This article is adapted from Baruch Apisdorf’s remarks at a Soldiers Save Lives (SSL) fundraiser in Manhattan earlier this month.
These past six months have been the hardest six months of my life. I always thought that I was in control. If I just planned enough, if I were smart enough, if I did the right things, then everything would go according to plan.
Let us do exactly what they would want us to do. Let’s build a brighter future for the state of Israel.
Last October 6, when my best friend, David Newman, borrowed my car to attend a music festival, I told him, “I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I meant it. I had a plan for October 7 — a Bruno Mars concert in Tel Aviv.
When I awoke on the morning of October 7 to the sound of sirens, I immediately texted David.
“I hope you’re up north.”
He responded with just three words:
“Pray for me.”
That wasn’t the plan.
While I was sleeping, while David was dancing the night away at the Nova Music Festival, while our country was celebrating the Simchat Torah holiday, Hamas launched the single deadliest attack against the Jewish state in its history.
Chaos, destruction, and death followed.
Every single one of us Israelis saw this play out from a different place, a different perspective. But I know every single one of us felt the same thing. We felt hopeless, we felt despair, and we wanted to do something, anything, to help.
For me, that meant picking up two friends who are combat medics, grabbing bulletproof vests, pistols, and heading south, to save David.
I received one last text from David, when we reached southern Israel.
“Fucking pray for me now.”
I found out later that about 30 minutes after David sent that text, he was outside a dumpster — doing what David always did — protecting the ones he loved. He was shielding his girlfriend, Noam, and 13 other people who were hiding with her.
A terrorist spotted David and shot him in the chest.
The same terrorist, a man in flip-flops and shorts carrying an AK-47, then climbed atop the dumpster. He screamed “Allahu Akbar” and sprayed it full of bullets.
Noam was shot twice and buried beneath a pile of bodies. It took over four hours for someone to get there and rescue her. She survived and still is recovering from her wounds.
Sunday night October 8, I received a picture on WhatsApp. It was a field, filled with a pile of bodies. I was able to identify David from the shirt I loaned him for the music festival.
That wasn’t the plan.
David was this gorgeous, big, strong guy. Long blond hair, always laughing. That was never how I expected to see David.
When I close my eyes now and picture David, I see him at the beach, throwing a Frisbee, and taking in the beauty of the world. I see David in the kitchen, dancing like there is no tomorrow, and cooking a giant batch of shakshuka.
To this day, when I think about David, it’s never that image in the field that I picture.
When I just close my eyes, I often think if I wait long enough to open them, this will be a dream.
I think David will walk out of Gaza with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder, with a huge smile, saying, “Don’t worry. It’s all good. Everything is going to be OK.” Then I open my eyes.
When I open my eyes tonight, I see all of you, gathered here.
Tonight, I see more clearly than ever, hope.
I see a people who are coming together to make the world a better place.
I see that, even though so many terrible atrocities have happened in the past six months, when we come together, we can make the impossible happen.
That mentality inspired David’s closest friends and me to launch Soldiers Save Lives — in Memory of David Newman. Our people are working together to make the world a better place. Each of us asks, “What can I do to help?”
Our organization started with a WhatsApp group and a desperate need to help our people. I saw that turn into an airplane full of aid that landed at Tel-Aviv on Tuesday, October 10 — 72 hours after we founded SSL and the first of 10 such flights that we organized.
I have seen SSL turn my wish to do something into a full-service humanitarian supply chain for our people in a matter of months. I have seen how we can furnish thousands of soldiers with the gear they need. I have seen us provide aid and hope to affected families across Israel.
None of this would have happened if we had not worked together.
In the past six months, we have built something incredible. The organization, at its core, for me, is meant to do exactly what I failed to do on October 7. My best friend reached out, and I was unable to save him. Our country is now reaching out for help, and I believe if we come together that will save us all.
Though these have been the worst six months of my life, they also have been the best.
Finally, I see, and I see it more clearly tonight than ever before.
I see that when we come together, we can make the world a better place.
For David, for Noam, for all the beautiful souls stolen on October 7.
Let us do exactly what they would want us to do. Let’s build a brighter future for the state of Israel.
Am Yisrael chai.
Baruch Apisdorf is CEO of Soldiers Save Lives — in Memory of David Newman, a private, Jerusalem-based non-profit. Since October 7, 2024, SSL has delivered to the Israel Defense Forces some $22 million in tactical military equipment donated by U.S.-based friends of Israel.
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