. And in seconds, hundreds of families of the 2,700 innocent victims, as well as the hundreds of thousands that were there that day, joined a new club – victims of terrorism.

Eight months later my family joined that very same club. My father was murdered in a suicide bombing in our hometown of Rishon Letzion, Israel, along with 14 other innocent people.

Terrorism is a cancer that continues to spread around the world. Overnight it seems, the face of terrorism has changed and become darker and more evil. Just a few months ago, the world was focused on sanctions with Iran and the war with Hizbollah and Hammas.  The world put its focus on Tehran and its nuclear program without knowing that a new group would emerge, ready to storm the world with horror videos and quickly spread its ideology and recruit supporters.  All the while the Western world enjoyed summer time.

But the conversation has changed and this new group, ISIS, is much stronger and more violent than we have seen before, and doesn’t discriminate between its victims.  Like a cobra, ISIS surprised us out of nowhere, leaving the world in shock, struggling to find a way to react.  And the social media tools – facebook, twitter, and youtube – that we all love so much, are also being used by these terrorist groups to recruit and push their ideology.

We aren’t doing enough to stop this cancer from spreading. We lack a strong coalition and leadership.  And in the absence of both, global terrorism is becoming stronger and more popular.  We see photos of children holding the ISIS flag, British rappers beheading American journalists, and more and more Westerners turning to radical ideology and joining ISIS.

As fear of ISIS increases, so does the reality of another attack in Europe or on American soil.  We can only wish that September 11th won’t happen again, but we all know that is a far-fetched reality in today’s world.

These who have never faced terrorism will have hard time understanding how cruel its hand is and the scar it leaves. We must hope that our government can act fast and swift and radiate the cancer before it spreads, in order for all of us to live in a better world.

Via timesofisrael.com

unitedwithisrael.org: From Terror Victim to Warrior: Jacob Kimchy’s Story

An Israeli man stricken by terror has made it his life mission to help victims and their families. It is a story of triumph over the darkest forces of evil.

As the terrible attacks of 9/11 are remembered and mourned, we selected to focus on the story of one terror victim from Israel who, by continuing a legacy of mutual support and giving, chose not to succumb to terror.

Jacob remembers the fateful phone call vividly. “Where are you!” screamed a friend who worked for Israeli Intelligence.  “There’s been a terrorist attack!  Where are you?” I immediately called my father. But there was no answer. I went straight to the scene of the bombing.”In 2002, Rami Kimchy, 57, a taxi driver, entered a club in his hometown of Rishon Letzion, near Tel Aviv, to pick up a client.  Within minutes, an 18-year-old Hamas suicide bomber entered after him and blew himself up, killing Rami and 14 others instantly.  His son, Jacob, was one of the first to arrive at the scene, in hopes of helping survivors, only to recognize his father’s car parked in front and to quickly realize the dreadful fact that his father had been murdered.

Overcoming Loss and Tragedy

“For many months after the murder, I could find no way forward.  What was this life? What kind of a God would allow something like this to happen to a kind, sweet man who had never hurt anyone?  I was lost. I found myself driving at night as fast as I could, up to 100 miles per hour at times, music blaring, screaming and crying.”

Jacob was sure he would never be able to overcome the loss and tragedy. But he did.  After attending a support group for young people who had lost their parents, at the request of his mother, Jacob found his path.

Despite the psychological and emotional damage wrought by direct exposure to an act of terrorism, Jacob channeled his unimaginable sorrow into the cause of a lifetime. After many months of indescribable agony, he slowly came to the realization that one way to carry on living with such unimaginable pain is by reaching out to other victims of terror. In time, this coping mechanism would flower into a mission.

– Read the full article

tlvfaces.com: For The Sake of The Next Generation

Another Holocaust Remembrance Day has passed, leaving the Jewish nation with much sobbing, memories and pain. I sat down with my family to watch various movies detailing the stories of Holocaust survivors and I heard from my dear aunt’s mouth the personal account of the voyage she made from France to Israel, together with my grandfather on the ship, The Exodus.

It is difficult to describe what the Jews went through at the time of the Holocaust and comprehend the extent of evil that led the Nazis to try to exterminate the Jewish nation.

The many photographs that were shared among my Facebook friends made tangible the severity of hate that exists for the Jewish people. It is not easy to look at piles of Jewish bodies next to smiling Nazi officers, Nazi soldiers cutting the beards of Rabbis, and Jewish children lifting their hands, fearfully before a shooting squad.

It all began through brain-washing, the use of media, and the transference of hate, where Jews were depicted as animals and bloodsuckers. Millions of people stood by, doing nothing to stop the deluge of poison that eventually brought about the Second World War.

The question that begs to be asked is, what has changed since then? The answer is one thing alone-the State of Israel.

The current, 2013 edition of global anti-Semitism is record-breaking and continues to spread without hindrance. You can now spot swastikas in every corner of Europe, New York and even in Israel. The octopus drawings that liken the Jew to one who possesses long arms, appear today just like they did 70 years ago and the physical injury to Jews has begun to rage, as well.

In various places within the U.S., there are still those who believe that Jews have horns, and millions more around the world today are driven by the erroneous notion that all of the world’s Jews are holding on to millions of dollars from their own bank accounts.

Even if I try to describe the magnitude of the anti-Semitism phenomenon that is quickly expanding by global proportions, I couldn’t assess the exact figure, nor the extent of danger, but the only answer that stands before us in order to continue existing in a world filled with such immense evil, is for all of us to support the Jewish State.

The Jewish people must concern themselves of the fact that the Jewish State must remain strong and firm. We must cultivate every corner of Israel and raise our children with the values and ideology that will lead us to a prideful and united future.

The State of Israel is our precious diamond and our children’s future but we must not forget our brothers in the Diaspora.

Currently, in many of Europe’s cities, it is becoming nearly impossible to remain living as a Jew.For many years now, Jews do not dare to wear kippas or go around with Stars of David around their necks for fear of the repercussions. It is easy to observe in cities like New York, which is home to approximately 2 millions Jews, when synagogues are protected by police teams and private security personnel for fear of attack. These same synagogues are situated right next to churches which need no such protection.

The State of Israel is obligated to stand with Her back straight and serve as the voice of Diaspora Jewry before the political leaders and religious figures of Europe. It is not possible that an additional storm of hate and attacks on the Jewish people will occur silently, in the very same places where 6 millions of us were murdered.

The same evil which has been allowed to spread in a democratic fashion, must be stopped. The small trickle of human injury, such as those witnessed in Toulouse, France show us precisely what awaits us in the future.

The words, “never again,” hold a much deeper and important meaning than a momentary saying usually does. These two words must lead us in two directions. On the one hand, we must continue to remember our past, yet we must just as importantly, fight the evil that is anti-Semitism, so that we can all have a deservedly bright future.