Our Israel Journal

The week began with the continuation of the celebration of Maayan and Aminoam Kaplan, grandchildren of Sarah and Arnie Waldman, who sponsored sheva berachot in honor of the marriage. A beautiful time was had by all in attendance as the sweet, spirited young couple laid the foundation for their Bayit Ne’eman b’Yisrael!

It also began with the news of both an attack on a restaurant owned by Israelis and the destruction of a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia. We spent a wonderful summer in Melbourne on Counterpoint in 1975, in the midst of a thriving Jewish community with shuls, schools, and kosher restaurants. It is both hard and painful that what appeared like an idyllic community at that time has been the victim of irrational hatred and willful destruction. Melbourne has long been a community that sent many of its Jewish citizens to settle in Israel, but still remained strong in population and Jewish institutions. Once again antisemitism wields its ugly head. The Australia that we knew 25 years ago is not politically the same today. Then it was a totally pro-Israel government. Today, there are cracks in the lining. But it is no way nearly as bad as New Zealand, which is very anti-Israel.

Another Israeli granddaughter flew to the U.S. to work in Camp Stone, and baruch Hashem arrived safely. Our daughter Shira flew to Europe to lecture at academic conferences in Antwerp and Bonn, and we were happy to hear that she came home safely through Frankfort toward the end of the week. Who would have imagined eighty years ago that our American-born children would be traveling freely to these German cities lecturing about the Jewish Bible, Jewish Philosophy, and Jewish Ethics? Our son Duvi is serving in Gaza, and he marked his birthday in enemy territory. May Hashem bless all the soldiers and bring them home to celebrate another year with family and friends.

This week also marked the anniversary of the incredible Entebbe rescue by the IDF in 1976, and the yahrzeit of Yoni Netanyahu, the prime minister’s older brother and commander of the operation, who was the only Israeli soldier who fell in that dramatic and successful rescue. To think that our current hostages are still in captivity after more than 640 days, but in far away Entebbe, the rescue operation managed to free all the hostages, even though one was unfortunately hospitalized there and never made it out.

On Monday, we spent another day following the outstanding work of Rav Shlomo Raanan of Ayelet Hashachar in unifying Am Yisrael one person and one community at a time. We first went to Modiin where we met with one of the volunteer architects who works with Shlomo. He was looking for the right professional to design the synagogue in Kibbutz Gevim, whose location we had visited with Shlomo two weeks before. She was clearly a serious and talented professional, suited to this wonderful project. Playing Jewish geography at the end of the meeting, it turned out that Shlomo’s father and her grandfather had been good friends, and there were other historical connections between these two Jews from completely different places, both ideologically and geographically in Israel.

Joining us at this meeting were a young rabbinic couple who are leading a new Anglo congregation in Modiin. It is located in the Avnei Chen (Kaiser) section of the city. The rabbi made aliyah from South Africa 17 years ago, and the rabbanit was born in Israel to English-speaking parents. The community has grown astronomically since they started here.

Their dynamism, commitment, talent, and the relationships they have forged with the Anglo newcomers to Modiin, of which there are many, is a strong factor in their success at attracting people to their shul. They showed us the preschool that is affiliated with their facility, and told us about some of their most important programming that helps new olim with their absorption and navigation of the Israeli system. They are truly creating a community the likes of which the newcomers enjoyed in the U.S., which doesn’t always exist in Israel and is certainly missed by English-speaking olim.

Shlomo explained to us that the next place we visited, Kibbutz Einat, was an extremely secular kibbutzwith a strong ideology. We visited Dudi and Sivan, who have lived there for many years and are involved in the campaign to build a synagogue in the kibbutz. You can see the regard they have for Shlomo’s friendship. Dudi escorted us to the site where the synagogue would be built, and was looking forward to the vote that would take place shortly. Those who are in favor are quietly trying to persuade their friends to vote in favor as well, arguing that it will be a good thing that will promote and strengthen the community and their unity. And those who don’t wish to utilize the shul for prayer or life cycle events are free not to.

The next place we visited was Kibbutz Givat HaShlosha, another strongly secular place that offers secular funerals and even cremations, which perplexed us. It is hard for us to understand—we the generation that grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, when so much of European Jewry was murdered and incinerated in crematoria—why some Jews would prefer cremation. We know the environmental argument, but still find kavod hamet (honoring the deceased) and traditional burial to be more honorable and comforting.

Here we met a dynamic, capable lady who worked in the executive office of the kibbutz for about 20 years. We had a great conversation and she showed us the location of the future synagogue as well.

Our last stop was a pidyon haben celebration of the first grandson of one of Shlomo’s rabbinic couples that serve a community. It was a beautiful party, and we were introduced to the grandparents who have made tremendous spiritual inroads in their community. There were a few tables of family, all dressed in Shabbat-type attire in honor of the occasion. And then, in contrast, there were a couple of tables of community members in attendance, sans kippot, wearing only t-shirts and shorts, celebrating the simcha of their rabbi and rabbanit. It was a heartwarming display of unity and community!

Not sure if we should tell this story, but here goes. After the pidyon, we took a cab in heavy rush hour traffic back to where our car was parked. We had an Arab driver, and although we believe that many of our “cousins” (through Yishmael) are good citizens, we regret to admit that sometimes these situations can evoke nervousness. (Different circumstances, of course, but there was once a bus driver from district 15 in the Five Towns who drove a busload of Jewish kids to HALB every day across the Atlantic Beach bridge. He was reportedly overheard saying in frustration, “Sometimes I’d like to drive those kids right off the bridge into the bay.” He probably didn’t mean what he said; nonetheless, he was dismissed. That was alarming to say the least.) Back to our story: We always drive our car to a location where we meet Shlomo. We park and join him in his car for the day’s activities. Shlomo had to stay at the last location, and we had to get back home to Jerusalem. We took a cab to our parking lot and when we got there, the keys were nowhere to be found. The cab driver kindly stayed with us while we figured things out. We checked the Find My app on the phone since we had an air tag on the key ring! It actually told us that the key was at an address in Petach Tikvah. We called Shlomo, who looked in his car parked at that address, and found the key! We found that to be a pretty amazing feat of technology.

We thanked our son Moshe for the air tags he gave us. The key arrived in a cab about 40 minutes later, and we started on our way home. At least the 40 minutes of waiting allowed us to finish our 10,000 steps for the day! It was a typical Billet day! And Heshie admits for the record and in all honesty that it was he who forgot the keys in Shlomo’s car!

Our youngest Israeli grandson left for camp in Kiryat Shemoneh. We always hope the north is quiet, of course. Last year, the camp couldn’t go to Kiryat Shemoneh because of the security situation. Baruch Hashem, this year the boys are back on the campus of the yeshiva there, and we certainly pray that the relative quiet continues for all the residents who have returned home wanting to live in peace and security. With the tremendous weakening of Hezbollah, we hope that the residents can feel comfortable.

Parts of Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to our dear friend, Rabbi David Schreiber, z’l, who passed away at his home in Bergenfield. David was an outstanding human being, student of Torah, ba’al tefillah, family member, and Jewish leader who was deeply involved in tzarchei tzibbur b’emunah. He did so much for the Jewish people in his home communities and in Israel. We mourn his loss together with his beloved wife, Dassie, who served at his side for close to 60 years, his children Rav Daniel and Aviva, Rav Avi and Navi, Blanche and Yedidya (Buchwald), his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Israel and in the U.S. We spent time writing a eulogy for David that attempted to accord to him and his family the enormous respect he deserves for his lifelong communal service, chesed, and dedication to tzedakah, kiyyum hamitzvot, and Talmud Torah. We listened to the service in New Jersey via Zoom and attended the levayah in Eretz Hachayim Cemetery in Bet Shemesh in person. May he be a melitz yosher (positive advocate) for his family and all of Klal Yisrael.

Our Teaneck mechutanim, Debbie and Michael Rapoport, are visiting Israel and we had a lovely brunch with them in Herzliya on Thursday, where they are visiting their son who is studying in IDC. We hope to see them next week in some Jerusalem activity venue!

We moved on to Modiin to make a shiva visit to Rav Eliezer Shenvald, who was sitting shiva for his father, Rav Moshe Chaim Shenvald, a Holocaust survivor and ish chinuch in Israel who was 100 years and 99 days old when he passed. We heard about his survival, his coming to Israel, his career of teaching and raising generations of students. We learned of his Zionism and the son he lost in one of the Israeli wars. He was clearly an important figure in Israeli Torah history. His son, Rav Eliezer, with whom we are acquainted, is the rosh yeshiva of the Hesder Yeshiva in Modiin. We love and admire that yeshiva, whose students are medics in the army. Anyone who knows about medics in the IDF is aware of the tremendous sacrifices and risks they take to help wounded soldiers.

From there, our journey took us to visit our great-grandchildren in Neve Daniel. We collected them from their maon and gamin and took them to the park. When we brought them home after a nice hour of play, we picked up a pizza pie and enjoyed watching them devour their corn pizza, and interestingly, olive pizza, because Israeli kids are introduced to olives as soon as they can eat table food! Aruchat Eser, morning snack, which takes place around 10 a.m., often consists of a helping of olives. Personally, we know that Americans are not raised on olives, and often need to develop a taste for them as adults. We feel blessed to have Israeli great-grandchildren who are raised on olives and Bamba (which may prevent peanut allergies in children), and speak Hebrew as their native language.

Friday opened up as a routine day, with coffee with our friends from childhood, Yossie (Joe) and Sarah (Wagner) Baumol, who recently relocated to Jerusalem from Efrat, where they lived since they made aliyah more than forty years ago. Aside from raising their big family, Yossie has been the executive director of several important institutions in Israel, and Sarah has been teaching daf yomi at Matan for over 20 years! Talk about contributing to Binyan Eretz Yisrael and Harbatzat Torah b’Aretz (building the land of Israel and spreading Torah within it).

Shortly after, we returned home to prepare for Shabbat. Our son who is serving in Gaza called to say there was a chance he might be able to get home for Shabbat. It depended on several things: whether there would be a convoy taking soldiers over the border to Israel, whether the convoy would leave early enough to get to Israel with time to spare to reach Jerusalem before Shabbat, and whether there would be transportation from southern Israel (where they are dropped off) so they could reach Jerusalem in a timely fashion. Of course, we would have loved nothing better than to see our son for Shabbat, so as the hours ticked away, and the window of time grew smaller, we waited with bated breath to hear news of the convoy’s departure so we could be ready to jump in the car to make the dash into Jerusalem to collect him and then get home in time for a restful Shabbat.

Finally, with hardly a minute to spare, he sent the message that he hoped to be at the Kiryat Gat junction in an hour, so Heshie quickly left for that location. He arrived within the hour, but with growing concern when he saw standstill traffic on the other side of the road bound for Jerusalem. Waiting for word from our son, Rookie quickly cooked an enhanced Shabbat menu to be able to welcome him with plenty of fresh, hot food for the Friday night meal. Finally, after a long delay, Heshie and Duvi were on their way to Jerusalem. Thankfully, the traffic had improved dramatically, with Waze predicting an hour’s drive, the expected length of the trip under normal conditions. Heshie, being a “BTA boy,” has been known to drive rather quickly while still trying to preserve his life and that of others on the road. During the last portion of the drive, there was no further communication, since Rookie shut down the phone and lit candles while the men were speeding home. Hard to describe the look of relief on her face when she saw her husband and son walking into the apartment with minutes to spare. The soldier took a much-needed hot shower and we all welcomed the Shabbat with a grateful Kabbalat Shabbat, just hoping and praying that it would be a quiet, peaceful, restful Shabbat for kol Chayalei Yisrael, kol Shvuyei Yisrael, kol Aveilei Yisrael, kol Petzuei Yisrael, and kol Beit Yisrael (all the soldiers, hostages, mourners, wounded, and the entire House of Israel), wherever they might be. We enjoyed a nice meal while our son fell asleep at the table out of pure exhaustion, which he was entitled to after several weeks in the field.

We subsequently learned from one of his peers that not all men his age who made aliyah way too late to serve get accepted to “shlav bet,” which is a program to recruit aged-out soldiers, which made us even prouder of him. A nineteen-year-old soldier serving in his unit saw him crawl out from under a vehicle he was examining or repairing, and exclaimed, “Ata ninja!” (You are a ninja) apparently referring to his agility despite his salt and pepper hair and beard.

It was also a week of tragic news in which five young soldiers, Hashem Yikom Damam, fell from Netzach Yehuda, the unit in which Haredi young men who enlist have served bravely and devotedly. They were victims of an explosion from a terror tunnel which fatally ambushed them. Videos from one of the funerals were shown in the media, and the pride amid the grief was apparent from the family. Every soldier that falls is truly an entire world that is lost.

For Shabbat lunch, our son made arrangements to eat with friends. We were hosted, among other guests, by Rabbi Daniel and Rabbanit Deborah Sinclair of the British Eretz Hemdah minyan. For seudah shlishis, we joined our cousins Susie and Andy Schreiber from Ra’anana who were visiting their dear friends, Rabbi Kenny and Sara Hirschhorn, who live in Jerusalem. Sarah and Kenny are former residents of Neve Daniel, where we know them from our kids and from their contributions to the shul and community there. Rav Kenny is also a rebbe in Netiv Aryeh, and taught our grandson last year when he was a student in the yeshiva. With Rav Kenny’s encouragement, our grandson is now a lone soldier in the IDF army corps of engineers. Our cousins have lived in Ra’anana for well over 30 years. They are of the age group between us and our children, so we permit ourselves to be very proud of them. We all had a lovely time.

The Hirschhorns’ son sent us this deeply moving story that ends with a link for donations. Our sharing this implies no pressure, of course, but on rare occasions, we do send such links to causes that move us.

My name is EH. I am an assistant Battalion Commander in the IDF reserves. I am responsible for many soldiers, the vast majority of whom are combat soldiers. I want to share the story of one of them: First Sgt. (res.) Nachman Natan Hertz, z’l, HYD.

I first met Nachman when I was about 27 during my regular army service when I served as an officer. Nachman was what is known as a lone soldier. He grew up in Ramat Beit Shemesh in a Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) home and didn’t fit into the yeshiva world. He dropped out at a young age (15), and struggled to integrate into other frameworks. He joined the army through a program for at-risk youths.

Throughout his service, he received social support and he completed three full years successfully. He was an excellent combat soldier, even though he had a very hard time with boundaries, authority, and discipline. You could say the army was the first framework he truly managed to integrate into.

He was officially exempt from reserve duty, but insisted on continuing to serve. He actually called his commander when he realized the system had released him from duty, asking to rejoin the team—and he did. Over the years in reserves, the rest of the team and I saw him grow and develop both personally and professionally. He completed his high school diploma, earned a practical engineering certificate in architecture, met Johanna (an immigrant from France who came to Israel with her two brothers) and they formalized their relationship. Later, they had two daughters, Avigayil and Talia. Their dream was to buy a home in the land of Israel. They worked very hard toward that. Johanna was self-employed and Nachman worked two jobs, at an architecture firm by day and security work at night.

Within his unit in the Battalion, he became a responsible, serious, and proactive figure, kind of a “father figure” to the whole unit. He would cook for them, take care of them, and give up his own comforts for their sake. He improved so much that he received a certificate of excellence for his performance during our first round of fighting in Gaza after October 7. Johanna and the girls were his entire world—his top priority—and the team and the company were like a second family, the first framework where he felt meaning and to which he was fully committed and devoted.

Fifteen months ago, around Pesach, we were stationed near Metulla, tasked with protecting the Northern border. An unmanned drone was fired at us by Hezbollah; it exploded within seconds and Nachman was killed. My heart was broken when I heard the news. I saw him daily at Shacharit and was moved by his deep belief and devotion which was instilled in him as a child but which he had reshaped and made uniquely his.

Johanna and the girls are part of our family in every sense of the word. They continue to participate in gatherings of the soldiers’ families, in outings and activities that serve to cement the bond of the Battalion. And we have taken upon ourselves to help them financially above and beyond the basic assistance they receive from the Israeli Government. Nachman lives on through them and through his sacrifice on behalf of all of us.

Our Battalion has served 320 days of reserve duty since October 7th. We will soon enter Gaza for another round and Nachman will be with us as the Zionist, patriot, and brave fighter that he was. Thank you for reading Nachman’s story and for considering supporting his family, which is what he would have wanted most. To donate: https://givechak.co.il/NahmanHertz/en?ref=ru 

This is just one of thousands of stories of fallen, wounded, and traumatized soldiers and their families. We all try to do our part, writing letters to denounce antisemitism, thanking Israel’s supporters, mentioning the names of the hostages, the fallen, and the wounded every day, doing chesed, saying Tehillim, davening, sending money and packages to those in need, ferrying extra suitcases filled with supplies, harvesting produce, proudly sending our sons, daughters, and grandchildren to serve, supporting the organizations that support all of them, volunteering on the home front, wearing yellow ribbons, signs with numbers of days since the captivity began, trying to do whatever we’re capable of and have the means to do. Every single gesture is meaningful in some way and contributes to the unity, solidarity, and the ultimate victory of the Am Hanetzach. n

Rabbi Heshie Billet is Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Woodmere and a past President of the Rabbinical Council of America. Together with his Rebbetzin, they built institutions that shaped Jewish life in the Five Towns of Long Island and beyond. Today, they live in Israel after making aliyah.