Nearly fifteen months after October 7, Amichai Ressler wakes up every morning with a choice. Not between grief and healing - but between allowing loss to define his life or transforming it into responsibility. Amichai’s son, Dvir Haim Ressler, was killed on October 7 while protecting fellow soldiers.
According to those who survived, Dvir was the last to enter a shelter, making sure every other soldier was safely inside. In another nearby shelter, he fought terrorists by holding a door closed for forty-five minutes until the attackers retreated. When the door was later bombed, Dvir absorbed the blast.
One of the soldiers Dvir saved got married two months ago, almost two years after October 7. At the wedding, the groom’s mother approached Amichai and his wife and said simply: “We are only here because of your son.”
That moment, Amichai says, made something unmistakably clear, “Dvir’s life did not end on October 7 - it continued through the lives he saved.” Out of that understanding, Extreme Joy was born. The nonprofit initiative, founded by Amichai, brings bereaved families together through shared experiences of movement, nature, and connection.
What began as a single gathering during the first Passover after the war has grown into regular Jeep expeditions across Israel - particularly in the Judean Desert, the Gaza envelope, and southern regions - creating space for unity, strength, and life alongside grief. For Amichai, Extreme Joy is not an escape from loss. It is its continuation.
“I’m not happy about what happened,” Amichai says. “But I am very happy with the gift that we got. My son, a hero, gave us life.” This distinction defines Amichai’s worldview. He speaks about what he calls the privilege of life - the obligation to live fully because someone else no longer can.
“What gives me strength to wake up every morning is the understanding that my son gave us life,” he explains. “Because I understand this privilege, I try to live my life only with positivity and optimism.”
October 7 fell on Simchat Torah, a holiday defined by joy. For Amichai, that coincidence reshaped his understanding of the war itself. “I call this the War of Simchat Torah,” he says. “What I learned from that day is that happiness is not the result of unity. Happiness creates unity.”
Those closest to Dvir say he lived this belief instinctively. Friends and fellow soldiers consistently describe someone who made each person feel uniquely important. “Everyone tells me the same thing,” Amichai says. “He gave people the feeling that they were the only ones in the world for him. He gave them his full heart.”
During his army service, Dvir often spoke about wanting deeper purpose - about feeling ready to give more of himself. That sense of readiness, Amichai believes, explains Dvir’s actions on October 7. Though he was not originally scheduled to be on base, he replaced another soldier who needed to return home.
That decision alone saved a life - one of at least four lives Dvir physically saved in the days surrounding the attack. At the heart of Extreme Joy’s journeys is a restored military-style Jeep from the early 1990s - Dvir’s favorite vehicle. On January 7th, 2026 - Dvir’s jeep was driven by Amichai for the first time since his passing.
The Jeep was rebuilt and renamed Dvir Simcha - “Dvir’s Joy.” It will now lead every convoy, symbolically at the front. Amichai sees it not as a memorial, but as continuation. “I am following my son’s footsteps,” he says. “Usually it’s the other way around. But I have the privilege of continuing his legacy - by making people happy.”
Each trip brings together dozens of families. They travel, eat together, laugh, share stories, and create space for life alongside grief. The trips are run in partnership with two family organizations that alternate monthly, allowing Extreme Joy to reach families across different communities. The calendar is filled months in advance.
For Amichai, this work is not a contradiction to mourning - it is its expression.
“They gave their lives for us,” he says. “We need to continue their lives. They are looking at us from heaven, and they are happy when we are happy.” Through Extreme Joy, Dvir’s uniqueness lives on - not only in memory, but in motion, meaning, and the quiet insistence that joy itself can be an act of remembrance.
To support Amichai’s mission in spreading Extreme Joy, contact amichai16@gmail.com