Long after the sirens and the screams have faded and the
stunned and bloody victims have been carted away, one group
remains at the scene of a terror attack in Israel. Bearded
men in neon yellow vests sort through the rubble, picking up
the pieces, literally, of those who didn't survive.
Yaakov Ury is typical. The grandfatherly Jerusalem native,
owner of a popular pizza parlor, began doing this gruesome
work three years ago, after experiencing a bombing personally
at Machaneh Yehuda, Jerusalem's outdoor market. "I just stood
there like an idiot," says Ury. "I didn't know what to do. So
I decided to join ZAKA."
An all-volunteer organization founded seven years ago, ZAKA
is a Hebrew acronym for the phrase "Identification of Victims
of Disaster." The group's purpose is to accord a proper
Jewish burial to the remains of those who met their ends in
natural or man-made disasters.
In this task, ZAKA members, 99 percent of whom are chareidi,
see themselves as fulfilling a great mitzva. Halacha
considers respectful treatment of the dead so important that,
in the days of the Holy Temple, the High Priest, though
proscribed from any contact with the dead, was nevertheless
permitted to defile himself to bring even a finger to burial.
In fact, the Torah reserves the phrase "kindness of truth,"
for burial of the dead. Involvement in the final rites of
another is by definition altruistic, a favor that can never
be repaid.
About three years ago, ZAKA members began to administer first
aid as well. When they realized that they often arrived at
the scene of a terrorist attack before ambulances and the
police, they decided to train volunteers as paramedics. Now
the organization owns five motor scooters -- each with first
aid equipment -- which enable its volunteers to cut through
downtown Jerusalem's ever-present traffic jams, to save
lives.
On a recent visit to the United States to raise funds for
additional scooters, Ury brought an oversized album, filled
with photographs testifying to the sad necessity of the
organization's work. They are clear and chilling.
"Here is where a car bomb exploded behind Machaneh Yehuda a
few months ago," he says, pointing out one. "A cabinet
minister's daughter was killed. She had just moved that day
from the West Bank to Jerusalem in order to have peace and
quiet."
He points to another photo, the wreck of a white minivan, in
which Binyamin Kahane and his wife were killed, ambushed on a
Shomron road.
"Look at this," he says. "A few years ago, a yeshiva student
from England got lost in the Judean desert. The army gave up
after three days. We went in and found his body."
There are photographs of Sbarro's after the blast there; of
catastrophic car accidents; of the Versailles wedding hall,
where three floors collapsed in the middle of a wedding,
killing 26 people.
There's a photo of ZAKA members carrying the covered body of
thirteen-year-old Kobi Mandell, killed and mutilated in a
cave near Tekoa. There's the burnt but still plush interior
of the bus where the three Cohen children lost their legs,
and the cloth-covered body of the Tel Aviv man who crossed
the Green Line to do business with Arabs and was killed in
cold blood.
One photo shows two volunteers leaning over a balcony to
scrape flesh from the wall of the building. "After a bomb,
human remains splatter onto the trees, roofs, and balconies,"
says Ury. "We use long ladders to gather the pieces, and then
put them together like a puzzle. We have much experience in
doing this, although sometimes we need to get DNA tests."
Ury shields women from some of the close-ups. "A woman
shouldn't see these terrible things," he says. But men, too,
are affected by the grisly sights. At the Saturday night Beis
Yisrael bombing, experienced ZAKA men wept to see babies in
their strollers, burned beyond recognition.
"Believe me," says Rabbi Ury, "it's so hard for the
volunteers. But something pushes them to do this. Each
volunteer feels he has to do it, and goes back again and
again." He says the government provides counseling and
psychological services, just as it does for victims of
terror.
When asked what happens to the bodies of suicide bombers, Ury
says, "The Torah teaches us that, no matter what people have
done, they are still human beings, and each human is created
in the image of G-d. We treat the bodies respectfully, put
them in plastic bags, and give them to the army."
The devotion of ZAKA volunteers has earned the organization
great praise and respect among all segments of the Israeli
public. But Yaakov Ury feels he is just doing a job that
needs to be done. He looks forward to spending more time
serving pizza to his customers.
"Everybody wants his organization to grow and develop," he
says of ZAKA, "but we are praying that we should go out of
business."
(ZAKA's American address is: ZAKA Rescue and Recovery, 500
8th Avenue, Suite 905, NY, 10018. Donations are tax-
deductible.)
AM ECHAD RESOURCES: Elaine Berkowitz is an editor and
freelance writer. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
