At this year's Chesed Day stop by at the Beit Halochem USA-Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans (FIDV) table in the Social Hall, while you wait to give blood or if you are in the building and write a Shana Tova card to a disabled veteran.

Beit Halochem USA-Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans cares for Israeli servicemen and women wounded in the line of duty who are now disabled.  At our state-of-the-art Beit Halochem (House of the Warriors) rehabilitation centers in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva we serve more than 50,000 disabled veterans and family members.

FIDV will provide cards titled "Flowers on the Porch" illustrated by Disabled Veteran and Member of Beit Halochem, Nissim Gaon and additional "Flowers in a Vase" illustrated by a Disabled Veteran and Member of Beit Halochem (artist unknown). We will be dedicating our Rosh Hashana cards to two disabled veterans who have sacrificed so much for Am Yisrael: Oren Blitzblau, who spoke to the Bayit community over Zoom this past year and Captain Ran Ben Attia.

See below to learn about Ran and Oren.

Captain Ran Ben Attia served as an Operations Officer in the Nahal Brigade during Operation Protective Edge (2014). While leading his men into one of the tunnels, a sniper shot him nearly blowing off his hand. The bullet penetrated his thigh and hip and lodged itself in the delicate nervous system around his spine in his pelvis. Thanks to the quick evacuation by the Air Force rescue unit, his life was saved.

August 19, 2018: When Oren Blitzblau crossed the finish line of the Iron Man competition in Sweden on a Sunday morning, he not only triumphed over the difficult course but also defeated the terrorist who tried to kill him 13 years ago and left him blind.