Anglos honor their fallen in battles and terror attacks

Hundreds of English speakers attended evening memorialized Michael Levin, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War on August 1, 2006.

By MELANIE LIDMAN
Dara Goldstein and Harriet Levin 311 (photo credit: MELANIE LIDMAN)
Dara Goldstein and Harriet Levin 311
(photo credit: MELANIE LIDMAN)
Hundreds of English speakers attended a special edition of “Tuesday Night Live” in honor of Remembrance Day. The evening memorialized Michael Levin, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War on August 1, 2006.
“I understood everything he felt,” his mother, Harriet Levin, said of his decision to move to Israel and join the army. “I’m the only one who believed that he wouldn’t grow out of it [his decision to join the army].”
Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, the hosts of the popular English variety show “Tuesday Night Live,” applauded Michael’s family for providing “a home in Israel” to the thousands of lone soldiers from around the world who serve and volunteer for the IDF.
The Levins have created the Michael Levin Memorial Fund, and the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center in Israel, which provides meals, furniture and support for thousands of soldiers.
The center is running a Independence Day BBQ for hundreds of soldiers on Tuesday.
“You can sit in wallow in things that are terrible – that’s the easy route – or you can take it and do something with it, and that gives us a lot of strength to go on every day,” Harriet Levin said during the ceremony.
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Dara Goldstein, Michael’s twin sister, joined Harriet on stage in a Phillies T-shirt because she knew that Michael would want her to be on stage showing off her Phillies pride.
“His message would be to the soldiers, all the soldiers, always be proud of defending Israel, be an example give it your best, never complain,” she said. “Keep going, that’s what he would tell everyone.”
Also honored in the program was Rivka Moriah, the mother of Avraham David Moses, one of the eight victims of the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva terrorist attack in March 2008.
“Remembrance Day has always been meaningful for me,” she said. “Now it’s so much deeper, and so much more personal. The challenge is not to just think of my son, but to think of the thousands that gave their lives for us to be here,” said Moriah.
She added that she thinks of those who were injured in terror attacks and in the army, who are suffering but have no official day to honor them.
While noting that everyone has “their own path in grief,” Moriah said what has most helpful for her has been staying involved with the Yeshiva high school after her son was killed.
“It was a place that Avraham David loved and they loved him there,” she said. “A strong love makes an impression, and I can still feel it and still experience it in some way.”