ASPEN, CO — Aharon Gozlan has always dreamed of hitting the slopes.
Ever the sportsman, the 35-year-old is an accomplished basketball player and championship horseback rider. His athletic prowess, in fact, saved lives in 2002, when the Israeli border policeman jumped a suicide bomber in the French Hill section of Jerusalem.
Wounded Israeli Soldiers to Hit the Slopes in Aspen
ASPEN, CO — Aharon Gozlan has always dreamed of hitting the slopes.
Ever the sportsman, the 35-year-old is an accomplished basketball player and championship horseback rider. His athletic prowess, in fact, saved lives in 2002, when the Israeli border policeman jumped a suicide bomber in the French Hill section of Jerusalem.
He prevented carnage that day, but the blast from the terrorist’s bomb vest shattered both his legs. When doctors finally amputated them a year and eight months later – after 22 surgeries designed to save the limbs – Gozlan gave up on his wintry wish.
A trip with nine other wounded Israeli military veterans to Aspen, Colo., however, will give him the chance he thought was lost forever. On March 27, the group will join Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Kutner, director of the Chabad Terror Victim’s Project, for a week-long winter sports adventure with Challenge Aspen, a non-profit organization whose motto is “making possibilities for people with disabilities.”
Chabad-Lubavitch of Aspen, under the direction of Rabbi Mendel and Lieba Mintz, is underwriting the trip, covering all of the soldiers’ expenses, from their stay in the local L’Auberge lodge to their meals, ski equipment and airfare. Many community members have chipped in, and the Aspen Valley United Jewish Appeal awarded a sizable grant to the project.
wow
This is amazing- the rebbe has so much nachas from this great work
Chabadnik
The Rebbe called the wounded Israeli soldiers METZUYONIM! They deserve the best for putting their own bodies on the line to protect Eretz Yisroel and Am Yisroel.