Remembering Addir
Dedication in Tenafly’s Froggy Park honors memory of Nova Festival victim
They were just three little kids, playing together at Froggy Park in Tenafly. Their mothers were Israeli, and that fueled their friendship, and the kids were friends because little kids’ friends are their mothers’ friends’ kids.
One of those kids is Daniel Kramer, now 26; his mother is Chareen Kramer. One was Adi Serok, who is 24; her mother is Chen Serok. And the other was Addir Mesika, whose mother was Shiri Mesika. Addir would have been 24 had he not been murdered at the Nova festival in Israel last October 7.
On Sunday, October 6, Daniel and Adi, their parents, and other friends and neighbors, including Tenafly’s Mayor Mark Zinna and Dr. Julie O’Connor, a member of the town council, gathered at Froggy Park to dedicate a park bench in Addir’s memory.
(A word about how to spell Addir — his family most often spelled it Addir, with a double D, and that’s how it’s spelled on the memorial plaque at the park, although sometimes it’s spelled more conventionally, as Adir.)
Daniel’s family moved to Demarest when he was about a year old, his mother said; when Addir was 4, his family moved back to Israel. Because they’d been so close, the families stayed in touch; it was the kind of relationship that could lay fallow for years, and then resume as if no time had passed when there was a visit. The Kramers often were in Israel, and the Mesikas visited the United States frequently, so there were opportunities to meet. Addir and Daniel were not constant presences in each other’s lives, but they were always in the background, and whenever they got together, they enjoyed each other’s company.
In fact, Daniel said, he and Addir had dinner together in Tel Aviv, at a trendy restaurant called The Old Man and the Sea, a year or two ago. He’s a bit hazy on the year because he didn’t think it would matter, but it was the last time he saw his friend.
On October 7, “Chen texted me that morning saying that Addir was at the Nova concert, and that he was missing,” Chareen said. “It took three days, days when the parents were running from hospital to hospital to find out if he was still alive, to learn that he was dead.” Those days were pure hell, she said, and the days that followed, when the death was confirmed, were hardly better.
The story, as the Times of Israel tells it, is that Adi and five friends — his close friends Ilai Nahman and Matan Eckstein, his new, beloved girlfriend, Yuli, and two other young women — were awakened by the terrorists’ explosions, piled into their car, and drove to a bunker. There, the three young men were shot, murdered, one after the other, as they tried to protect the young women. And they succeeded. The three young women survived and were rescued six harrowing hours later.
The last message that Addir texted to his family was “I love you all very much.”
Addir completed high school and then his IDF service; he’d just finished his gap year, which he spent mostly in Asia, near water, in Malaysia and in Thailand. He was a devoted surfer, and so were the friends who died with him. “Addir’s grandmother was asked if she was afraid when he was surfing so far away from home, and she said no,” Daniel said. “And she said, ‘When they were at a concert, was I afraid?’ No.’”
The irony was left unsaid but it’s thunderous.
Addir’s father, Alon, is a jeweler; Addir was planning on working with him. Alon now sells some pieces of jewelry that Addir designed, and he is donating engagement rings to IDF soldiers getting married now. His son never will be able to get married, but he wants to be able to contribute to the joy of the young people who will ensure that life continues.
Daniel spoke at the dedication. He asked, rhetorically, how it is possible that Addir, Matan, Elai, and so many others are dead because of hatred, although they were just “celebrating love and peace.
“Addir in Hebrew means strong or mighty one,” Daniel continued. “Addir embodied this. Addir died a hero. He fought for his loved ones to continue to be able to live a loving and beautiful life.
“While there is and has been a lot of darkness, we can feel the light that Addir continues to bring us.”
Learn more about Addir Mesika at www.remember-adir-mesika.com/en.
comments