July 24, 2001|By Heather Lloyd | Heather Lloyd,SUN STAFF
Though 19-year-old Israeli Sgt. David Biri died nearly 10 months ago of wounds he suffered during a Palestinian bombing in the Gaza Strip, some Baltimore residents tried to spur interest in his life yesterday.
Harold W. Hammer of Pikesville lighted a candle for Biri yesterday to begin a weeklong vigil honoring more than 130 Israelis killed since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down in September. The vigil will conclude Sunday on Tisha b'Av, a fast day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.
Vigil organizers with the Baltimore Zionist District, an Israel advocacy group, said the event is meant to personalize the killings and highlight the senselessness for Jews and gentiles alike.
`We are all one people'
"All of us are human beings," said Hammer, a district board member. "It makes no difference what skin color or religion someone is. We are all one people who feel the same about anyone who is killed."
During the fighting, more than 500 Palestinians also have died.
Organizers said volunteers will spend up to 12 hours each day this week -- breaking only for the Jewish Sabbath - memorializing each of the slain Israelis for 30 minutes in the order in which they died. Organizers said it will take all Friday to memorialize just those killed in the June 1 Tel Aviv nightclub suicide bombing.
A steady stream of volunteers from Jewish groups and communities gathered yesterday outside the Yeshivat Rambam school on Park Heights Avenue to honor with prayers, comments and candle-lighting those killed. Placards bearing the casualties' names and faces dotted the lawn alongside blue and white Israeli flags.
Though some volunteers had friends and family among the slain, many have no personal connection.
`I cry with every death'
"We are all one family, and I cry with every death," said Tova G. Abady, an Israel resident living temporarily in Silver Spring. "Israel is a country of mourners."
Organizers encouraged volunteers to learn as much as they can about those they will memorialize.
"There are more than 130 different stories that are there to be told," said District President Brian I. Sacks. "It behooves us to find out about these people and the families they've left behind."
As volunteers remembered the dead, many had harsh words for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and the U.S. media and government.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said it did not surprise him that the Palestinian casualties were not included in the vigil. Aside from rallies, he and Islamic Society of Baltimore representatives said they were unaware of a comparable memorial service conducted for slain Palestinians.
