Ben grew up in Vancouver, she said, attended Vancouver Hebrew Academy and then King David High School.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBen was so proud of who he was,\u201d his mother told the packed synagogue. \u201cHe was proud to be a Jew, he was proud to be Israeli. He had his mind set that, after high school, he would go to Israel and learn in a pre-army Mechina program to prepare him for the IDF. He couldn\u2019t imagine himself doing anything else. And he didn\u2019t. He did it all.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ben Mizrachi served three years in the parachute unit and completed a paramedic course.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn Oct. 7, at the young age of 22, Ben was brutally taken from this world at the Nova festival in Re\u2019im,\u201d his mother said. \u201cBut he was not taken without a fight. His personality and moral core would not allow it. He did not run away to save himself when he had the chance. He showed tremendous courage and bravery as he tried to save others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe do not know everything about the last hours of Ben\u2019s life. But we have been able to piece together some of them. What we know is that, from 6:30 a.m. to 8:10 a.m., Ben was under attack. We know that he and Itai Bausi, a friend from his kibbutz who went with him to Nova, made a choice to leave the safety of their car and their chance to flee. We know they made this choice in order to render aid to the injured,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Two brothers who survived the music festival attack have shared the story of how Ben used his medical skills to attend to the injuries of a young woman and then, with three other young men, transported her on a stretcher to the medical tent, holding her at hip level to avoid snipers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe know after they deposited the woman the boys then separated to run in different directions to escape their attackers,\u201d said Dikla Mizrachi. \u201cWe know from the last voicemail message Itai\u2019s girlfriend received from him that he was shot in his back and his leg. We know from both the phones that Itai called Ben multiple times but there was no response and we know that Ben died a hero, as did Itai.<\/p>\n \u201cThis past Oct. 7, our life as a family and our life as a Jewish nation changed forever,\u201d she said. \u201cOur collective hearts are completely shattered. Today, we are all in mourning. We all have soldiers in Gaza. We all have 132 hostages in Gaza. We all have evacuees from the north scattered all over the country. We are all suffering together.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She told the audience that, at her son\u2019s shiva, an army friend of Ben\u2019s told her that he had lost a cousin in 2021, in Operation Guardian of the Walls.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat year, on Yom Hazikaron, Ben had called him and said, \u2018I know it\u2019s your first Yom Hazikaron, so if you need or want to talk to someone, I\u2019m here for you,\u2019\u201d she recounted. \u201cThis was Ben, thinking about others at every moment and being so sensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing her late son, she said: \u201cBen, this is my first Yom Hazikaron and I need you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI need you to help our family choose life each day and give us strength. I know that you are still with us, but can you please send us a sign very soon, a sign that you are OK and in a good and peaceful place? Ben, we will do our best to live our lives according to your values, to be there for others, as you always were, and to cherish the things you loved. We love you. We think about you and we miss you every day a bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n Later in the evening, Ben\u2019s father, Etsik, said Kaddish for his son.<\/p>\n Geoffrey Druker, who has led the annual event for years, noted that this year was different.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have within our community families who lost loved ones in the past seven months, lost a son, a father, a brother, a sister, cousins, extended family, and friends,\u201d he said. \u201cTonight, with our bereaved families here and worldwide, we remember our fallen in the establishment and the defence of the state of Israel, and all who have been murdered in terrorist attacks. We remember them all.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of the BC Jewish community lit candles and spoke about those they have lost. A montage of photographs remembered friends and family of locals, from 1948 to recent months. Druker shared individual stories, a microcosm of the many stories of tragedy and heroism from Oct. 7 and the months since.<\/p>\n He told of the five members of the Kutz family of Kfar Aza \u2013 father Aviv, 54, mother Livnat, 49, and sons Rotem, 19, Yonatan, 17, and Yiftach, 15 \u2013 who were found hugging each other on a bed, father Aviv trying to provide a protective embrace.<\/p>\n In all, 64 members of Kfar Aza were murdered, and 13 soldiers killed in the battles on Kfar Aza. Among these residents was Mordechai Modi Amir.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cModi was a creative person, always thinking outside the box,\u201d Druker said. \u201cSo, when they built his secure room, he decided to add a small shower room, a room within a room, with its own door. At 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7 \u2013 when the red alert siren went off, Modi, his two daughters and granddaughter entered the safe room.<\/p>\n
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