JEWISH WOMEN IN WAR: HEROINES OF INSPIRATION

OUR BRAVE SOLDIERS - THE LOOKOUTS: TATZPANIYOT, SHIRYONIYOT, KARAKAL KAL INFANTRY, GDUD BADLAS AND ARIOT HAYARDEN

While women have long been drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, society's perceptions of their roles as combat soldiers continued to shift. The incredible stories of those involved in rescue missions, as security commanders and air force pilots, are all an inspiration for any young woman today. Their stories and their experience are the most fitting tribute to the uniqueness of the women of Israel. When Hamas overran their base on October 7, female soldiers stationed at a nearby base needed to react as Hamas terrorists slaughtered their colleagues and other female soldiers. 

Women in Yatar capture terrorists who infiltrate from the sea, an all-women tank company attached to a mixed-gender infantry battalion helped repel the attack, and female intelligence officers alerted superiors of the raid. Israel even boasts the first male/female unit internationally of an infantry unit defending Israel’s borders and conducting offensive operations in times of need.

FREED FEMALE HOSTAGES

Aviva Siegel (L) and her daughter Shir testify at the Knesset caucus on victims of sexual and gender violence in the war, January 23, 2024 (Screen grab used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The women who were kidnapped by Hamas testify to the rapes that took place during and after October 7. Upon their release from captivity, they have found the strength and bravery to share with the world the facts and experiences of torture and abuse that were imposed on women in particular during the attack and during their incarceration by terrorists, UNWRA teachers, hospital staff, and local citizens.

Their voices are essential to combatting the denial of the rape of Israel and her women and girls, the evidence for which has been provided to all international organizations who, sadly, remain silent. Watch this testimony to learn more. 

MOMS ON THE FRONTLINE

Six mothers had gathered in a Jerusalem home on a Friday to prepare challah. After they recited the blessing that was part of the ritual, each woman added a prayer of her own. “I just want everybody to come back alive and in one piece, mentally and physically,” said one, her voice breaking. “May they return in peace,” said another, wiping away tears. “With this challah, I want to bless my three sons who are in the army and all the soldiers,” said Ruthie Tick, who had convened the mothers so they could comfort one another.

Collectively, they had ten sons serving in the Israeli Army, either in Gaza fighting Hamas in response to the group’s incursion and deadly rampage on Oct. 7 or in the north, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia has been launching missiles at Israel from Lebanon. No sooner had the women finished praying than a WhatsApp message appeared on Rebecca Haviv’s cellphone. “I’m gonna be without a phone soon,” wrote her son, Adam, a 29-year-old combat soldier on reserve duty. “Love you so much, ma, and will be in touch.”

 

“He’s entering Gaza,” said Ms. Haviv, anguished. Adam, her only son and father of her only grandchild, a 3-month-old boy, was beginning his second mission inside Gaza. She had endured 13 days of radio silence during his first. How long would it be this time? “I love you, too,” Ms. Haviv replied, adding a heart emoji and hoping that two blue check marks would appear to signify that Adam had read the message.

 

They didn’t. 

Israel called up about 360,000 reservists after the Hamas attack and onset of war. The mass mobilization has upended families across the country, and many Israeli mothers turned to one another for support, even as they gained some respite when a temporary cease-fire took hold last week. Read the complete story here

 

Koolulam performance of Titanium (screenshot)

WOMEN OF ISRAEL IN UNITY - SINGING OUR STRENGTH

WATCH THIS AMAZING VIDEO NOW 

YOCHEVED KIM ROTTENBERG

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NITZANA DARSHAN LEITNER

"It took months for the international community to even begin to face the terrible truth of the events of October 7. We still do not see decisive actions by governments, the UN, women's rights organizations, the International Red Cross, and other organizations against Hamas, which is still holding Israeli hostages that we know are being assaulted in captivity as we speak.

We hope that we can continue to raise awareness about these atrocities, the need to prosecute Hamas Nukhba terrorists for the War Crimes of sexual assault, and to the need to uproot Hamas rapists from Gaza and to transform their education system that allows them to believe such behavior is acceptable."

PNINA TAMANU-SHATA

“It shocked our world forever, rocked the foundations of our secure existence in our country. The pictures of mothers shielding infants and children with guns pointed at them, is a memory that will never fade. 

 

The reactions from the UN in general and from the women’s committees in particular were too little, too late. If the world is incapable of standing with Israeli women who experienced the atrocities of terrorism under the auspices of Iran and its proxies, the promise ‘Never Again’ has lost its meaning. I call on my fellow female lawmakers to stand shoulder to shoulder alongside Israeli women and remember that what happened in Israel could happen anywhere in the world, if we don’t work together to defeat terrorism and bring these monsters to justice.”

GAL GADOT

"The world has failed the women of October 7th. We claim we stand against rape, violence against women. We will not let women be victimized and then silenced. We say we believe women, stand with women, speak out for women, until it is Jewish or Israeli women. We will not agree to let women become victims and then silence them. We say we believe in women, stand by women and speak boldly.”

BROOKE GOLDSTEIN

“Could you imagine if these things happened to any other minority group? There would be national outrage. But because they are Jewish students, not only is this not taken seriously by the media, but local law enforcement, federal law enforcement, unfortunately, do no not feel a need to do a proper job investigating crimes.

Today every Jews must learn how you can make positive change in your community, and gain useful knowledge of the strategies and tactics we use to make an impact. Together, we will end Jew-hatred in our lifetime.”

ADELE RAEMER

“After I saw over 3000 terrorists and just regular Gazans flooding through our borders, wreaking havoc in our communities, murdering in the most barbaric ways. I’m thinking, where were the good Gazans? Where were they? They cut babies out of their mother’s womb. They chopped children’s fingers off. They dismembered people while they were alive and they were so proud of it that they took video footage of it, which I have not seen and I will not see, but it is out there and people need to see it, to understand what it is that we’re up against. These are monsters.

 

Gazan children have an end of the year play and they dress up as Gazan fighters and IDF fighters and the Gazans kill the IDF soldiers and take them hostage. These are the kids that grew up to be the monsters that came into our community on October 7th. They’ve been trained for this. They have textbooks in Gaza that teach you math. Saying if you had 10 Jews and you kill seven, how many are left? And it’s been going on for decades. 

 

A switch in my DNA tells me that before we can get into diplomacy,  before we can make peace, we have to make war. It’s not going to be pretty and it’s not going to be short. It’s not going to be easy. And we can’t have a timeline imposed. We can’t have a time limit on this.  The IDF has to be allowed to do what they know how to do best.”

SIVAN RAHAV-MEIR

Sivan Rahav Meir is an Israeli journalist, news reporter, and TV and radio anchor. Coming from a secular home in Herzliya to becoming a leading voice of Israel's Religious Zionist community – is both remarkable and inspirational. Her lectures on the weekly Torah portion are attended by hundreds and the live broadcast attracts thousands more listeners throughout the world. Since October 7, she has been using her voice to offer support to the Jewish community as a whole.

SARA YOHEVED RIGLER

“The Jewish people are one collective soul. Indeed, it has individual components, like a body is composed of myriads of cells. But if you wound the tip of the pinkie finger, the whole body feels it. That’s why when there’s a terror attack in Israel or around the world, fellow Jews throughout the world cry, and when Jews are threatened anywhere, Jews throughout the world feel violated.

That’s why the greatest danger to the collective soul of the Jewish people is not antisemitism from the left or the right. The greatest danger to the collective soul of the Jewish people is when its constituent cells attack each other; it’s an existential threat to the organism.”

RACHEL GOLDBERG-POLIN

Her son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped by terrorists into Gaza, while at the Nova Music Festival. He is in dire need of medical care having his arm blown off by a grenade and still in captivity. Rachel has been on social media daily with every style of appeal to the human senses as a way to keep him and all the hostages alive in our minds and in our hearts. We pray for his safe return.

At the end of a UN speech that quoted from the Torah and explained the traditional blessing Jewish parents give their children on Friday nights, Goldberg-Polin recited an original poem for the first time. She titled it “One Tiny Seed.”

There is a lullaby that says your mother will cry a thousand tears before you grow to be a man.

I have cried a million tears in the last many days.

We all have.

And I know that way over there

there’s another woman

who looks just like me

because we are all so very similar

and she has also been crying.

All those tears, a sea of tears

they all taste the same.

Can we take them

gather them up,

remove the salt

and pour them over our desert of despair

and plant one tiny seed.

A seed wrapped in fear,

trauma, pain,

war and hope

and see what grows?

Could it be

that this woman

so very like me

that she and I could be sitting together in 50 years

laughing without teeth

because we have drunk so much sweet tea together

and now we are so very old

and our faces are creased

like worn-out brown paper bags.

And our sons 

have their own grandchildren

and our sons have long lives

One of them without an arm

But who needs two arms anyway?

Is it all a dream?

A fantasy? A prophecy?

One tiny seed.