Women’s Casualty Treatment Unit and “Chevra Kadisha’” in the IDF

By Toby Klein Greenwald

 

“Chevra Kadisha” is the generic name for the organization that exists in every city where there are Jews, commonly known as “burial society.” Its work is conducting a “taharah” (translated as “purification”), which is preparing the body for burial, and then carrying out the burial at the site of the cemetery according to Jewish law. Since the person who has passed away can never personally repay the Chevra Kadisha for their diligence and kindness, it is a mitzvah that is called chesed shel emet—a true kindness.

In Israel, the Rabbinate of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) oversees this holy task when it is necessary to identify and bury a soldier. Any soldier in the IDF, male or female, who loses their life while enlisted, for whatever reason, has the right to be buried in an army cemetery and is taken care of by the army’s Casualty Treatment Unit that identifies and prepares fallen soldiers for burial.

Each soldier wears a dog tag with his name and identity number, but even during “normal” times, there are situations in which it might be difficult to identify the person due to the state of the body if they have fallen in battle or in a terror attack, in which case forensic specialists—usually doctors—are called in.

But the events of October made these identifications even more painfully complicated than usual.

Women And The Performance Of Taharah

If a female soldier dies while enlisted, she is taken care of by the army just as the men are. But until 12 years ago, as female soldiers’ deaths were few and far between, volunteer women from around the country, who worked for the Chevra Kadishas in their hometowns, were called upon to assist the army professionals in the preparation for burial.

In the last 10 years more women are entering combat units in the army, therefore raising the risk of more female deaths. As a result of this new reality, the IDF Rabbinate realized that it would be important to have women assist in the identification process and burial preparation for a female fallen soldier, known as a halala. (A male fallen soldier is a halal.) Therefore, the IDF decided to create a designated unit for this purpose and have women volunteers undergo specialized training.

In July 2023, the IDF Rabbinate decided to draft and categorize these volunteers as “soldiers serving in miluim (reserve duty).” Now when they come to volunteer, they are considered official members of the IDF. Thankfully, until October 7, they were not usually inundated with work.

And then the world exploded, and everything changed.

In a stroke of eerie timing, I originally interviewed Sharon Laufer, who recruited the women for the first three cohorts of this unit, before October 7. I recently caught up with her to learn what she and other women in the unit have been doing since that black Shabbat, and how they’ve been coping.

Some background: Laufer, originally from Teaneck, NJ, says, “As a child, I was very fearful and anxious about death. Then, when I was 16 years old, I went to summer camp and the theme of one of the weeks was ‘Life Cycle Events.’ For one activity they brought people from a Chevra Kadisha to speak to us; they also brought tachrihim (shrouds) to show us. I’m 64 and I remember this like yesterday. And I thought, ‘This is amazing. I need more information.’ It wasn’t until 13 years later that I got ‘more information.’”

When she was 29 and living in Teaneck with her husband Nathan, she saw a notice in the shul bulletin requesting volunteers for the women’s Chevra Kadisha. She responded and experienced her first taharah.

“That day was a turning point in my life, not only because it was the beginning of my service, but because I found that it opened my heart in a way like nothing else that I would choose to do. I served on the Chevra Kadisha until making aliyah in 2003.”

This work helped Laufer overcome her fear of death. “You walk into the taharah room, and you don’t know very much about the person on the table, however, the body and the soul speak volumes if you’re open to listening.”

Coming To Israel And The IDF

The Laufers made aliyah to Israel in 2003. They lived in Jerusalem, but the Chevra Kadisha there did not accept volunteers. In 2006, Laufer’s brother-in-law, Shimon Perchik, a colonel in the reserves of the IDF, was the designated project leader to develop a computer system and associated protocols that would improve the ability and accuracy to identify soldiers who had died or been killed while in active service.

This system is the one that is still in use now as well, during the current war.

In 2010 Laufer and her family moved to Efrat. In April of that year, Colonel Perchik asked her if she would be interested in recruiting a group of women with two different capacities.

She says, “The first group needed to be computer savvy, and the second group needed to be women who would not be afraid to work with a woman’s dead body. They would also be trained to handle situations of mass casualties.”

In June 2010, five women had their first training session, and their numbers grew. “The following year the group had its first full training using the computer system and working with an actual model,” says Laufer.

They learned how to match dental records, fingerprints, and DNA to the main data system to confirm identity. “Everything we do is helping the army to be efficient and to make sure there are no mistakes and that everything is done respectfully.”

On July 18, 2011, they got their first call up. “After my first experience, I sent an e-mail to the women who had been with me, writing: ‘I believe that the experience was significant for the three of us but more importantly it was obvious that our unit performs a very important role for the IDF Rabbinate regarding k’vod hamet, respect for the dead…

“Since 2012 our group of women are regularly called upon for taharot in the IDF, even when no identification examination was necessary.”

“I believe this work is one of the important things I was put here to do in this lifetime, especially after going through the last month. I’ve been given the strength and ability to do this work which is a privilege from G-d.”

“In a regular Chevra Kadisha, one typically cares for elderly individuals who’ve lived full lives. In the army, the majority are younger, which is saddening.

“The process of taharah is very similar to the process that religious women go through every month in their childbearing years, as they prepare to go to the mikvah. And if she lived a long life, she probably hasn’t gone to the mikvah for a long time. We do this preparation for her for the last time.”

“I ask for help from Hashem before I go into any taharah, so that I will be able to connect with the neshamah and be compassionate and give help where needed. I was able to understand that there is more beyond just the body, and that the neshamah needs help even after the person dies. We ask mechilah (forgiveness) from the neshamah of the deceased after we’re done. I always hold the hand of the deceased person and open my heart to give love and support so they will know they are loved. I see myself as a tool, as a vehicle for doing Hashem’s work.”

Describe your life since Simchat Torah.

“We knew something was happening during the day, so I turned on my phone and I got a message that I needed to leave when Shabbat was over. I took one of the other women from Efrat with me. We arrived at Shura. It was a very difficult sight. Some people had already been working during the day to start the identification process.”

Shura is the base where the IDF Rabbinate is located and has a dedicated area where all the bodies of those murdered were brought, for identification and preparation for burial of soldiers, police, and civilians.

“My amazingly strong group of women were waiting for the halalot with our gowns, gloves, and masks on in the building that we know so well… the building that we have worked in and trained in.

“Nothing prepared us for what came next. The halls were filled with stretcher after stretcher, on which the halalot were waiting to be received into our waiting hands.

“We worked through the night, and we were on call for the first two weeks doing 8- to 12-hour shifts every day.”

“By the end of the second week, we started konenut (on-call) shifts from home since we had caught up with the quantity of halalot that were waiting to be identified. Being on konenut from home meant that if I got a notification, I could leave my house in five minutes and get to the base in an hour.

“We have several teams working on a shift basis. Each team stays with the same halala through the whole process from identification to burial preparation, unless the identification happened at the end of the day and went over into the next day. In that case, the team that was on the next shift did the burial preparation.

“Once an identity was confirmed, the families were notified, and then we prepared the body for burial.

“I prefer to be on the base rather than waiting at home to be called because, like everyone else, at least I feel like I’m doing something. And even when I’m sitting at home, there is always someone from my women’s team at the base who is ready to receive any halala that comes in.”

The process

“After reception has recorded their details, we escort them to the next room in their time at Shura. That will be the treatment room.

“It is not like any other treatment room they have been in before for a massage, a manicure, or a pedicure. We take care of every halala there, aware of each neshamah, but not in a way that any of us or they could have imagined.”

“In this situation, it is not like with a regular taharah because when someone dies “al kiddush Hashem” [for being a Jew], there is no taharah. Everything with blood is buried with the body. We patch up the wounds with absorbent cotton and then wrap them in the shrouds.

“There are many wounds. We treat them as gently as we can. We feel our hearts touching theirs, as we wrap them in a linen winding sheet. We then ask for mechilah.

“We also make sure to look for any personal effects or jewelry that may not have been noticed during the medical exam. These are precious treasures that we can give back to the family.”

“We prepare the wooden aron (coffin) that will carry each one to her final resting place. The smell of freshly sawed wood, from these coffins, will never be the same for me. We lift and gently place each one in her aron and again ask for mechilah.

“For each one, we pray that our hands have done her life justice. We pray that her death not be in vain, and may her journey toward the light be without pain and may Hashem receive her sacrifice as an unfathomable kiddush Hashem and may her neshamah find peace.

“I pray also, may our tears and our hearts be healed from bearing witness to their sacrifice.”

What about self-care for yourselves and the psychological aspect?

“When I’m home I’m either writing in my journal or being creative in the kitchen. On the base, each team has a debriefing at the end of each shift to discuss any problems or difficulties that occurred during that specific shift, and we take care of one another. I call everyone on my shift to see how they are doing.

“Every day there is a mental health officer who checks in with us. Avigayil Bar-Asher, who has been the commander of the unit since 2016, calls us and even calls our spouses to see how they’re doing. We have had many sessions where we were able to speak about the most difficult situations we had dealt with, individually, over the last few weeks. We feel very supported.

“During the first week, when I left home in the morning to drive to the base, I got into my car and it still smelled of death and decay from the day before. Each day at the end of my shift, I could still smell it in my hair, my clothing, my shoes. That was really hard because even after I got home, after taking a shower and having a full night’s sleep, I’d get back in the car the following morning and the smell was still there. I couldn’t shake that.”

She describes how even the smell of frying onions was difficult for her. “But I thought, ‘I’m cooking this for sustenance, and I need to let this association go away.’ It’s important to deal with these feelings immediately. When they rise within me, I don’t push them away; I look at them and I confront them and try to see multiple sides of what I’m looking at, and then I need to take it to a place of ‘Okay, I’m doing something healthy for myself or my family, and it’s not associated with this image of death in my consciousness.’”

Did you experience a different kind of bonding during this time with your female colleagues?

“If you’re on a team working with one of the halalot, of course you’re going to form a relationship with all the women on your team. There is definitely a stronger connection among all of us now.

“This is a moment and a memory that we will share for the rest of our lives. And just as there is a camaraderie among the women on my team, it also exists with all the male reserve soldiers on the base who are doing the same thing with the halalim. There are haredim [ultra-Orthodox], secular, and religious individuals all working together. It’s quite an amazing sight and a true moment of unity.

“The IDF has come to understand that they can rely on this group of exceptional women that is committed, able, and available to help in any way needed. They know they can call any hour of the day and whoever is available says, ‘I will come.’

“To each of my dear partners who do this work with me, I want to say thank you for giving me strength in those very difficult moments, thank you for letting me support you, and for standing side-by-side as a team full of courage and dedication. You are all women of iron, with hearts of gold, and souls filled with light.”

Colonel (res.) Shimon Perchik

In September 1971, Shimon Perchik joined the military rabbinate’s casualty treatment system after completing his regular military service, serving in the 9th Company of the General Staff of the military rabbinate, numbering 160 soldiers. “Two years later, during the Yom Kippur War,” he says, “I found myself leading a platoon on the Egyptian front with the mission of evacuating, identifying, and providing dignified burials for our fallen comrades. This experience profoundly exposed the need for improving the IDF’s treatment of its fallen heroes, and, for me, it became a personal mission.”

In the post-Yom Kippur War years, he continued his service in the reserves, teaching Chevra Kadisha courses, and contributing to the development of a military combat doctrine of casualty treatment. He served as the deputy commander of Company 9 and later as its commander. His company faced numerous catastrophic events, even in peacetime, including helicopter crashes and horrific terror attacks. “Within our ranks, a group of officers and commanders, many of them Yom Kippur War veterans, shared a common goal—continuous enhancement of the IDF’s casualty treatment system through operational investigations and lesson implementation.”

Recognizing the need to strengthen casualty response after the Gulf War in 1991, Company 9 was expanded and became a battalion of 360 soldiers, named Yakam, and headed by Shimon Perchik, who was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. “This marked a turning point in our mission to improve casualty treatment within the IDF,” he says.

In 2011, the Merchav (the IDF Rabbinate emergency formation of casualties) project was initiated, and he accepted Rabbi Israel Weiss’s request to take on long-term reserve service and become the project’s coordinator. Perchik says that this significantly improved the IDF’s casualty treatment system. In 2005 he was awarded the rank of colonel by then Chief of Staff Moshe Bogi Ya’alon.

In 2011, he assumed command of the Malbach (chief of staff’s unit for casualty treatment) Corps. “Our experience in Company 9 during the Six Day War and Yom Kippur War reinforced in us the importance of upholding Torah and Jewish morality, guiding us in honoring the fallen and supporting bereaved families.

“The IDF Rabbinate has become an integral part of the entire IDF, thanks to dedicated soldiers and commanders honoring the fallen in Israel and abroad. This commitment results from collaborative efforts across IDF divisions.

“We pray that our unit’s operations are never needed. In the words of Isaiah, ‘He will swallow up death forever; the Lord G-d, He will wipe every tear from every face. He will sweep His people’s shame away from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.’ [Isaiah 25:8, Translation by the Koren Tanakh.]”

The author is an award-winning journalist, director of Raise Your Spirits Theatre, Mikva the Musical, and the Na’na and Hamra Playback troupes, and the editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com.