Gruber was asked to speak at Frisch in honor of Yom Hazikaron, a day which commemorates the fallen soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces. Gruber, an accomplished army commander, has lectured throughout the United States. Through these lectures, Gruber tries “to dispel the fiction and present the facts that are missing in today’s Middle East dialogue.” His presentation at Frisch included classified IDF footage, statistics and personal anecdotes.

Captivated, students sat and listened to Gruber explain the code of ethics of the IDF in addition to the Israeli army’s unique concept of collateral damage.  Collateral damage can be explained as follows: On a mission, a soldier has approximately eight seconds to evaluate each situation carefully before acting. When targeting a terrorist, a soldier must consider the number of surrounding civilians whose deaths would result from the firing of the soldier’s weapon.  If the number of civilian deaths would exceed the number of terrorists killed, the soldier must fire his weapon elsewhere, or refrain from firing altogether.

Students believed the program to be both appropriate for the day and fascinating. “It was an eye opening lecture and proved relevant to today,” said Ruchie Zema (’10). Sharona Kern (’11) said of the program, “I thought it was one of the best ones I’ve ever heard in Frisch.”