If You Are Reading These Words
The final letters of the fallen
from Operation Iron Swords
By: Shlomo Kavas and Racheli Planet-Rosen
Koren Jerusalem – Toby Books
A portion of the book’s proceeds is donated to commemorating the fallen of the war.
What does a person write in a letter they hope will never be read?
Final words are unlike anything else a person writes in their lifetime, and unlike anything you’ve ever read. They contain dark humor, inside jokes, searing honesty, burning love, mortal fear, and blinding courage.They hold both high drama and a flight from it, spelling mistakes, apologies, gratitude, and even practical instructions for the day after.
They include requests that can only be made in a final moment, and truths one dares to speak only when it’s the last chance to say them.
If You Are Reading These Words is a first-of-its-kind literary-documentary project, curating forty-nine final letters written by those who fell in the war that began on October 7th. Most of these letters have never been published before. This is a piece of history being written now, in the words of young soldiers who, with the blood of their hearts, penned new chapters in the Israeli story.
Meet the Authors
Shlomo Kavas is a copywriter and stand-up comedian. As an ad creative, he has led campaigns for some of Israel’s biggest brands; as a comedian, he performs on stages across the country.
Racheli Planet-Rosen is a journalist with Kan 11, a social entrepreneur, and a content creator. She previously hosted the podcast Pulling Strings (Moshchim Bachutim).
For both, this is their first book, born from both personal and national heartbreak. On October 7th, Shlomo’s uncle, Amram Alon Toledano z”l, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot. Racheli lived with daily fear as her husband Netai, her brother, and other relatives fought in Gaza and Lebanon. Through a close and collaborative process with the families of the fallen, the two authors were able to draw beauty and inspiration from deep darkness.
Encountering these final words led them to fall in love with forty-nine heroes they had never met in life.
It might happen to you too.
צילום: לירון מולדובן
Our Heroes
Every hero in this book fell in battle, but this book is full of life. It is not about their deaths,
but about what they had to say to life, to us, the ones who remain to read these words.
With contributions from leading Israeli artists and public figures, who wrote reflections for the book on the power of final words:
President Isaac Herzog • Eshkol Nevo • Zeruya Shalev • Evyatar Banai • Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi • Dr. Rubik Rosenthal • Avishag Sha’ar-Yashuv • Rabbi Tamir Granot • Dr. Maya Tevet Dayan • Tzvi Ben Meir • Lt. Col. Aviran Alfasi • Iris Haim • Avi Issacharoff • Tsur Ehrlich
To purchase the book, visit the Koren Publishers website
Photographer: Gil Rubio
