They Only Look Like Regular People

by Reesa Stone

 

A few years ago, on my daughter’s first day of summer camp, she came home with the news that her group was called ‘Chana Senesh’, and she was the only one who knew who Chana Senesh actually was.

 

The overall topic of my daughter’s day-camp was Jewish Women Heroines, and covered were mostly the usual crew; Sarah, Rivka, and Rachel, and Queen Esther. These characters are, without question, heroic, Jewish, and women. But the girls in G’s summer-camp already knew all about them. They learn the lessons of these great women during school hours.

 

I would have preferred that the girls learn about more contemporary figures.  

 

One of the reasons I made aliyah many years ago was because I wanted to live in a Land of Heroes. They can be found everywhere here in Israel, and they look just like regular people.

 

For example, here are three.

 

1. Chaya Hammer was known far and wide as the Chicken Lady. More than two decades ago, Chaya visited her local Jerusalem butcher to buy chicken for Shabbat. She saw one of the clerks put a large bag of bones and skin on the counter and a young girl take the bag, and quietly leave the shop.

 

“How many cats and dogs does that family have to get such a large bag of bones,” she wondered.

 

Of course, it turned out that the family had no pets, no income, a sick father, and seven hungry children. From that day on, Chaya paid for the family’s Shabbat meat. Over the next 20 years, Chaya came to help hundreds of Jerusalem families, at a cost of over $1000 a week. In addition, she sent checks to more hundreds of families across the country every month with cards she designed herself. Her great-granddaughter addressed the envelopes.

 

Receiving donations from around the world, she adopted families impoverished by disease, victims of terrorist attacks, and holocaust survivors. Chaya herself was a survivor of Russian pogroms. She knew what it was to be hungry. Helping others, she insisted, was “the Jewish way.”

 

Chaya Hammer passed away in May, 2010 at the age of 100. May her memory be for a blessing.

 

2. Unlike Chaya Hammer, my next heroine is already well-known, with many streets throughout Israel named after her. Though her actions have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Muslims, and Christians over the last 100 years, her life and her activities are not a part of any school curriculum.

 

Henrietta Szold was born into a rabbinic family in 1860 in Baltimore. Working as a teacher, she established the first night-school for immigrants in the USA, enabling working immigrants to learn English and, eventually, gain a wide education.

 

A great Zionist, Szold first visited Palestine in 1909 and found her life’s passion. Walking the streets of Jerusalem, she noticed the flies and the filth. She realized that she could do something to eradicate the germs and disease, which were rampant. Szold returned to the US, and in 1912 she founded what would eventually become known as “Hadassah”.

 

Hadassah’s first program was the establishment of a visiting nurse system with two nurses in Jerusalem, in 1913. She also funded the American Zionist Medical Unit and brought American personnel, equipment, and know-how to the Holy Land. Hadassah went on to establish a nursing school, clinics, x-ray labs, infant welfare stations, and more. All this eventually morphed into the world renowned Hadassah Medical Center, comprising two hospitals with over 1000 beds and outpatient clinics all over the country, giving quality healthcare to everyone, regardless of race, religion, or nationality. Today, more than 100 years after its founding, Hadassah is the world’s largest Jewish organization, and the largest volunteer women’s organization.

 

After Szold moved to Palestine in 1920, she became active in the administration of the Youth Aliyah, an organization set up to bring youngsters from Europe to Palestine. She was instrumental in saving thousands of young lives from the Nazi death camps.

 

She died in her apartment in Jerusalem, in February, 1945.

 

May her memory be for a blessing.

 

3. My third hero is an obvious choice. The girls in my daughter’s summer-camp should learn what their older sisters, their mothers, their aunts, and grandmothers have done and how they have contributed to Israeli life, and what they sacrificed to do it.

 

The young women who give two years of their lives to either the IDF or to National Service are my personal heroes.

 

Israel is the only Western country that has a mandatory draft for girls.

 

Before independence, women made up of 20% of the units that would eventually make up the IDF. Today, they make up 33% of all IDF soldiers, and 51% of its officers (!!!). There are women in all ground, air, and navy units of the IDF. Fifteen hundred female combat soldiers are drafted each year and are combat pilots, tank drivers, navigators, and more. They work in intelligence, engineering, and computer analysis units.

 

Religious girls are exempt from the IDF and instead volunteer for two years performing National Service. These girls work in hospitals, assisted living centers, special education facilities, museums, immigrant organizations, with victims of terrorism, Holocaust survivors and more. Many of these girls work up to 100 hours a week, all on a voluntary basis. Established in 1971 with 60 girls, Sherut Leumi  today has thousands of women working in various institutions around the country, which would not be able to function without them. 

 

Whereas their American counterparts are choosing colleges, dating, and planning for their future, 18-year-old Israeli girls are putting their personal lives on hold, giving their time and energy to their country and helping their fellow citizens.

 

These Israeli girls, despite the uniforms, despite the hard work, and the fatigue, and the dirt – or maybe because of them – are the most beautiful in the world. Ask any Jewish mother.

 

May the merits of these women protect and bless us all.