How a bereaved wife responded when a high school principal tried to silence her

Sigal, the wife of Kibbutz Be'eri Security Coordinator Arik Kraunik, who fell during the October 7th Massacre, delivered a lecture on Monday to the students of the Hartman High School in Jerusalem.

In her lecture, Sigal discussed the loss of trust in her Arab neighbors in Gaza. She quoted Avida Bachar, a survivor of the massacre who lost his wife Dana and son Carmel, and was himself wounded, who said that it was a good thing the massacre did not occur in Judea and Samaria because that way he understood how guilty the Gazans were .

In a post on social media, the bereaved wife described how her words upset the school's principal. "With a crowd of about 400 students in the auditorium, I began the lecture, which has already been given over 250 times. In the middle, the girl who invited me came over, motioned for me to stop, and whispered in my ear: 'The principal says that this is not the message the school wants to give, and if possible, skip this part and get straight to the personal story."

Kraunik recounts how, at that moment, she gathered strength from something that ex-IDF general Ofir Winter once said about humility. "I stopped, I took a breath, and then Ofir Winter's spirit stood before me and reminded me of the new meaning of humility that I learned from him. I told her: 'This is the lecture, this is my truth, and if the principal doesn't like it, I can get off the stage and go home.' I didn't even get to finish my sentence, and suddenly a fierce round of applause was heard throughout the auditorium. The students clapped loudly. I saw the principal look at the person who invited me and motioned to her to continue.

"That's how the victory of the spirit is born! Education needs to allow children a choice. Democracy grants a space for every opinion and free choice. I only continued the lecture for those pure faces and hands that expressed what their heart wanted," she concluded.