The town of Shavei Darom in southern Israel, which houses the residents who were uprooted from Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip during the 2005 disengagement, will inaugurate a new synagogue built in memory of "the martyrs of Kfar Darom".
The inauguration is set to take place in two weeks (May 11), with Cheif Rabbi David Lau, Kiryat Arba's Rabbi Dov Lior, Ministers Yitzhak Wasserlauf and Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, and former Minister Uri Ariel among the planned attendees.
During the inauguration, the residents who led some 250 residents and protesters in barricading themselves on the synagogue's roof during the 2005 eviction of the town will receive recognition for their dedication.
The residents of Shavei Darom see the synagogue as a building built on the foundations of the community, which thrived back in Kfar Darom. "The synagogue has a magnificent past, and its roots are in Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip, and G-d willing, we are facing the future in Shavei Darom, a big and prosperous religious town in the land of Israel," the invitation to the event states.
The synagogue in the original town in the Gaza Strip was inaugurated on Israel's 57th Independence Day, only three months before the disengagement. "The synagogue in Kfar Darom served as much more than a house of prayer," says the invitation, "It was the beating heart of the community. It was the center of life, and the residents got culture, social life, and inner strength from it. It is no surprise that the synagogue in Kfar Darom became a symbol in the eyes of the whole of society. There we fought, out of great love for Israel, out of pure faith in the ruler of the world, and out of endless dedication to the land of Isreal."
Footage of the 2005 standoff on the roof of the Kfar Darom synagogue: