In Memory: To Matthew Eisenfeld and Sara Duker, z"l h"yd

Hebron-Past, Present and Forever
by David Wilder
In Memory:  To Matthew Eisenfeld  and Sara Duker, z"l h"yd
February 28, 1996

As I write this, the time is midnight - the daily news summary is being 
broadcast on Kol Yisrael, and once again I find myself sitting here with tears 
in my eyes.  The first story is a report of the funeral and burial of Matt 
Eisenfeld and Sara Duker in West Hartford Connecticut, USA.  On both sides 
their parents were quoted, saying that they would continue to send their 
children to Israel, where they belong.  
 I first came to Israel over 20 years ago, in the summer of 1974, as a student 
on the one-year program, at Hebrew University.  I studied in Cleveland at CWRU 
and was thrilled with the idea of spending a year in Israel.  I wasn't 
religious, nor did I have any intentions of making Aliyah.  My life was all 
planned out - my major goal was law school and later, some kind of civil 
liberties legal job.  
 I also had no illusions about Israel.  A good friend had spend a summer 
touring the country with tremendous expectations.  He came back to the US so 
disappointed: it wasn't the way he thought it would be.  I don't think he ever 
came back.  But, I decided that it would be whatever it is - I wanted to learn 
about it and absorb it, and then go back home to the the US.
 So, Israel it was - one year after the Yom Kippur War - and the environment 
was still of war shock.  There was much tension on the Syrian border and a new 
outbreak of hostilities was considered very possible.  But that didn't overly 
concern me.  I was getting acquainted with my Homeland, touring, learning 
Hebrew, meeting people and feeling at one with the city of Gold, Jerusalem.  As 
the year evolved I grew closer and closer, both spiritually and physically, to 
Israel, Jerusalem, and slowly, to religion.  It was an extremely powerful year, 
in almost all aspects of life.  Even though I still had no intentions of living 
here, I used to get upset with people who said, "I could never live here - I 
don't like the way it is, socially, religiously, etc. etc."  I would answer 
them, "If you want to live in the US, fine, but if you want, you can come here 
and change the way things are - you don't have to accept everything the way it 
is today.  Israel is a small country.  You can have an influence.  You can come 
back and change it."
 By the end of the year I realized that I had to come back - not necessarily to 
stay, but to give it a chance, to be here again.  And so, while back in 
Cleveland for my senior year, I did everything possible to prepare myself to 
return, immediately following graduation.  I had help from Above - and less 
than a month after graduation, on Entebbe Day - July 4, 1976, I was back.  And 
as it turned, with the exception of a brief interlude in NJ for needed dental 
work, I as here to stay.
 Looking back 22 years, I can see, in some kind of perspective, where I was 
then, and where I am now - where Israel was then and where Israel is today.  I 
have been blessed with a beautiful family, a loving wife, wonderful children, 
understanding and generous parents and parents-in-law.  I live that way I want 
to live, according to the values and ideals that I thing are important.  I 
raise my children according to these ideals -the ideals of true Zionism, the 
ideals of true Judaism as I understand it - the ideals that I preached to my 
friends 22 years ago - "if you want to, come back and change it - don't just 
say, 'I don't like it.' "  I try, the best I can to do what I can for the 
Jewish People, in Israel and in the Diaspora, from Kiryat Arba - from Hebron.  
I don't know what my personal future will be, and that holds little importance 
in my life's philosophy.  I know that I am living the way I think I should, 
where I think I should - not just for me, but for Jews everywhere.  Hebron, 
city of the Patriarchs, reflects the values and ideals of eternal Judaism, and 
so I am here, trying to insure that we will all be able to be here, forever.  I 
have managed to live my dream - not necessarily easy, not always pleasant, but 
this is it - this is what it's all about.  Sometimes you have to pay a price to 
for what you believe in, if you really want it and believe in it.
 And then I think of Matt Eisenfeld, having lived where my father's brother 
lives, and Sara Duker, who lived a few miles from where I went to high school, 
and I see two people similar to me - who came to Israel because of similar 
reasons, with similar goals, with similar values and ideologies - not 
necessarily exactly the same- politically, socially or religiously - but the 
ideal  was pure - for the good, not of  'me', but for the good of the Jewish People.  They 
came here, found each other, and together, wanted to continue in the footsteps 
of their Forefathers, in the land of Israel.
 Until Sunday morning, at 6:40 am, in Jerusalem bus #18, on Yaffo Street, 3 
minutes from the Central Bus Station
 And I ask myself, where would they be, what could they have done 
                                                22 years from now?