More on Avi...

While family and friends had assembled in Los Angeles to eulogize and bid farewell to Avi Schaefer over 150 of us gathered in Jerusalem's center to speak, remember and watch the online-streamed funeral. Most important was for those who knew and loved him just to come together. As I stood and watched young and old friends, family members, former hanichim, madrichim, Tzevet members and just general people who felt connected to Avi, I began to realize the impact of Avi's life and the reeling affect his loss will have.
I thought about the pivotal period of life that I met and got to know the Schaefer twins. It was the Spring of 2004 as two identical wiry boys with braces on their teeth and a quiet disposition graced us with their presence. "We're not really interested in the ancient history," Yoav explained to me in one of our earlier meetings. "More the modern stuff, y'know, history of the wars from '48 on..."
"Ok," I replied, "we'll see," I thought.
A year later we sat around bowls of houmous, and discussed why the Rabbis of the Talmud were less inclined to mention the travails of Bar Kochva's failed attempt at redeeming the Jewish people from Roman rule.
I loved hearing about Avi and Yoav's adventures and explorations throughout Europe and Morocco, watching them appear on Yair Lapid, and getting them to do numerous speaking gigs for the army when I was in Dover Tzahal. I always felt comfortable and proud sending a group to hear Avi's story and his perspective, and knew that he would always be able to articulate his feelings in a way that people would respond to positively.
On Monday night we stood and listened, and cried and hugged each other.
Avi was the 'New Jew' - an image out of an Alterman poem - the two heros returning home to the kibbutz after closing 21 or 28 days. I remember seeing them at synagogue during a visit with their father. Anxious to show me their scrapes and scars from crawling drills during tironut, they reluctantly admitted to me that, "hey y'know, we're a little bit older so we just try to help the kids out..." (being of course 19 amidst a conglomeration of 18-year-olds)
Watching Avi grow from a timid teenager to a strong confident 21 year old I realized that he was living the dream.
It is true that "Everyone dies, but not everyone truly lives."
Avi truly lived.

Mourning the Loss of Avi Schaefer

Early Friday morning on a street in Providence, Rhode Island, the world lost Avi Schaefer. Hit and killed by a drunk driver Avi remains a treasured student, friend, brother, soldier and hero. A student at Brown University, Avi had just completed 3 voluntary years of army service in the IDF.

I first met Avi when he was a young 15 year-old student at the NFTY-EIE High School in Israel program during my first semester as a teacher. While his twin Yoav was in my class, Avi was a known presence, and often struck up conversations over lunch and on tiyulim. As he and Yoav made their way back to Israel after high school, whether for just a visit and finally as olim, I always enjoyed hearing them tell their tales of adventure and travel and struggles with the challenge of being Zionists and strong Jewish advocates amidst an adversarial Californian environment.

Upon induction to the IDF (a month after my own), Avi and Yoav took to combat units feeling a strong sense of national responsibility and שליחות. Whether it was appearances on Yair Lapid's show or Nefesh B'Nefesh, Avi (and Yoav) never shied away from the opportunity to share their beliefs and to explain why they believed what they were doing was right.

Every time I called their mobile phone, not knowing who would answer, Avi without fail, always first inquired about me and my well being. "How's your service going?" he would ask with genuine curiosity as to my well being. "It must be tough to be so much older than everyone else," he once inquired. When I told him that my cushy army desk job pailed in comparison to he and Yoav's months of guard duty in Hevron and the Lebanese border, he would reply with a smile and say "hey, everyone's got to do what they're good at," and remind me that I had inspired them to be where they are now.

While not all of his army service was easy the decision to leave Israel and study at Brown University was also quite difficult. It is clear to me that in his first semester at Brown, Avi felt a strong sense of shlichut and was determined to be an Israel advocate, and to show the world through his campus that Israeli soldiers are not monsters and can even be peace-loving, calm and articulate people.

I recomend reading Avi's opinion piece "To those interested in creating peace in the Middle East" published in the Brown Daily Herald to begin to get a sense of who Avi was.

In a split second a selfish and despicable human being made a decision and took the life of our student, friend, brother, soldier, hero and role model. In Avi's short life, he was able to impact so many. Our thoughts are with his parents and brothers.

יהי זכרו ברוך