by Linda S. Haase on November 20, 2024
It's been said that everyone has a story that could break your heart.
The stories in
Haaretz
journalist Lee Yaron's book,
10/7: 100 Human Stories
, will break your heart 100 times over.
Each chapter features intertwined tales of dozens of people impacted by the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks on Israel.
Painstakingly reported, the book re-creates chronologies of events based on extensive interviews with survivors, bereaved families, and first responders. The result is a tapestry of interwoven narratives of terror, heroism, anguish, love, and sacrifice.
The victims whose stories are told offer a snapshot of Israel today, from elderly Holocaust survivors and refugees of the war in Ukraine to
Sabra
kibbutzniks and peace activists to Thai guest workers and Bedouin families.
Many of their stories reveal some of the intrinsic beauties of Israeli society, such as when strangers treat one another as an extended family; others reveal inherent injustices, such as poor and minority communities lacking sufficient bomb shelters.
As the grim and gripping chains of events unfold towards their inexorable conclusions, we see how fateful timing and split-second decisions--from the mundane to the heroic--impacted who lived and who died that day.
Poignantly, the origin stories of the wide-ranging individuals and families featured echo chapters in the building of the modern Jewish State, with victims who had been part of the ingathering of exiles from Odessa and Moscow, Poland and Transylvania, Algiers and Morocco, Ethiopia and Bagdad.
The chapters--some grouped by community, others by a shared fate--are punctuated by very readable lessons about the history of Zionism, Israel, and the region.
"It is possible to read this book and finish it with a desire for revenge," Joshua Cohen writes in the powerful Afterword to
10/7: 100 Human Stories
. "And it is equally possible to read this book and finish it with a renewed commitment to peace."
10/7: 100 Human Stories is published by St. Martin's Press.
