Ilan Troen, a Brandeis University professor emeritus, at his home in Omer, Israel. His daughter and son-in-law, Deborah and Shlomi Mathias, were killed in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Tamir Kalifa for NPR
OMER, Israel — One hundred days ago, on Oct. 7, American-Israeli historian Ilan Troen stood over his 16-year-old grandson’s hospital bed. The bullet that killed his daughter had pierced his grandson’s abdomen.
I found Troen in the hospital wearing a Brandeis University t-shirt. He was one of my professors when I studied there.
Three months later, I visited his home in Israel’s southern desert, where he is now retired, to hear his reflections — as a historian and bereaved parent — about Israel’s deadliest day in history, and the deadliest war that Palestinians have ever faced, still ongoing in Gaza.
A basso continuo of sadness
“How am I?” Troen asks, on his living room couch. “In Baroque music, there’s something called the basso continuo. If you listen to Bach, there’s that bottom line that continues, and my basso continuo is one of sadness.”
Music was his daughter and son-in-law’s life. Deborah and Shlomi Mathias were singers who met in music school.
On Oct. 7, attackers from Gaza stormed their home and blew down the door of their reinforced safe room. The parents protected their son, Rotem, with their bodies, saving his life as they lost theirs.
Photographs of Deborah and Shlomi Mathias with their three children are displayed at Deborah’s parents’ home in Omer, Israel.
Tamir…
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