He served his nearly three years in the IDF. Now Dvir is 23-years-old and, in keeping with the tradition in Israel, after the young men and women complete their army service, they take a year off to travel before resuming their college studies.
In October of 2023, Dvir was in Nepal where many soldiers tend to meet up, hike, and spend Shabbos at the Chabad House in Kathmandu, enjoying life on the Roof of the World in the aftermath of their military service.
Today, Dvir is in the U.S. to speak on behalf of Beit Halochem, the organization that cares for wounded war veterans in Israel.
I spoke with Dvir on Tuesday after his first stop in Philadelphia on his U.S. tour. Since October 7, we know that Hamas murdered about 1,200 people and took another 230 hostages, with more than 130 still being held in Rafah, their present condition unknown. We also know that since the Gaza War started, over 13,000 young Israelis have been critically injured. Most are being treated and receiving therapy at Beit Halochem after being released from the hospitals.
You’ve seen the videos from the hospital wards: young men who, for the most part, were healthy but are now critically injured and confined to their bed or wheelchair. Many are missing limbs; sometimes an arm or leg has been blown off in an explosion. In some cases, the young soldier is tragically missing both arms and legs, facing an uncertain future. Other times, they have lost the use of their eyes or some level of brain function.
Once the patient is stabilized, Beit Halochem teaches them to make peace with their reality and deal with it on a day-by-day basis. In Israel, there is extensive therapy for soldiers unlike any other military-oriented facility anywhere in the world. Beit Halochem doesn’t just treat the soldier, they treat the entire family, providing daycare for the children and an array of rehabilitative and social programs to meet their needs.
On June 9th the annual 5K Run benefiting Beit Halochem will take place in the Five Towns. This year, the race and the money it raises will be more meaningful and touch more lives than at any other time in their 23-year history.
As we said up top, on October 7th Sergeant Major Dvir Fisher was in the mountains of Nepal. One of the many things they lacked while on their trip to the Himalayas was cell phone service, so there was no connection to what was going on back home in Israel.
But over the next day or two, as other Israelis arrived in the country, he slowly heard about the awful news of the violent attack that had taken place over the last days of the chag in southern Israel.
At first, Dvir said he heard there was a vicious terrorist attack and about 40 people had been killed. Later, he heard there were 100 victims. By the time he made it to an area where there was cell phone service and he managed to reach his brother in Jerusalem, he was told the number of victims was over 200.
It took him days to find a flight back to Israel, and when he arrived back home, though he had completed his service less than a year prior and was not required to do reserve duty, he knew he had to meet up with his unit and join them in the fight.
Dvir belongs to a paratrooper unit and is also a field medic. He describes that once he was on the ground near Khan Yunis, there was a lot of shooting and he could hear and feel bullets whizzing past his head. He describes how, at one point, he felt a stinging pain in his neck and all he could see was total darkness.
He says his comrades in the platoon were able to pull him into a nearby home and it was his good fortune that another medic in his unit was able to stop the bleeding until Dvir was transported to a nearby area where a helicopter was able to airlift him to a hospital in Israel.
Dvir underwent surgery with the doctors telling him that the terrorist bullet entered and exited his neck without damaging any of the arteries. He said the doctor told him his case was one in a million.
Dvir has now mostly recovered from his ordeal, and is a regular visitor to the rehabilitation center at Beit Halochem in Jerusalem, working with other injured soldiers, helping them make their way back to normal life.
Dvir is in the U.S. with some of his fellow IDF members who are here to participate in the 5K run on June 9. I will, iy’H, report more on Dvir and his friends next week.
