Feller finds hope in candy A reservist's life after war

Feb 4, 1997

Ruby Hammerschlag visits reservist Lt. Col. Ronen Feller's candy store after more than a thousand reported reserve-duty days. Feller says children's laughter and noise help him cope with pain, evil he witnessed and the silence of October 7–8; his daughter Daria describes the change as meaningful. He explains leaving his previous business for a radically different life while keeping military gear ready. In a substantial retrospective, archival news describes the helicopter collision over She'ar Yashuv. Feller rejects being called its sole survivor because he was not aboard: injured and hospitalized days earlier, he signed up but his father prevented his return to the helicopter, leaving his name crossed off a list. He says twenty men from his unit died and discusses the enduring burden. Back at the shop, he describes its therapeutic purpose, daily joy and children as hope. The opening date is not supplied, and his account is not a claim that he survived the crash aboard a helicopter.

Two Israeli military helicopters collide above She'ar Yashuv in the 1997 disaster. Kan's archival bulletin reports roughly seventy dead. Ronen Feller rejects being called the sole survivor because he was not aboard: he was injured and hospitalized, and his father prevented him from returning to the helicopter. He says twenty men from his unit died and describes the enduring burden. His account is not survival from inside a crashed helicopter.