95% Heaven
This week, host Yael Eckstein comes to us from the Holy Land with a very special guest. Adele Raemer is a mother, grandmother, blogger, teacher, hospital clown, and an Israeli.
After growing up in the U.S., Adele made aliyah to her Jewish homeland after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and has for decades made her home on a kibbutz in southern Israel—a green, beautiful home that she says was always “95% heaven.”
But all of that changed on October 7th. Like so many kibbutzim living near Israel’s border with Gaza, Adele found herself and her loved ones under attack by Hamas terrorists. Unlike so many of their neighbors and countrymen, Adele and her family survived. But like so many survivors of the attack, they have yet to return to their little slice of heaven, the home that they love.
Listen now as Adele talks to Yael about life in the Holy Land—before October 7, during that horrific day, and in the hard but hopeful days since.
For more information on today’s episode visit mybiblicalroots.org.
Episode Notes:
When Hamas overran southern Israel on October 7, 2023, these terrorists murdered over 1,200 people and injured many more. But what the world forgets is that countless other Israelis—religious and secular, Israeli-born and immigrant, Jewish and Gentile—were uprooted from their homes, with many of them still unable to return.
This week’s podcast guest is one such Israeli. Born and raised in the U.S., Adele Raemer made aliyah (immigrated) to her Jewish homeland in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In the decades since, Adele has raised a family, taught, written, blogged, volunteered as a hospital clown, and watched her grandchildren grow on a kibbutz in southern Israel.
Adele tells Yael that life on the kibbutz was “95% heaven”—despite her home’s proximity to Gaza and it being a target for terrorist rocket fire, it was a green, beautiful, strong community.
She then tells of the horrific attacks of October 7th—attacks on her home that threatened her, her son, and her beloved grandchildren, and that took the lives of those she knew and loved.
But Adele ends this conversation by sharing with Yael the hope to return home that gives her strength, and the strength that comes from knowing that friends around the world stand for Israel and its people in this, their time of need.