“Whoever fights smartest is the one who wins,” I countered
I had met with the Rosenbergs to discuss their son Yechezkel, not because he had a mental illness, but because he was part of the “Hilltop Youth” movement and his parents were concerned that he was going to get into some serious trouble. They were right to worry: I’d just extricated him from a violent arrest for pulling down a Hamas flag in an Arab village where my colleague and I happened to be visiting the kevarim of Calev Ben Yefuneh and Yehoshua Bin Nun.
I helped pull Yechezkel up, took him by the arm, and dusted him off. It seemed like he’d sprained his ankle in the tussle, as he could barely stand, but there was no time for hobbling. Before the soldiers who had tackled him had any time to start asking questions, we sped away.
Yechezkel was still silent as I helped him into Eliyahu’s car after his near escape from an arrest. His face was bruised, and I let him know he could expect a black eye in the morning.
As a social worker who’d spent a decade-plus working with at-risk youth, my friend Eliyahu didn’t bat an eyelash at all the drama, and simply asked Yechezkel where he needed a ride to.
Create a free account to keep reading.
