By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
The Seattle-based organization Hope for Heroism, a group that helps injured Israeli soldiers help to heal each other through camaraderie, rehabilitation, and workshops, has launched its first-ever, week-long retreat in Seattle for the mothers and wives of these soldiers.
For seven days in February, a group of eight Israeli women, ages 28 to 59, shopped at the Pike Street Market, attended a performance of South Pacific at the 5th Avenue Theatre, and lived the Seattle scene.
These partners and parents of severely wounded Israeli soldiers, many of them from the elite military unit, Duvdevan, were pampered and chauffeured from Mercer Island to Fox Island for a brief respite from their usual 51-week-a-year responsibilities in Israel — loving, encouraging, and caring for their suffering loved ones.
Although they are devoted caretakers, studies show again and again that those who attend to the ill also need to take care of themselves.
“The wound of the husband is on the outside, and the wound of the woman is on the inside,” said Techiya Levine, who cofounded Hope for Heroism in Seattle with her husband, Rabbi Chaim Levine three years ago. “There’s a woman behind the soldier, who is suffering right along with him, to some degree, more and in different ways.”
HFH is a program within LivingJudaism, a Seattle organization that offers several community-based programs for Jewish learning and enrichment.
It’s an extension of an idea that was originally developed by a group of Israeli soldiers that brings soldiers to Seattle for workshops, counseling, and friendship.
“It’s grown so quickly and so profoundly,” said Rabbi Levine. “Its complete purpose is, from the moment they’re injured, to help disabled combat soldiers return to a contributive life in Israel, and to help them emotionally, financially, legally, and medically.”
To date, Hope for Heroism has helped 90 critically wounded soldiers, surpassing their goal of helping 65 soldiers out of the average of 140 that are injured in Israeli battles each year.
“The host families generously open their homes,” said Techiya Levine. “The financial support for the program is provided by private donations, mainly from people here in Seattle. We have some supporters in various cities all over the country, as well as some in London and Toronto.”
These women are with their sons and husbands constantly, meeting their daily needs, and helping them psychologically battle the profound doubts and fears that linger long after their physical rehabilitation has healed their body.
It’s a time, said Techiya Levine, for these women to share, to heal, take a break, and get connected to the Seattle Jewish community and each other.
Elana Ben Shushan, a 28-year-old newlywed from Jerusalem who helped the Levines organize the women’s trip, said her husband was injured by a grenade two years ago, before they met.
“After a year of being boyfriend and girlfriend, he asked me to marry him,” said Ben Shushan about their meeting in Israel. “Three weeks before our wedding, he freaked out about his injury and about being a husband, and a father. He wasn’t sure he could handle it. He broke off the engagement three weeks before the wedding.”
Upon returning from a HFH trip to Seattle, Ben Shushan said her would-be husband came back a changed man.
“He realized that he doesn’t have to be scared and that even though he was injured he can do everything,” she said. “That’s when I came to Seattle and listened to some of the workshops he heard here. We were here together and that’s when he asked me to marry him again.”
Sarah Preiss’s oldest son, Guy, lost his legs after a 70-pound bomb exploded beneath his Jeep in 2002 while searching for hidden explosives. Preiss, a 59-year-old teacher, said that event changed her life forever.
Preiss, whose husband died one year after her son’s injury, eventually left her home in Southern Israel and moved to the Tel Aviv area to join her other two sons.
“The problems are not physical or medical, because he is now driving a car, driving a Jeep, and driving a motorcycle,” said Preiss. “ It is in the mind — what they saw, what they have been through. [HFH] gives them the life and the hope that they can be useful people to themselves, to their country, and to their families. It is for the soul.”
Guy now helps others in similar situations as one of the managers of HFH in Israel.
“Those who haven’t been in the battle, who haven’t heard the voices, who haven’t smelled the smells, can’t understand,” Preiss said.
Orit Ganoyan, 51, from Modi’in, whose four sons are officers, two of whom were wounded, tells how her youngest son Gil originated the idea for the group. Gil, she said, was a member of Duvdevan when he was severely wounded. Gil cornered and killed a terrorist in a shootout at Bet Lechem, but sustained a gunshot to the neck. Miraculously, according to Ganoyan, the bullet exited his body and he lived.
Gil founded the organization with two or three soldiers and made the connection to Seattle.
“I think my son Gil is a big hero,” said Ganoyan. “ I think God gave him his life to do what he does.”
Galya Mizrachi has four sons and lives in Efrat. Two days before Gaza was evacuated in August 2005, her youngest son Elrr’ee was wounded there by friendly fire. He got married six months ago and Mizrachi credits the group for bringing him this far.
“He just loves the guys,” said Mizrachi. “It’s a fantastic support system for these kids…. They’ve been through hell and back, all of them.”