Arjéh Baumgarten is a family friend and chairman of the Jewish community of The Hague

The past month has been tragic for the Baruch family. To celebrate Asher’s 18th birthday, Robbert and Sacha went to Israel, only to bury their daughter Rebecca a month later.

A girl of 24, in the prime of her life, filled with ideals, has been taken from us. It is already heartbreaking when children have to say Kaddish for their parents, but the reverse is not how it should be.

While she had just completed her military service a few months ago, she immediately volunteered for active duty after the terrible events on October 7, 2023. That’s how she was. As Robbert also mentioned in the eulogy: if something needed to be done, she was there. Without complaining or whining, she did what needed to be done.

The funeral itself, for those who couldn’t attend, was impressive, moving, gripping, but above all, suffocating.

For someone who dedicated her life to the Jewish people and the state of Israel, it is simply incomprehensible that this had to happen to her. It tests your faith. Everything you consider important in life suddenly becomes irrelevant.

Nothing is more important than your children. You hope they are healthy and, God willing, will marry and have children later. All of this has been taken away from Sacha and Robert.

I also speak on behalf of the Kehilla Kodesh Den Haag that with Rebecca’s passing, a part of us has been torn away. A void has been created that cannot be filled.

On behalf of the board of the NIG Den Haag, we wish Robbert, Sacha, Margalith, and Asher all the strength to cope with this loss. May her soul be bound in the bundle of eternal life.