PORTRAITS OF GRIEF
The stories of Israel’s missing, in the words of their family members
With reporting by Leslie Dickstein, Mathias Hammer, and Julia Zorthian
‘Bring my daughter home. She is only an innocent child.’ —Keren Schem, 50
Schem’s daughter Mia, 21, is missing after attending the Nova music festival
She went to the party Friday night with a friend. I woke up on Saturday morning and I saw what was happening. I called her: the phone was ringing and there was no answer. I called the friend too but his phone was off. The only thing I know is that Saturday morning at 7:17, she sent a message to one of the people in the party: “They are shooting us. Please come save us.”
I’m a single mom. I have four children. Mia is the second one. Mia is very, very creative; she’s very, very beautiful. She’s only just started her life. She’s painting, learning how to make tattoos. She is my best friend. She’s like a mother to my youngest girl. Every mom will say this about her child, but Mia was so, so special. She’s all my world. Their father is not part of their lives, and she’s very, very important to us, and she’s just vanished. I have no clue where she is. Mia is a real warrior, and I know that she will never give up and she will fight until the end.
I want to tell Mia that she is the love of my life… I want to tell Mia, if she hears me: I will do everything I can. And if they hear me, our cruel enemy, I’m telling them now: You can come here and you can take me. Bring my daughter home. She is only an innocent child. Take me and bring my daughter home. —As told to Charlotte Alter
‘Children and babies —Yoni Asher, 37
