Fighting Hamas Together
The Fellowship | November 28, 2023
Rabbi Levy remembers his phone was turned off to celebrate Simchat Torah on October 7. Living in the north of Israel, he didn’t hear of the attacks by Hamas until after the holiday was over.
“Our neighborhood is religious. We suspected something was taking place because we saw a soldier saying goodbye to his wife with tears in their eyes, but that was it,” he explains.
Rabbi Levy had made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in 2022 from Argentina with his wife, Devorah, and their four children thanks to The Fellowship. At the time, he was eager to start up a new congregation in Israel, and was hoping to specifically serve Spanish and Portuguese-speaking olim (immigrants) in the area.
Now, just a year and a half later, that congregation is open and is helping dozens of people in Israel through this dark time. “We felt a combination of shock and fear once we learned of the horrific killing of Jews, which took us back to very dark times in our history,” he says.
Rabbi Levy’s family has also reached out to the IDF soldiers bravely serving the country. “We have been cooking cholent (a kind of traditional stew, typically eaten over Shabbat) and making sandwiches to hand out to soldiers.”
He also adds: “We understand that we are in Israel because God wants us to be here. We will come out of this as a stronger and more united people.
“We would not want to be anywhere else in the world right now because we are with our brothers and sisters fighting this evil together.”