Mishpacha magazine: “Warrior for the Jewish People” by Gershon Burstyn: Ari Fuld had an inner truth that he stuck to — not just telling the truth but living the truth. Wednesday, October 03, 2018

“Los Angeles attorney Baruch Cohen, who was featured in Mishpacha in July about his new book, Grieving and Healing (https://www.amazon.com/Grieving-Healing-bereaved-parents-spiritual/dp/1981710671/) said Fuld first contacted him a few years ago out of the blue. Cohen maintains a website, American Trial Attorneys in Defense of Israel (https://attorneysdefendingisrael.blogspot.com/)  and Fuld wrote to tell him how impressed he was that a chareidi Jew was expressing such pro-Israel views.

“He was not surprised but fascinated to find a soul brother in L.A.,” Cohen explained in a telephone interview. “Someone who has not made aliyah, but whose heart is in Israel.”

After Cohen got to know Fuld, he said he felt as if the two were like “twins separated at birth.” Whenever Fuld visited Los Angeles, the two would meet, and Cohen would walk away with “great chizuk.”

Cohen was especially impressed with Fuld’s bitachon, his sense of trust in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Cohen retells a now well-known story about Fuld: that he carried in his tallis bag a piece of shrapnel that hit him in the Second Lebanon War. As the story goes, Fuld and his comrades were on the front lines. A couple of soldiers from his platoon were hit by fire and the commander told Fuld and others to bring them to safety before the enemy could take them as prisoners of war. Fuld leaped into the line of fire and brought back the bloodied soldiers. In the intervening minutes, the position that Fuld had been occupying was hit by missiles. If he had remained at his post, Fuld would have been mortally wounded. And not only that, a piece of shrapnel had penetrated his vest while he was on his rescue mission, but miraculously had gone no further.

“He would run toward tragedy to save lives, when the natural tendency is to run away,” Cohen said. “He had unconditional love for every chayal, and he [considered it an] honor to sacrifice [his] life to support his brothers and sisters in Israel.”

Cohen said Fuld’s bitachon and sense of service to Klal Yisrael was so strong that he “felt like a monkey” in his presence. “It wasn’t lip service,” he said. “This guy resonated this message; it was in his bones. It was the greatest mussar shmuess talking to this guy. [He was] a foundation of chizuk, a flow of ahavas Yisrael. When you encounter greatness like this, it charges your battery. He was a profoundly religious person.”

Cohen said Fuld’s legacy, in a sense, is summed up in the video of his last moments. “Even at great personal expense, even bleeding from wounds, his sole goal was to save Yidden.”“

http://www.mishpacha.com/Browse/Article/11180/Warrior-for-the-Jewish-People