From a distance, it seemed like a relaxing get-together among friends. A group of men sitting around a crackling bonfire in the Jerusalem Hills, one strumming a guitar while others sang along. Between each song, they laughed and joked.
But when the music stopped, each Israeli volunteer rescue worker was handed a pen and a scrap of paper. Then they were instructed by psychologist Vered Atzmon Meshulam to write down a negative thought, something they wanted to release, and throw it into the fire.
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The volunteer Israeli rescue workers, whose role is to collect the remains of the dead, have begun attending group healing sessions
(Photo: AFP)
The bonfire, singing and the practice of casting away a negative thought, a custom usually performed ahead of the holiest Jewish day of Yom Kippur, were part of a two-day therapy retreat for rescuers from Zaka.
The organization is a unique Israeli rescue and recovery group tasked with collecting the remains of the dead. Every part, including blood, is collected for burial in accordance with Jewish religious law.
On October 7 last year, these men, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, were among the first responders to reach multiple sites in southern Israel attacked by Hamas terrorists.
The sheer size and brutality of the attack left them all with deep psychological scars. Although their lives continue as normal, they are unable to forget the death and carnage they witnessed that day and on those that followed.
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Many of the volunteers hae suffered psychologically from witnessing the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel
(Photo: AFP)
"I was in a very bad mental state, couldn't sleep at night, I was sleeping on the floor and had all kinds of strange symptoms," Oz Avizov, who has volunteered with Zaka for more than 15 years, told AFP.
The 48-year-old, who spent several days in southern Israel after October 7, said it took him months to realize that his behavior was abnormal.
On a visit to a psychologist, he talked about his experiences last year, when he spent hours hiding in a sewage pipe as Hamas terrorists rampaged nearby.
It "helped me to wake up and come out of the stupor I was in," he said.
It was then, that Avizov realized, that other volunteers might also need help and so he pushed to create the organization's first therapy program.
Atzmon Meshulam, who specializes in trauma, runs the Zaka retreats in which visitors undergo a mixture of treatments such as ice baths and voice therapy with the aim of lowering stress levels and building resilience.
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Zaka has more than 3,000 volunteers who help recover bodies after disasters, accidents and attacks
(Photo: AFP)
Dressed only in shorts, the volunteers submerged themselves in a metal tub filled with water and ice. A staff member then held each of their hands as they slowly breathed in and out. Some grimaced through the pain.
Founded in 1995, Zaka -- a Hebrew acronym for disaster victim identification -- relies on donations and its more than 3,000 civilian volunteers, who are ready to respond to disasters or accidents countrywide at any moment
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Dubi Weissenstern, Zaka's chief executive, said that for more than 30 years there was little talk of providing therapy or trauma relief to volunteers who witness tragic and horrific scenes.