Bring Them Home

I took this picture in Hebron 11-11-11

Three teenage boys on their way home from their yeshiva classes in the West Bank near Hebron were kidnapped last week. Prayers for their recovery have filled the heavens and the wedding Sunday started with a heartfelt prayer for their safe return.

The West Bank is not the safest place to be and although I visited Hebron both in 1974 and 2011 it was scary both times (but well worth it to visit the tombs of our Ancestors).

Yet even as tensions mounted in Israel, the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas chose a private clinic near Tel Aviv to have surgery performed on his wife. Perhaps that is partially the reason for his efforts to retrieve the kidnapped teenagers, who knows?

I am reminded of Dudu Fisher's rendition of Bring Him Home, a favorite from Les Miz and sung here for the safe return of Gilad Shalit. Of course the capture of three school children on their way home is more heinous than the capture and lengthy imprisonment of a soldier in uniform.

Bring them home, dear God, safe and sound and speedily...