By Gabrielle Birkner
Ayelet Galena
“With unstoppable tears and broken hearts we regret to announce that last night around 5AM, after hours of fighting and holding on, our precious Ayelet - the heart of our world, the light and strength for so many, could not fight any more.”
With those words, Seth and Hindy Poupko Galena announced the January 31 death of their 2-year-old daughter, Ayelet Yakira. The little girl, suffering from a rare bone marrow disease, had received a transplant 154 days earlier.
Many of the thousands of those mourning Ayelet today knew her only through the Tumblr blog where her parents chronicled, with remarkable compassion, eloquence and humor, the toddler’s courageous fight.
It is, perhaps, no surprise that were able to laugh through their tears; Ayelet’s dad runs the popular “kosher comedy” website Bang It Out.
The Galenas’ posts were accompanied, most days, by a photo of Ayelet. Early photos showed the little girl, dressed in frilly frocks, bouncing in an ExerSaucer and pulling at the pages of her pop-up book. But as the months passed, and Ayelet’s condition grew worse, the images provided an unflinching look at the little girl’s reality: There were myriad tubes and machines connected to Ayelet’s swollen body and bald head (which was always lovingly covered with floral hats and headbands).
Her Modern Orthodox parents wrote about Shabbats celebrated at their daughter’s bedside, at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital, and about reciting the post-bathroom Asher Yatzar blessing, so that Ayelet’s kidneys might again begin working. (“We need a big night of peeing and prayer,” they wrote on January 30.) Their Tumblr journal, which I’d love to see turned into a book, has a thing or two to teach all of us about facing life’s greatest challenges with courage and grace and laughter.
There is another lesson to be gleaned from the Galenas’ story, or specifically, from the communal response to it — as gauged by the comments on Tumblr and and Facebook, where Ayelet had more than 5,200 fans. In our darkest hours, there’s a natural inclination to retreat inward. But this family shows us how powerful doing the opposite can be. In sharing their private pain, they fostered an extended support network that has, in turn, helped sustain them.
“Your likes, your prayers, your comments, your emails, your texts, your challahs. All these, every single one is read/felt/tasted by us,” they wrote on January 24, a week before Ayelet’s death. “We read everything, and they are the single reason we are still standing. “
May they continue to find strength in the community they inspired.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Continuous Revelations - In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamt that “…this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: …that all men are created equal." Dr. King’s dream extended beyond healing African-American suffering; his vision was meant to impact and heal society as a whole. In 1895 Theodor Herzl shared a similar vision for Jewish emancipation when he stated that “the world will be liberated by our freedom…" (Der Judenstaat, “The Jewish State”).
In both movements the calls for freedom and self-determination for a specific group has had the potential to extend beyond that particular group. But how can we realize that potential when racism still exists and the People of Israel remains beset by it's own set of challenges?
Martin Luther King Day should not be marked simply as a memorial day. It is a day of action; a day that inspires us to imagine and realize the collective dream of a better tomorrow.
It has been nearly half a century since Dr. King shared his dream, and over a century since Herzl shared his. Yet, the passage of time has placed the greater potential of those dreams further from our grasp. Today, sharing in Dr. King and Herzl’s dreams means that we must move from merely longing for what might be in the future and rather focus on what can be in the present. Acting out Dr. King or Herzl’s dream is a continuous journey; a journey whose very purpose is in the present.
Paramount in both dreams is identifying the common denominator that unites a people. For the African-Americans in the 1960s, it was a common struggle against hundreds of years of slavery, oppression, and inequality based on color. For the Jews in Herzl’s time, it was a struggle to put the Jewish collective back on track following 2,000 years of wandering and persecution, through geo-political self-determination. However, for the Jewish People of today, who cannot recall what life was like before the establishment of the state of Israel, the dream as described by Herzl may seem irrelevant. After all, the pogroms of Europe and Czarist Russia and the Shoah are distant in our collective memory. Today we must face the challenges presented by the disintegration of the social fabric of Jewish Peoplehood, in Israel and around the world.
Today’s Zionism is better served by engaging in a “Tikun Israel”, a healing of Israel. It is an old concept, really. Moses engaged in “Tikun Israel” when he convinced the Israelites to leave Egypt for a return to the Promised Land, and Herzl engaged in “Tikun Israel” when he convinced the world that the answer to the Jewish question was a return to Zion. Today, we must continue to push for a return to Zion, a “state” of self-determination in the face of increasing internal challenges.
As supporters of the Civil Rights Movement stand proud in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, continuing to realize his dream, Israel must continue to serve as the collective platform where honest debate leads to effective action - realized dreams. If we do not heal ourselves, how can we heal others?
We stand atop the shoulders of these dreamers to become inspired by the potential of the journey ahead, a journey that started at Exodus, inspiring Dr. King to lead his people to the “Promised Land”, and moved Herzl to declare the founding of the Jewish State fifty years prior to its establishment. This is a journey that will continue to realize its potential for tomorrow so long as we recognize the need for today - “Tikun Israel”, healing Israel. For the sake of our children - we must continue to will it and Zion will never be subject to dreams again.
In both movements the calls for freedom and self-determination for a specific group has had the potential to extend beyond that particular group. But how can we realize that potential when racism still exists and the People of Israel remains beset by it's own set of challenges?
Martin Luther King Day should not be marked simply as a memorial day. It is a day of action; a day that inspires us to imagine and realize the collective dream of a better tomorrow.
It has been nearly half a century since Dr. King shared his dream, and over a century since Herzl shared his. Yet, the passage of time has placed the greater potential of those dreams further from our grasp. Today, sharing in Dr. King and Herzl’s dreams means that we must move from merely longing for what might be in the future and rather focus on what can be in the present. Acting out Dr. King or Herzl’s dream is a continuous journey; a journey whose very purpose is in the present.
Paramount in both dreams is identifying the common denominator that unites a people. For the African-Americans in the 1960s, it was a common struggle against hundreds of years of slavery, oppression, and inequality based on color. For the Jews in Herzl’s time, it was a struggle to put the Jewish collective back on track following 2,000 years of wandering and persecution, through geo-political self-determination. However, for the Jewish People of today, who cannot recall what life was like before the establishment of the state of Israel, the dream as described by Herzl may seem irrelevant. After all, the pogroms of Europe and Czarist Russia and the Shoah are distant in our collective memory. Today we must face the challenges presented by the disintegration of the social fabric of Jewish Peoplehood, in Israel and around the world.
Today’s Zionism is better served by engaging in a “Tikun Israel”, a healing of Israel. It is an old concept, really. Moses engaged in “Tikun Israel” when he convinced the Israelites to leave Egypt for a return to the Promised Land, and Herzl engaged in “Tikun Israel” when he convinced the world that the answer to the Jewish question was a return to Zion. Today, we must continue to push for a return to Zion, a “state” of self-determination in the face of increasing internal challenges.
As supporters of the Civil Rights Movement stand proud in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, continuing to realize his dream, Israel must continue to serve as the collective platform where honest debate leads to effective action - realized dreams. If we do not heal ourselves, how can we heal others?
We stand atop the shoulders of these dreamers to become inspired by the potential of the journey ahead, a journey that started at Exodus, inspiring Dr. King to lead his people to the “Promised Land”, and moved Herzl to declare the founding of the Jewish State fifty years prior to its establishment. This is a journey that will continue to realize its potential for tomorrow so long as we recognize the need for today - “Tikun Israel”, healing Israel. For the sake of our children - we must continue to will it and Zion will never be subject to dreams again.
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