Nine months after a terrorist murdered Dvir Sorek, high school students from Ohr Torah Stone institutions dedicated an outdoor rest area in his memory at the site of the attack.
Sorek, a student at Ohr Torah Stone’s Machanaim Hesder Yeshiva in Gush Etzion, was killed in August of 2019 at the age of 19, just one day before summer break. He was on his way back from Jerusalem, where he had gone to buy books as end-year gifts for his teachers.
“The concept, developed by our students, was to breathe a sense of life and living into this place where Dvir’s life came to its tragic end,” said Rabbi Yitzchak Fried of Derech Avot High School for Boys in Efrat. “We intend to continue to develop and build up this area.”
Students from Derech Avot cleaned up the wooded area and created a pathway leading to the site, where they placed benches and picnic tables they made themselves.
The dedication ceremony was attended by Dvir’s sister, parents and grandparents, as well as faculty members and some of Dvir’s fellow students, most now serving in the Israel Defense Forces.
Students and teachers at the ceremony said they hoped that everyone who walks through the area will be able to feel the special spirit that defined Dvir, in addition to his joy in the Jewish people and Israel.
“From the very moment he arrived in our yeshivah, Dvir stood out,” recalled Rabbi Shlomo Vilk, head of school of the Robert M. Beren Machanaim Hesder Yeshiva. “No one ever had to tell him what to do because he already knew the right way to act. His behavior injected a sense of life into everything around him. In his honor, we must always strive to carry our sadness with pride, to be uplifted by it and to use it for positive things that will fill the gaping emptiness of loss.”