PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A West Philadelphia man who served in the Israeli military and reserves in the unit that helps to recover and identify dead bodies in war has been helping support that work once again after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
Six and a half weeks later, victims’ bodies are still being recovered. And the sensitive work of identifying those bodies and, where necessary, gathering body parts and spilled blood, is being done by a volunteer civilian emergency search-and-recovery organization called Zaka.
Yakir Englander has been in contact with members of Zaka, and working with the Israeli American Council in the United States, to help secure supplies and to advocate for mental health measures to help workers on the ground in Israel.
“All the supplies, most of that was sent, whatever they will need — more — we will help them. And in addition to that, we really want to — I want to — make sure that a mental support is going to be also in Zaka,” Englander said.
“It's a work that, by definition, you have post trauma. Very hard to see — and it stays with you.”
Englander describes the work as meticulous and time consuming because, according to Jewish tradition, bodies must be buried whole and with every drop of blood.
“In the Jewish tradition, the image of the Divine is actually in the blood,” Englander said.
He says Zaka volunteers, who tend to be religious Jews, must generally complete this work by sunset. However, because of the number of casualties, the work is still going on, leading to an atmosphere of “rolling grief.”
“In the Jewish tradition, there is a phenomenon that you cannot start grief until it is clear that we have a dead body,” Englander said.
Mutilation has made the process more difficult.
“This is where I do not want to go to details that will remain with our audience in ways that can create trauma for them,” he said.
“You really see them climbing on trees to find every piece. You really do anything to bring everything, and I think this is also why Zaka many times are religious people, because they care so deeply.”
Englander says the crime scenes are considered holy sites. The bloodied clothing and all materials used in the cleanup are considered sacred.
“We try to take as much as possible from the area and to bury that.”
Englander explains that to many Jewish people, the images of the massive number of bloodied cars left destroyed after the Nova festival are reminiscent of a graveyard.
“So if there is an accident in a car, you see that they bury the whole — I mean, in a different place — but you bury the whole car, because it includes the pieces of humanity.”