This is a cross post from Marc’s Words
Yoni Jesner was a young Scottish Jew who had come to Israel on his gap year during the second Intifada.
He had planned to study medicine in the UK and then to come to Israel to help the sick.
He was killed when a suicide bomber blew up on the bus he was travelling on in Tel Aviv in September 2002, but his story did not end there, in many ways it had only just begun.
Sometimes from the greatest of tragedies can come the most inspiring acts of good will between human beings. Too often acts of hatred inspire greater hatred and fear between people. In this case, sheer strength of character ensured that rather than make the world a worse place in the name of a murderer a family made the world a better place in the name of their fallen son.
After Yoni had passed away doctors asked his mother whether they could use his organs, the decision made by his mother and what happened afterwards shaped the way that they look at the world and makes the video well worth watching.
The Yoni Jesner Foundation has been established to provide scholarships to students in the UK, promote dialogue on contemporary issues facing the Jewish people today and create educational programmes for schools and the wider Jewish community.
