Purim 2024 – When the Camera Wasn’t Enough

Purim 2024 was the hardest day I’ve ever lived as a photographer.

My friend Olamit, through the Chabad community, organized something unforgettable: Purim celebrations for wounded IDF soldiers in three different hospitals. I volunteered to document it.

From morning to evening, we moved from one ward to another—bringing music, food, Mishloach Manot and warmth to rooms filled with pain. Young men with missing legs, missing arms, bandaged faces, burns, and haunted eyes...some smiled, but most just nodded silently.

I photographed what I could, but somewhere along the way, the lens became too heavy. The sorrow clashed so sharply that I couldn’t keep going.

After that day, I put my camera down for months. Some stories are too human, too close. And no photo could ever do them justice.