07/08/2026
We first met Amos in February during our Mobile Eyecare clinic at the Mekedonia Home for the Elderly and Mentally Disabled in Addis Ababa.
I was wearing a blue bracelet with Hebrew letters on it. A patient ran over to me, rolled up his sleeve, and proudly showed me Hebrew lettering and a Jewish star tattooed onto his arm!
He told me his name was Amos, he has family in Israel, and he asked if he could have my blue rubber bracelet.
I had a strong emotional attachment to that bracelet, but felt sure I wanted him to have it. I told him I’d be honored to give it him – but only after I explained the significance of it.
I shared with him a story of former Israeli hostage Bar Kupershtein* taken captive from the Nova Oct sev*enth.
At one point Bar’s mom received a phone call from his sadistic CAPTOR. He made demands of her. She refused (!), but not only that:
When the captor responded “do you understand that I am holding your son [and can do to him as I wish] ” she responded to him:
“No, my son is NOT in your hands, he is in the hands of the Creator of the universe. AND you should know that you TOO are in the hands of Gd, and he is watching everything you are doing.”
WOW. No words.
The bracelet I had worn daily after getting it from Bar’s family at hostage square in Tel aviv, bore the inscription:
אני תמיד בידיים של בורא העולם"”
In English: “I am always in the hands of the creator of the universe.”
I handed Amos my bracelet.
A few weeks ago we arrived at Meckedonia, and as soon as we got off the bus, Amos ran over to greet me!
He rolled up his sleeve again, this time showing me his bracelet and telling me he has worn it everyday.
During our clinic that day he asked if I could do another favor for him:
Deliver a note that he would write, to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
I told him I’d be happy to, and gave him some paper from my notebook.
Honestly I had not been to the Western Wall / Kotel in quite a long time. But when I returned to Israel I had to complete Amos’ mission. I went to Jerusalem, to the Western Wall, folded his note up small, and wedged it in the the ancient stones, which were once a section of the retaining wall of the Ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
How incredible that it was Amos, from Meckedonia in Addis Ababa, who had brought me back to this holy Jewish site that day.
*Bar Kupershtein was brutally abducted from the Nova music festival on Oct seventh 2023 and held captive for 738 unimaginable days. At the Nova he risked his life REPEATEDLY to evacuate and treat wounded, until he was horrifically taken h*stage himself. He somehow survived 738 brutal days of captivity, and was "released" 10 months ago in exchange for hundreds of prisoners.
