Hi Dad, What a road we’ve traveled, you and I, since Munich. Long, twisting and sometimes difficult, but I finally found you. The last time you saw me was at my bris, and after that you went to Munich to prepare for the Olympics. I was a month and a half old when you were killed, I didn’t know you, and I was so angry at you growing up. As a child, I didn’t really understand what had happened, and I wasted years being angry at you for fighting terrorists and paying with your life. I thought to myself that if you hadn’t fought back, you’d have survived. For many years I walked around with that anger in me. When you’re young you can’t perceive something like that, but I did understand that something about our story was unusual. I saw that other kids had a mother and father at home, and I only had my mom. I remember myself at the regular memorial ceremonies that took place every year, and I got used to participating in them, like a kind of strange family tradition. But I knew my family was different from others that weren’t the 11. I also clearly remember that at six years old I’d started to understand the story better, and in response I became fearful. Afraid that someone could just take another person’s life in an instant, just like that. Your death affected my life, and the circle of anger only grew. So first of all, Dad, I want to tell you that I haven’t been angry for a while now. Something amazing happened in my life, which I’ll tell you about shortly, and it changed everything. It made me understand what was there, that you couldn’t have done any differently, and that even if you had, you wouldn’t have survived anyway. From the few details I was told about you when I was a child, I know you came to Israel from Vienna with your parents, and that you started wrestling at a very young age. You kept it up until you hurt your neck when you were 29, an injury that took you out of the sport. Thus, you became the youngest coach in the country, while working at the Wingate Institute at the same time. We lived at the Institute until you went to Munich, and when Mom got the news she was in shock, so we moved in with her parents in Petach Tikva. We stayed with them for two years, until Mom managed to recover a bit and started building a new life for us. During this time, when Mom had a hard time functioning, it was her grandmother – her mother’s mother – who raised us. From there we moved to the Shikun Lamed in Tel- Aviv, and Mom had a hard time without you. You were only married for a year and a half, and Mom told me you shared a great love. She just couldn’t accept that it had happened to her, and didn’t know how to continue her life alone. And then there was me. A child whose mother volunteered details but never spoke to him in depth about our tragedy, who grew up different from others and with a growing anger. I was an introverted, shutdown child, living in the shadow of Munich, and couldn’t even form bonds with the other Munich orphans. One thing I do know is that you sent Mom a letter from Munich, writing how excited you were to meet the athletes during training, and how thrilled you were as the start of the Games approached. You asked Mom to take good care of me because you missed us, and I didn’t even have anyone to miss. Maybe because of the influence Munich had, or maybe on an altogether unrelated note, from a very young age I knew I wanted to be an actor. I told Mom it was my dream, explaining to her, even as a child, how important it was for me to be serious, to learn the language and live where they made movies. So you should know, Dad, that Mom took me seriously, and did everything to make to happen. In the end, she took me to Hollywood. Before that, when I was nine, we spent two years in Canada and then the States, to look into the possibility of living abroad, and I learned the language. When we returned to Israel I studied the New High School in Tel-Aviv, and at 14 we finally moved to Los Angeles for good, so I could develop my acting career. We arrived there in 1986, right to Los Angeles where stars are born. I studied drama in high school, in the same class as Angelina Jolie and Vince Vaughn, names that might not mean anything to you but today belong to international superstars. So you understand what kind of place it is, my classmates also included Frank Sinatra’s granddaughter and Dean Martin’s grandson, names you surely know. I lived in that industry for years, taking small and large roles, and ironically the role that opened the door for me, put me in demand and got me invited for auditions was Muni Weinberg. Yes, one day I was contacted by the production of a new Steven Spielberg movie, telling me he was making a movie about Munich and offering me a role: you. I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. Understand, Dad, this was one of the greatest directors of our generation, his movies are shown worldwide, and he wanted me to play you. I didn’t know what to do, but my wife encouraged me to say ‘yes’ and accept the role, because she believed it would connect me to my feelings for you. And she was so right. Filming was a complicated experience that took a lot of energy out of me, but participating in the movie and being in your shoes led me to accept the actions you took, and to understand the choice you made. I realized that none of you would have survived anyway, because the terrorists had come to kill. They shot through the door, and your instinct was to fight. Playing you, I understood that, and managed to heal the anger. I know you did what you had to do. Then came the sorrow for all the anger I’d felt towards you over the years. Today, I’m proud of you for trying to do something, for fighting to save your friends. Mom saw the movie and it shook her because the story is inaccurate, but for me it was healing. During filming, I felt like I was in a dream. As an actor I wasn’t managing my acting, it just happened on its own. I invited you to be with me there on set, and felt you powerfully. I truly had the lingering physical experience of you during that filming. Look, Dad, how you influenced my career without being there, and since then I’ve acted in quite a few movies and TV shows. Now, thanks to this letter, I’ve also learned more details about you from Mom. For example, that you were a warm and soft man who loved to laugh, friendly to all and beloved. She told me how you met, how in the ‘70s she came to the Wingate Institute, saw you, and in that moment her heart skipped a beat. You were a very handsome man with blue eyes, and she fell in love at once. You were married at the Wingate Institute, a modest and happy affair for two young people without any money, but with lots of happiness and love. Mom says that since your wedding you were away so often abroad, as part of your training and preparation for the Olympics, that after the wedding you didn’t even have time for a honeymoon. She also told me about the steak dinner at the restaurant in Herzeliya, where you went before your trip to Munich, her last sweet hours with you before you flew away and never returned. After your murder, she felt that her world had been destroyed. She hadn’t yet recovered from her pregnancy and my birth, which were especially difficult, and then this disaster fell upon her. She had known Halfin and Slavin, who you’d taken under your wing and had adopted not just professionally but as members of our family, and she couldn’t understand how such a thing could have happened. Since you were already gone and she found it difficult to manage on her own, that night she was sleeping over at her parents where she learned about the massacre. She’d fallen asleep in her room, and her sister was listening to the radio, waking her up and telling her. Suddenly the house was full of people who’d heard and showed up, and outside the house crowds of reporters gathered. She felt like she was waking up into a nightmare. She kept asking the reporters over and over if it was true, if it was certain that you were dead, how could the bullets have pierced such big and strong bodies. Mom says it was a love of once in a lifetime, and she has never loved like that since, not even close. Dad, I always felt your presence in how other people treated me, because I’m physically very similar to you. It comes across, so they say, in how I walk, my smile that reminds them of you. There’s nothing for it, we’re built of the same stuff and genetics have connected us. But since the movie, I feel you with me. I’ve found you. Playing you was an amazing experience, you accompanied me all through filming, and after all the years you’d been missing from my life, now you were present. I was cleansed, and I hope I’ve managed to explain why I was angry. I love you. Your proud son, Guri