THE JERUSALEM POST BECOMING AS ‘ONE’ With the help of OneFamily, victims of terrorism found each other and, as a result, are learning to live life again It’s all about family ....................................................................... 4 By David Brinn OneFamily in numbers ................................................................ 6 OneFamily around the world ................................................. 8 Crawling out of a dark abyss .............................................. 10 By Tovah Lazaroff Girl Power ............................................................................................ 13 By Tal Ariel Amir The Orphans Division ............................................................... 16 By David Adler Remembering my brother .................................................... 18 By Mollie Schwartz Stirring up lasting bonds ......................................................... 20 By Lidar Grave-Lazi Youth Division provides support for bereaved youth .................................................................... 23 By Jerusalem Post Staff 15 years of OneFamily in photos ..................................... 26 A collection of memories and miracles ...................... 30 By Jerusalem Post Staff The Taste of Life .............................................................................. 32 By Greer Fay Cashman Learning to move forward .................................................... 34 By Asael Shabo An unexpected love story ...................................................... 35 By Noa Amouyal Magazine Editor: NOA AMOUYAL Copy Editor: YAKIR FELDMAN, DANIEL HABERMAN, MENASHE KOREN, LAWRENCE RIFKIN Manager of Business Development: REVITAL YAKIN-KRAKOVSKY Graphic Artists:TALYA ADLER, HANA BEN-ANO, DARIA COHEN, MAYA PELEG, DEBI RUBIN (All photos courtesy of OneFamily unless otherwise stated)24 In these difficult times, show your solidarity with the people of Israel Go to #onefamilystrongerthanterror and upload your selfie and your message! 2 ONEFAMILY Dear friends, (Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Israel Post) (Marc o everyone at OneFamily, to Each person – bereaved brothers, bereaved families and their children or widows. Tbeloved children and to my Everyone is coping. personal friend Marc Belzberg - who is Every person copes in a different way. doing such holy work, the work of God. But knowing that we have OneFamily, I know how difficult it is to lose a loved the family of the Jewish people, hugs one, and how painful it is. us and gives us a source of strength. It Recently I met with a group of provides us a tremendous amount of orphans. One of the kids asked me how I strength. handle the loss of my own brother (Yoni May you continue to do this z”l) and I said to him, “each person and important work. May these children each family copes in a different way.” continue to grow, develop and flourish. Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister of Israel THE JERUSALEM POST 3 MARC BELZBERG, Co-Founder and Chairman, OneFamily. (Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post) It’s all about family • By DAVID BRINN environment,” says Belzberg of his upbringing in Edmonton, Alberta, and later in Vancouver. His father is Sam, one of three alking into the lobby of the King David Hotel in Je- renowned Canadian Belzberg brothers who made a fortune in rusalem, Marc Belzberg seems to know everyone – a real estate, oil and gas investments. Wcouple chatting in the plush, oversized lobby sofa, He took up his parents’ offer to study for a year in a boarding the doorman, the maître d’ in the dining room and the cab school and chose to go to Israel at the Hadassim school near driver out front, all of whom he greets with a warm handshake Netanya, due to its connection with Hadassah Women, which and personalized repartee. his mother was actively involved in. Unassuming, slender and casually but neatly dressed in a “I was very moved by Israel during that year I spent there. button-down shirt topped with a black kippa, the 61-year-old I don’t know why, but it parked inside my heart,” says Belz- Belzberg doesn’t exude the bravado one would expect from a berg, who returned to Vancouver to discover that many of his wealthy businessman who made his fortune in his native Can- friends he had left behind had become religiously observant ada before moving to Israel in 1991. during his absence, due to the arrival of a young, charismatic In fact, the only boasting out of his mouth during a 90-min- rabbi from Baltimore named Pinchas (“Pinky”) Bak. ute talk last month emerges when Belzberg describes the im- After resisting any contact with Judaism for a couple months, pact that OneFamily – the organization that he founded in Belzberg was convinced by his friends to attend a Shabbat 2001 with his wife, Chantal – has on thousands of Israelis who morning service. have experienced the devastating weight of terrorism invade “I arrived late, sat in the back, and left as soon as it was over,” their families. he recalls. “Pinky ran after me up the street and asked me to stay With almost 50 staff members, dozens of volunteers and an for lunch. He was the kind of guy it was hard to say no to. I told annual budget of some $4 million, OneFamily provides emo- him okay, but that I would need to borrow his phone to call my tional and financial assistance to terror victims and the family parents and tell them where I was going to be. Unbelievably, he members of victims killed in terrorist attacks. said yes. And because of that, my life changed forever.” “I don’t come here that often, Chantal runs the place,” says Belzberg spent the entire day with Pinky and at the end of Belzberg after a short cab ride to the OneFamily national head- havdala, he went home and told his parents, “I want to be Jew- quarters that takes up an entire rambling three-story house in ish.” the capital’s Greek Colony. Embarking on a path of observance and learning, Belzberg “The first year or so, I was very active, but it became too much attended Yeshiva University in New York and, for his junior to handle, too painful. This place is a disaster. My wife has more year, returned to Israel to study at the Har Etzion Yeshiva in emotional strength than I do – she can cry and laugh, cry and Gush Etzion – another pivotal moment in his life. laugh again. I cry and I can’t laugh after that.” “Pinky changed my life religiously, but the rabbis in the The office space is bustling with staffers and volunteers, and Gush changed my life Zionistically,” says Belzberg. “I knew at Belzberg leads a visitor up the winding stairs to the empty club- the end of that year that Israel was going to play a big role in house on the top floor (he doesn’t have a private office in the my future.” building), where he recounts his unlikely journey from secular But life got in the way, as Belzberg spent the next decade Canadian teen to one of Israel’s leading philanthropists. working in his family’s business in Canada and then moving “I GREW UP in a Zionist environment, not a religious to New York, where he worked on Wall Street for Salomon 4 ONEFAMILY Brothers and Oppenheimer & Co. and later served as the first and made an instant decision to expand the fund beyond its president of First City Capital Corp. from 1983 to 1990. original scope. At age 31, he was an unmarried workaholic. However, a “The idea was to take care of the needs of the victims and friendship with the chief rabbi of Antwerp resulted in a series their families, no matter their age,” he says. “The family put in of blind dates whenever he would call Belzberg and tell him $100,000, we did some Internet advertising and hired a firm an eligible Antwerp Jewish woman happened to be in town. to help figure out what the name should be, and within half Belzberg was just about ready to give up the endeavor when a year we had $2m. from an outpouring of support from Jew- the rabbi insisted that he meet one more arrival. ish communities around the world. The world was waiting for She turned out to be 20-year-old Chantal, fresh out of col- some way to help Israel, and this provided the mechanism.” lege. Within a short time, the two were engaged. At their of- Chantal took over the reins of the new organization ten ficial engagement party in Antwerp, Belzberg received the years ago – dubbed OneFamily – and it has evolved over 14 shock of his life. years into the benevolent angel for terror victims and their “We had never discussed the idea of moving to Israel before, families – providing everything from cash, furniture and toys but Chantal was introducing me to her high school friends, to therapy, psychological assistance, day camps, retreats and and said to them: ‘We’re going to live in Israel,’” says Belzberg friendship to over 3,500 clients and their families. with bemusement. “When we made the decision to really take on this responsi- “I said, ‘Where did that come from? In fact, I do want to bility, we knew that the OneFamily name would be the guid- move to Israel, but maybe in 25 or 30 years.’ And she said, ing principle from which every plan and every difficult deci- ‘We’ll move in five years.’ I didn’t want to get into an argu- sion would flow,” says Belzberg. ment at our engagement party, so I just said ‘Okay.’” “At every turn we ask ourselves, ‘Are we taking care of every After their marriage, Belzberg continued to work around the person in the same way we would, if they were our brothers clock, but after five years, he felt ready in his life to make the or sisters?’ We and everyone at OneFamily drag that thought move. Now it was Chantal’s turn to demur, having finally got- process to the forefront of our minds many times every day. ten used to maneuvering through life in New York.