A lunch and a testimony

The Jewish Community of Turin together with the Mizrachi Family

During the Jewish year 5786, which will end in a couple of months, the beautiful custom—which I hope will continue in 5787—of communal Shabbat meals at least once a month has become established. Until now, we’ve had multiple dinners, but last Saturday, July 4th, it was instead a lunch, undoubtedly easier to manage during the summer months.
And that’s not the only reason why it was an exception. This time there was not only the joy of being together, studying, discussions, singing, and cheer, but also an extremely sad and touching, painful and necessary moment: the testimony of a mother, Diklà Mizrachi, whose son, Ben Menashè Mizarachi z”l, was killed on October 7, 2023. Ben had left his family in Canada to move to Israel and had participated in the Nova Festival, like many other young people; from the testimonies of his friends, it appears that during the terrorist attack he perhaps could have saved himself, but he chose instead to stay to help others. With calm and for this very reason even more poignant words, Diklà recalled those terrible days: the phone call in the middle of the night between Friday and Saturday, which is already a warning signal for a family observing Shabbat. A false hope given by a previous hospitalization that incorrectly listed her son’s name among the injured. The long hours of flight from Canada to Israel. And finally, the news a mother never wants to hear: they found him. “We were “Lucky,” Diklà said paradoxically, thinking of the families who had to wait not days but months and years to learn the fate of their loved ones and to have their bodies returned.
The testimony, already terrible in itself, affected us even more because Diklà is the aunt of Roy Mizrachi, a young man who lives and studies in Turin and is very present in the life of our community. Therefore, the tragedy of October 7th touched us even more closely than perhaps some of us believed.
It was certainly a very sad moment, but also intense because we had the opportunity to get to know Ben at least a little and remember him all together, trying to convey, as much as possible, our embrace to Diklà and his family.
After the testimony, we all sang together a song that Ben loved dearly, “Ali di Vento,” written by Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook.

Son of man,
rise up, rise up.
Arise, arise, son of man.
Rise up, rise up.

Because you possess immense strength,
you have wings of the wind,
wings of mighty eagles.
Do not deny them,
lest they deny you.

Seek them—seek them, son of man,
and they will be returned to you immediately.

To listen to the song click on the following LINK

To view Ben Mizrachi’s Instagram page

Anna Segre