In Memory Of My Father Daniel Ben-Joseph

I often write about the heroes of Israel. Founders. Warriors. Visionaries.

But today is the yahrtzeit of an Israeli hero who means more to me than all of them. My father, Daniel Ben-Joseph (ז״ל).

Every soldier, every hero is unique through the eyes of the child who looks up to them.

My father, Daniel Ben-Joseph, was that soldier to me.

He lived to 80, despite battling chronic kidney disease for most of his life. A condition that forces you to live at the mercy of a dialysis machine. But he didn’t just survive.

He lived fully, like a backpacker in his seventies, traveling to Europe, South America, China. He taught me that life is short, and you must never take a single breath for granted.

He loved his children with everything he had. When I was little, he took me to Disney World almost every weekend because he saw how much I loved it. He got us annual passes and he drove hours just to see me smile.

He didn’t go to college, but he loved science. We used to watch Discovery Channel together, back before it was reality TV.

He would sit there in awe of the natural world. That awe shaped me. I became a scientist because of my father's awe.

His roots were in Yemen and Syria. His grandmother walked from Aleppo to Jerusalem. His family were pioneers of the Jewish redemption, and witnessed exile, pogroms, and rebirth.

He was born in holy Jerusalem into deep poverty. He didn’t even have his own towel. Later, when he owned hundreds of towels, it was his quiet way of saying: I made it.

He served in the IDF at a time when religious Jews weren’t obligated to serve, defending the Jewish state at the time of its great trials with great bravery. My father believed in service.

To Israel, and later, to America. He moved to the US in pursuit of something larger, both literally and spiritually.

He believed in the American dream and he lived it. Going from handyman jobs to owning a successful ice cream shop, he built everything from nothing and became very successful.

Through all of it, he never stopped pushing me to reach higher. And he did it all while sick.

I can only hope to carry his strength.

May his memory be a blessing. For me, for you, and for the world.

If you learn anything from my father, let it be this:

Don’t take life for granted. Love your children with your whole heart.

Am Yisrael Chai.

God bless Israel. God bless the United States of America.

Baruch Dayan HaEmet.