Sderot Evacuee Shares Spotlight with Star Singer Eti Ankri

Last night I attended a special prayer gathering for the wellbeing of our soldiers and hostages organized by evacuees from the South. The star of the evening was Eti Ankri, one of Israel’s most popular singers, who (along with her equally gifted daughter) had volunteered her time to lift the spirits of the evacuees and the rest of us with her soulful singing.

In this video you can see what, for me, was the highlight of the event, when Ravital Adaf of Sderot got up and joined Eti on stage. When I saw this survivor of countless rockets and the Simchat Torah massacre singing “I lift my eyes to the mountains, from where will my help come?” I thought: For us, this is an inspiring chapter of Psalms. A beautiful song. For her, this is her LIFE.

Afterwards I spoke with Ravital, and she told me a bit about herself:

“I’ve lived in Sderot for 60 years, since I’m a little girl. There’s always a few rockets falling here and there, but that Shabbat it was absolutely terrifying, we stayed locked in our bomb shelter for 10 hours. But Sderot is my home. The people there are good people, warm people. 2 of my 4 children also live in Sderot near me with their families. My daughter wanted to also come up to Jerusalem, but her daughter is so traumatized from that Shabbat that she isn’t willing to leave the safety of her uncle’s bomb shelter in Ashdod to travel north. So they are stuck there.”

When I asked Ravital what had given her the courage to get up on stage with Eti Ankri she answered: “She asked for us to join her on stage, so I joined her. I’m a big fan of hers, I didn’t want to disappoint her!”

May Ravital soon return home to a peaceful Sderot along with all our soldiers and hostages, please God!

Shabbat shalom!