LOOKING AROUND: Eran's braces
By Barbara Sofer
Aug. 15, 2002
They were in my supermarket last Saturday night, those twins Eran and Avi Mizrachi whose 16th birthday party went so sour one Saturday night last winter. At first I thought it was a sign that their lives were getting back to normal. But that was an illusion.
Do you remember their story, or do the terror attacks run together like an obscene horror movie you'd love to turn off, only you can't find the remote control?
On December 1, Eran and Avi wanted to celebrate their birthday with a group of 10th-grade classmates at an outdoor restaurant. Their mother, Sima, begged them not to go downtown. Eran had previously survived a terror assault when his bus was attacked at the French Hill junction. He had light injuries but ongoing nightmares.
On the night of their birthday, close to midnight, two terrorists blew themselves up on Rehov Ben-Yehuda, the concussive force of their bombs spewing nuts, screws, and bolts that had been dipped in rat poison. A third bomb, aimed at rescue workers, exploded on Rehov Rav Kook. In the ambulance, Avi managed to phone home to say he was wounded but all right..
Eran was alive but in critical condition. His worst injury came from the screw that entered his skull and lodged in his brain. He fully regained consciousness on the first day of Hanukka. A miracle. He then began a long process of physical and occupational therapy.
Eleven young men were murdered that night. Two of them were the twins' friends who had come to celebrate their birthday.
THE MIZRACHIS have been able to cope with the trauma, the discouragements, the setbacks, and the long road to recovery. As Sima says: "We have our son back. The rest is fine-tuning." Last week, in the large discount supermarket, the Mizrachis shared with me some of their difficulties.
Neither Rafi nor Sima Mizrachi can hold down jobs, having obligations to care for their sons. New problems keep cropping up.
Take Eran's orthodontics. His braces were removed because of his head injury; the braces interfered with the necessary brain surgery. National Insurance compensation laws didn't cover the cost of their replacement. Rafi told me how he wept when he was turned down. "Sue us," the representative of National Insurance advised them.
Sima managed to get a grant to cover this expense from the Jewish Agency. She's not even angry. "I understand that the government is worried that victims might ask for elective medical procedures."
But she is upset about the city's turning down their request for a discount on municipal taxes. Even though they have two sons wounded in a terror attack, the apartment obviously wasn't in the boys' name, so they didn't qualify.
How could the whole process be streamlined? Sima is too exhausted to think about it. Eran soon will be trying a new treatment plan to speed up his improvement in cognitive skills. That will require frequent trips to Tel Aviv.
Eran and Avi's birthday celebration took place more than eight months ago. This week, Eran had additional surgery. Brain surgeons were afraid that the bolt in his brain would move and cause still another episode of bleeding. Avi needs surgery, too, for a bone problem.
The Mizrachis count their blessings: both their sons survived. But at the same time, their lives have totally changed. They are typical of the more than 5,000 families whose daily struggles are portraits in courage, as we go and confuse their names.
Rafi Mizrachi shouldn't have to weep over his son's braces. Our terror victims aren't like cars having an old back fender repaired because the front end was in an accident. Government agencies have been pressed, and they need to have rules and restrictions; but in this national crisis, administrators needn't get hung up on every letter of the law.
Every story like Eran's braces is painful for us taxpayers to hear. We want our government - national and municipal - to err on the side of generosity toward terror victims. Generous funds have been raised and will continue to be raised by the Jewish people and Christian supporters of Israel in the Diaspora to supplement our taxes in caring for our wounded. The many independent efforts need to be coordinated and overhead kept low so that the needs of the wounded are efficiently and efficaciously taken care of.
In this week's Torah portion, Ki Tetze, we learn that we cannot hide ourselves so as not to help someone with a heavy load. How heavy is the load carried by families like the Mizrachis, paying the price for our desire to live freely in our own land! They carry that load with dignity and joy. We are privileged to be able to help lighten their burden.
