Responsible Storytelling - Odelia Horgen's Full Story
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00:00My name is Odelia Horgen, daughter of Benyamin and Ester.
00:04I am the eldest of six children in our family,
00:08Akiva, Betalel, Avigai, Lilel, and Elishiv,
00:12and I'm also the aunt of a sweet Ofekenin bar.
00:17On a sunny and pleasant Sunday morning in December 2020,
00:22after a long, windy week, my mother,
00:27Mamon, to me, Ester Horgen, went for a run in the forest
00:33near our home in Tal Menashe.
00:36Mamon was young, both in body and spirit.
00:41She loved life,
00:44she loved the beautiful family she had built with my father,
00:48she loved the nature, and she loved God.
00:51On that day, she went to do what she loved the most,
00:56to connect with her nature, to connect with her body,
01:00and with her soul.
01:03On that beautiful day, a despicable terrorist
01:06ambushed her, waiting patiently for her to return from her run,
01:11and then attacked her with full force, eating her again and again with
01:18stones, until her soul returned to
01:23the Creator. It was only after much organized
01:27searching through the forest until we finally found her,
01:32serene, in the place she loved the most, connected to Earth.
01:39Mamon was not just a mother to me. She was like a sister, she was my best
01:45friend. Sometimes I really felt like I was the
01:49only child when I was with her. We traveled the
01:52world together, we went out together, we did silly things
01:57together, but I was not alone there. I had five
02:02younger siblings and two nephews, and she knew how to give
02:07exactly the right amount of attention and love to each one of them.
02:12Then suddenly our lives were turned upside down. There was the life
02:18before, and now there is the life after.
02:22Suddenly you have to learn everything about life from scratch.
02:28What is everyone's role at home? How do you live without your mother?
02:33How do you continue?
02:37Immediately after the attack, the One Family organization reached out to us,
02:41offering help and comfort. My younger sister,
02:45Abigail, immediately connected with there,
02:49meeting a group of friends her age, each with a similar trauma, each with their
02:55own story that they shared together. Every meeting
02:59was because of light,
03:03became light to Abigail, a reason to get out of bed, which had become a real
03:09struggle for her after the attack.
03:15I knew that my trauma needed to be treated
03:18as early as possible. Otherwise, the scars would become permanent, and then the
03:25pain would remain. So right after the attack, I went to a
03:28range of treatment therapies, psychology, art therapy. I found exercising in the
03:35beach, in the sea, was very helpful to me.
03:41I worked a lot on my soul, but something still was missing,
03:46because after the attack, I felt very disconnected from people.
03:50I couldn't find topics of conversation to engage
03:55and start feeling somewhat strange.
04:00Then, sometime later, it was my turn. A phone call from Murad.
04:08Odelia, we are organizing a therapeutic trip to Ethiopia.
04:14Would you like to join us? I, as someone who loves to travel and
04:20travel the world, immediately answered, as you expect,
04:26of course, my two great loves, traveling and now therapy.
04:35Perfect. And indeed, we went to a journey to Ethiopia, a therapeutic journey
04:42that was incredible. For the first time, I met others who had gone through what I
04:48had gone through. I didn't feel so odd anymore.
04:52Others were expressing what I felt, because I couldn't put it into words.
05:01Words which opened up a whole new
05:07friends to me. Eight days of journey into the soul. Workshops, talks,
05:14lectures, hearings, hearings, 50 horror stories, but also meeting 50 new
05:20families, members of one family, my new friends.
05:28Now they finally helped me realize that I'm okay. I not got crazy. What's
05:35happening to me, it's okay. And it's gonna be okay, because we are
05:40together.
05:46The therapeutic journey we went through together was truly exceptional.
05:54Our conversation, therapies, various activities,
05:59breathings, and yoga workshops, one-on-one and on group sessions with
06:03therapists, psychologics, and friends. The pain and the difficulty that we
06:09surfaced,
06:12but in a place far from home, made it easier to engage with the pain.
06:18In our daily lives, there are distractions everywhere,
06:22but instead, by the time together, far away from that, really help us
06:32to connect together and give us strength.
06:38Going on this journey together, traveling
06:42so far away, disconnecting from all the stress
06:47with everything's going on in Israel, this all
06:51did me so much good to be 100% engaged in the journey, away from all the
06:57distractions.
07:03Then, October 7, 2023. It's a holiday, Simchat Torah. The whole
07:10family is gathered in my father's house.
07:147.30 in the morning, my brother, a drone operator,
07:18is the first one to be called to the army. Two hours later,
07:22my other brother in the artillery is called up.
07:27And then, of course, I also got the call. There is a war.
07:35This is a real alert. Come to the reserves.
07:40I, who had been doing reserve duty for 10 years
07:45in the elite role, never believed that I would actually be called up for it.
07:50But it happened. Of course, you know the stories of October 7.
07:571,400 new families join us, the family of the
08:02preferred. Since then, my story had been one of
08:10Since then, my story was the reserve. 12-hour shift, bombing Gaza, protecting
08:16our soldier in the field. I have only one motive,
08:21to destroy the terrorists so that all of our soldiers can return
08:27home safely, in body and in soul, because I know firsthand what
08:33happened to a family that lost her soul.
08:38One day, during a lunch on the base, a new friend from the army told me,
08:45you have regards from Al-Awwah. It took me a moment,
08:50and then I realized he had also joined the family,
08:54the one family, family. My brother fell in Gaza,
08:58he said. My heart shattered into thousands pieces.
09:06He then continued and shared, I am not the only one here.
09:11There is also another girl who lost her brother in Gaza
09:15from our base. One story after another, it never ends.
09:22Of course, immediately I told them about one family
09:27and what they have to offer, and highly recommended
09:30any journey they could take with them. Indeed,
09:34they both went to a one-family caravan trip
09:37in the Czech Republic with a group of those
09:41lost their brother or sister in the war. They both returned invigorated and with
09:47renewed strength. For them, leaving the country,
09:51especially now during the war, was essential for healing their spirit
09:55and calming their soul. And now, after nine months of fighting,
10:02it is with a very heavy heart that I'm leaving the reserves,
10:06and at least for now. Because for me too, after so much
10:13has happened, I also feel that my soul is a bit
10:17depleted, and I need to recharge with new energy. After all, I'm an
10:23architect, I'm a yoga teacher, I'm not a child,
10:27I'm not a soldier. I didn't sign up for it.
10:32I want to thank you for inviting me here tonight,
10:36listening to my story, which is just one out of many
10:40thousands of stories. Thank you to one family
10:43who brought me back to the life and introduced me
10:46to my new family, which will stay with me forever.