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Fort Myers rabbi returns from Israel with heartbreaking stories

WGCU | By Michael Braun,

Andrea Melendez

Published October 29, 2023 at 5:00 AM EDT

Rabbi Yitzchok Minkovicz, his son, and about 28 other Rabbis from around the US, Canada and Australia, traveled to Israel to bear witness and bring the truths of war back to their congregation. While in Israel they saw the pain of war, they prayed with families, and brought supplies to a much in need area. “I will never forget” Minkovicz said.

Two Rabbis, a father and son, were part of a group of 30 rabbis from the United States, Australia and Canada. They spent their week in Israel comforting the families of victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas raid. They spoke with military units, prayed over the remains of those killed, and visited other sites around the country.

They were stories of survival, stories of life under terror, stories of unspeakable horrors — some too graphic and gruesome to even describe.

They were told by Fort Myers Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz upon his return from a week-long visit to Israel visiting, praying and talking with soldiers and vicitims and their families in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists.

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Minkowicz of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida and his son, Meir Simcha Minkowicz, also a rabbi at the Fort Myers Chabad, were part of a group of 30 rabbis from the United States, Australia and Canada. They spent their week in Israel comforting the families of victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas raid, speaking with military units, praying over the remains of those killed and visiting other sites around the country.

"This was like, not a planned trip and it wasn't organized or anything," Minkowicz said. "We all decided everyone had in their heart and soul, a feeling we have to go show up."

Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz, his son, and about 28 other Rabbis from around the US, Canada and Australia, traveled to Israel to bear witness and bring the truths of war back to their congregation. While in Israel they saw the pain of war, they prayed with families, and brought supplies to a much in need area. “I will never forget” Minkowicz said.

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The basis for the visit, he said, was to get eyewitness evidence of what was going on in the now war-torn country.

"Everyone asked, Why did you go? And the answer is because we're rabbis, and we're rabbis, we talk to the community, whether it's local or at large. And we need to tell them things that we know which is true," he said. "So we felt it since we were talking about this, we want to bear witness of exactly what's going on, not based on this one said and that one said he wanted to have honest and true news that we can come back and say, Hey, we were there. This is exactly what's going on."

Minjkowicz said the evidence presented the visiting rabbis was that struggle was fairly simple to discern.

"From my observation of what I've seen and heard and witnessed, firsthand, to me, this is not your traditional war, or conflict," he said. "This is a war over between evil, evil and good. Period. evil versus good. That is the war here. It's strictly a war between evil and good."

The Fort Myers rabbi said that the victims, the 1,400 or so people who were killed — he labeled it murders — cut acrosas all ages, all genders, Jews and non-Jews.

Antonio Macías' mother cries over her son's body covered with the Israeli flag at Pardes Haim cemetery in Kfar Saba, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. Macias was killed by Hamas militants while attending a music festival in southern Israel earlier this month. A grouip of U.S. rabbis, including two from Fort Myers, are heading to Israel Sunday, Oct. 22, to provide prayer and support.

"There's a big list. I'm not gonna list out all the countries but from many more, a lot, a lot of countries, a lot of Americans that were literally murdered, murdered in a very, very inhumane, inhumane, cruel way," he said.

Minkowicz described hostage situations where even babies were taken by Hamas.

He also described the Oct. 7 killings described by the Israelis, some in excrutiating graphic detail.

Minkowicz said the killings were, simply put, cruel. He told of a family the rabbis visited in Ashkelon, an Israel coastal town about 5 miles from Gaza.

The family was sitting Shiva, a Jewish mourning process, for a male member who was among those killed.

"This individual was a successful businessman in Ashkelon. What did he do in his life," Minkowicz said. "He built apartment buildings for people to live in. He built a synagogue for people to come pray. He had hundreds of workers, most of them were who Arabs, he employed Arabs. On that sad day, terrible day of October 7, he went with his buddies to the beach to enjoy. I mean, listen, he worked hard. He went to the beach. And all of a sudden, there was shooting, he called his family a shooting. And that was the last time they heard from him."

Minkowicz said that in addition to killing the man, the family told the rabbis that the Hamas militants also put a grenade by the man's face, making it almost impossible to identify the remains.

"But this is my point of cruelty. You kill the guy. Let it go. But no, they are cruel," he said.

Minkowicz said the rabbis were forced to go into bomb shelters or to hug the floor at times in places like the airport, an army base and even a hospital, when there were missle alerts in areas were they were.

"One time I was rushed into bomb shelter right in front of a hospital," he said. "Right in front of a hospital, we're going to visit patients, we were rushed into a bomb shelter."

The rabbi said the need remains great in Israel.

"There are families there that need help," he said. "A lot of help, they need food, they need clothing. They need basic money, anything. ... We're going to follow through with them. And we're going to continue to support them in a real meaningful way. ... I will never forget."