Winnipeg woman slain by Hamas had ‘giant spirit’

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This article was published 14/11/2023 (693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The family of a Winnipeg woman killed during the Hamas incursion into Israel last month says the peace activist was “a force of nature.”

Vivian Silver, who moved to Israel in 1974 and devoted her life to seeking peace with the Palestinians, was killed in the Oct. 7 attacks.

For 38 days, Silver, who made her home in Kibbutz Be’eri, was believed to be among nearly 240 hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Identification of some of the most badly burned remains has gone slowly, and her family was notified of her death Monday.

“On the one hand, she was small and fragile — very sensitive,” her son Yonatan Zeigen told Israel Radio on Tuesday. “On the other hand, she was a force of nature. She had a giant spirit. She was very assertive. She had very strong core beliefs about the world and life.”

Silver was a dominant figure in several groups that promoted peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as a prominent Israeli human rights group. She also volunteered with a group that drove Gaza cancer patients to Israeli hospitals for medical care.

Zeigen said he texted with his mother during the attack. The exchanges started out lighthearted, with Silver maintaining her sense of humour, he said. Suddenly, he said, there was a dramatic downturn when she understood the end had come and militants stormed her house.

“Her heart would have been broken” by the events of Oct. 7 and its aftermath, Zeigen said.

“She worked all her life, you know, to steer us off this course. And in the end, it blew up in her face.”

At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas attacks on Israel, while more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli war in Gaza.

“We went through three horrific wars in the space of six years,” Silver said in a 2017 interview with The Associated Press. “At the end of the third one, I said, ‘No more. We each have to do whatever we can to stop the next war. And it’s possible. We must reach a diplomatic agreement.’”

Zeigen said he has taken on his mother’s baton.

“I feel like I’m in a relay race,” he said. “She has passed something on to me now. I don’t know what I’ll do with it, but I think we can’t turn the clock back now. We have to create something new now, something in the direction of what she worked for.”

Silver’s son Chen Zeigen, who lives in Connecticut, said his mother was influenced by Jewish culture and tradition, but theirs was not an overtly religious home.

His mother and father, the late Lewis Zeigen, were connected to Jewish traditions, and the family celebrated Passover and other Jewish holidays.

Otherwise, “We were raised almost completely non-religious,” he said, adding, “We were a classic culturally Jewish family.”

The brothers “grew up free to choose” what form of spirituality or religion they wanted to follow.

“We connected to Judaism through friends and traditions, not in a religious way,” Chen Zeigen said.

Chen Zeigen said he believes his mother’s commitment to peace developed through the values taught to her by her parents, Meyer and Roslyn Silver, who emphasized the equality of all people.

Her parents were deeply involved in Jewish community life in Winnipeg, he said, including being part of Chavurat Tefila, an Orthodox synagogue in West Kildonan.

Silver’s commitment to peace and equality grew after she moved to Israel, where she wanted to create a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.

That desire was also sparked by her interactions with Israeli Arabs who lived near her kibbutz, he said, noting she was involved in supervising and planning construction work that included hiring Israeli Arabs to do some of the work.

Tributes to Silver continued to be posted on social media on Tuesday.

“Silver was murdered, but her light is on and illuminates our values,” Women Wage Peace, which she helped launch in 2014, said in Hebrew on X (formerly called Twitter). “Peacemaking women continue on their way.”

— The Associated Press/Free Press

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