Cooking for the soldiers
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Cooking for the soldiers

Local woman goes to Israel to feed the troops

ON THE COVER: Amy Lieberman, Ruty Bahar-Keren, and Karen Grossman, new but now good friends, take a break from cooking at the IDF’s Ein HaShlosha base.
ON THE COVER: Amy Lieberman, Ruty Bahar-Keren, and Karen Grossman, new but now good friends, take a break from cooking at the IDF’s Ein HaShlosha base.

When Amy Lieberman of Hillsdale boarded an El Al flight to Israel in June, she didn’t know that her efforts to fill the stomachs of war-weary soldiers would fill her own soul.

In March, after a 16-year career overseeing pension and retirement plans at a Jewish global nonprofit, her position was outsourced. “I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do next — but I knew the state of Israel was desperately in need of support,” she said.

Ms. Lieberman, whose family has belonged to Congregation B’nai Israel in Emerson for years, recalls “feeling helpless being in New Jersey.” This was the time to do something, she decided.

After a Jewish National Fund mission to Israel, where she helped rebuild kibbutzim in the Gaza Envelope, she decided that she wanted to work with the Israel Defense Forces. So she began to work with Sar-El: Volunteers for Israel, performing non-combat support operations for the IDF.

Ms. Lieberman did a two-week stint with Sar-El on two army bases near Beersheba in the south, working in a converted airplane hangar serving as a dual assembly line packaging plant. “There were 45 of us — and 12 of us were not Jewish,” she said. “A few of the non-Jews were ex-United States military who came to stand in support of Israel. Some had served in six different wars, from the Gulf War to Iraq and Afghanistan. Others were Christian/Evangelical groups that came from around the globe: the U.K., South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.”

Amy Lieberman and Karen Grossman stand behind trays of food, including the Moroccan donuts called sfinjim.Still, “After two weeks of service with Sar-El living on an army base, hotel accommodations and air conditioning were calling my name,” she said. She was eager to get to Tel Aviv, where she not only could find a hotel room but also hunt up more volunteer opportunities. “I was looking specifically for a way by which to continue to support the IDF, so I combed the Swords of Iron Facebook page looking for volunteer activities.” Swords of Iron is a robust community of volunteers that creates projects aimed at parts of Israeli society that have been most adversely impacted by the horrors of October 7.

Ms. Lieberman found lodging at the Maxim Hotel in Tel Aviv, where many volunteers were staying.

A month after arriving, Ms. Lieberman found her niche, during a volunteer activity making sandwiches with an organization called Revital’s Hamal.

Revital Ben-Tzur Yosef is a former tech professional who managed a small company of 12 employees; Revital’s Hamal was a venture that began in her Tel Aviv apartment. “Just after October 7, I got in touch with one of my employees who had gone to the Gaza Envelope to fight,” Ms. Ben-Tsur Yosef said. “I discovered that the soldiers lacked basic necessities like fruits and vegetables. Out of this need, the Hamal” — a command center — “was born. We focused on providing daily food and meals to soldiers as a touch of home and a boost to their morale.

“What started in my living room in Tel Aviv has since grown into a large-scale project. The main thing that we are rebuilding is communities. The longer the war goes on, the more the need is.”

This buffet table is prepared by Revital’s Hamal.Volunteers cook the food, and IDF members pick it up to deliver to the front. “Children in kindergarten draw pictures or write letters to the soldiers that we put in the packages,” Ms. Ben-Tsur Yosef said. “We are a civilian initiative. We are not political or funded by a group. We are people who woke up on October 7 and wanted to help.”

Hamal bridges the gap between the religious and the secular to engage people from all corners of Israel, she continued.

“The first day I participated in sandwich-making with Revital, I realized that I was touching the sandwich that someone would eat in war,” Ms. Lieberman said. “In assembly line format, we made turkey, pastrami, tahini, and hummus sandwiches. We packaged pastries that were donated from bakeries. We decorated the boxes with stickers and slipped in handwritten notes. At the end of a two-hour shift, we’d made 500 sandwiches.” But Ms. Lieberman wanted to get closer to the soldiers. She wanted to connect with the IDF in a way that was more personal, more hands-on.

It was Ms. Ben-Tsur Yosef who knew what to do. “I’m going to connect you with a religious woman who cooks every Friday for Shabbat on military bases,” she said. “I’m going to introduce you to Natalie.”

Natalie Cohen, an Orthodox divorcee with six children who comes from Bnei Brak, received her clinical training in social work from Haifa University. Before the war, she’d worked for the government, treating clients suffering from various forms of trauma. “Two days after the Hamas massacre, the health department called me,” she said. “‘You have to volunteer,’ they told me. My qualifications were suitable to guide battalion commanders in talking with their soldiers.

“After three weeks, I knew I needed to do more. I told the commander that. ‘Please give them something,’ he told me. I know how to cook. These kids are young. They need their mothers. They need a shoulder. They need love.”

Natalie Cohen fries Moroccan donuts as IDF soldiers wait for them to be done.Ms. Cohen had yeast in her bag. “There are tiny packets of yeast that I buy at the grocery store,” she said. “I keep them with me so if I’m going to my mother’s home in the moshav, I can bake. We were on a military base at the border of Gaza. I asked the commander there, ‘Do you have flour, oil, water and sugar?’” He did. Before long, she’d made an open campfire with sticks of wood, kneaded the dough, shaped them into donuts, and fried them. When they were done, she presented the soldiers with a tray of sweet, warm Moroccan donuts — sfinge.

Soon she got a call from another commander. “I have 150 soldiers, can you cook for them?” Ms. Cohen began coordinating Shabbat dinners for soldiers on bases. “I talk to the soldiers while cooking them food that reminds them of home,” she said.

When Ms. Lieberman first talked to Ms. Cohen, they discussed meeting to cook a Shabbat dinner on a military base in Netiv HaAssara. Ms. Cohen set Ms. Lieberman up with Ruty Bahar-Keren, a tour guide with a car, for a ride. Ms. Bahar-Keren was born in a Jewish community in Istanbul and made aliyah when she was 19. “I came to the university, married and divorced,” she said. “I have three children.

“I was leading a small tour on October 7 with a group of 10 people. I heard the alarms, but there was no news of what was going on, so I continued on to Jerusalem. But the tourists saw what was happening on their phones. There were policemen everywhere. Flights were canceled. The tourists were anxious about getting back to Turkey. I didn’t know there were terrorists everywhere.”

In the following days, she looked to see who needed help. “Airplanes were full of reservists,” she said. “The army needed food.” Ms. Bahar-Keren bought schnitzel to cook at home and asked her family and friends to help. “When I cooked what seemed like enough, I gathered the schnitzel, a good knife, and a baseball bat and used my navigation system to direct me to the closest army base,” she said.

This is some of the food that Revital’s Hamal brings to the IDF.Ms. Bahar-Keren was ready to do anything the soldiers needed. “In the beginning, there were so many soldiers in training, we hadn’t yet opened the offensive,” she said. “I fell in love with making schnitzel, but mainly I fell in love with the soldiers.”

Two weeks later, she met Moshe Azar from Rishon LeTzion at an army base. “Between me and those who’d offered to donate, I was paying for the meat and he was providing the stoves and gas and all the equipment needed to cook a meal. We were cooking, traveling, and cooking more, and driving many miles.

“Then I learned about an American who wanted to volunteer. Her name was Amy Lieberman. I was to pick her up at the hotel. On the way to the army base, we picked up another American, Karen Grossman.”

Karen Grossman, who is from San Diego, was a 50-something who’d arranged a house swap for 2 1/2 months with a resident of Tel Aviv.

“Karen and Amy became friends,” Ms. Bahar-Karen said.

Revital Ben-Tzur Yosef and Natalie Cohen at the Philadelphi Corridor.When Ms. Bahar-Keren met Ms. Lieberman, she knew something about her was different. “She was not your typical American tourist,” she said. “Natalie didn’t have a car, but I did. I didn’t like to drive at night, so Amy took over, telling me, ‘I’m a New York driver!’”

Although the territory was potentially dangerous, Ms. Lieberman seemed fearless when she drove. “It was as if she knew what to do,” Ms. Bahar-Keren said. “She knew how to cook, she had a way with conversation, and she spoke with the soldiers comfortably. We all fell in love with her.”

Leaving Netiv HaAssara to deliver the sandwiches, they heard the red alert warning of incoming missiles. “This was Amy’s first bomb shelter experience, but she was unfazed,” Ms. Bahar-Keren said. “From July 26 through her departure to New Jersey in September, she was an active member of our team.”

“The first day in the south cooking was a turning point for me,” Ms. Lieberman said. “Working hands-on with the soldiers as they made their way out of Gaza was my calling. Natalie, Moshe, Karen, Ruty, and I were like a family. When the soldiers saw us making sfinge and shakshuka, pouring wine and playing music, it reminded them of what it was like to be home with their friends and family celebrating life. It brought them away from the war and closer to what feels safe. And when they see Natalie, a religious Jewish woman, pouring her heart into the food she cooks, I believe they know she is feeding their souls.”

“Soldiers and commanders write to us on WhatsApp, telling us what they need,” Ms. Bahar-Keren said. “This is the most meaningful work I’ve ever done in my life. Sometimes, when I am running low on money, and don’t know what to do, miraculously, I will get a call with a donation.

Ms. Cohen receives messages from battalion commanders requesting hot meals for their soldiers. Battalions range from 60 to 1,700 soldiers.

A soldier in Gaza holds sandwiches made by Revital.“I have cooked for more than 100,000 soldiers since the beginning of the war,” Ms. Cohen said. She gets calls at all hours of the night. “If I have the ingredients, I will go to the base and cook. People drive me or I take a taxi. If it’s crazy late, the army will take me home.

“We make something out of nothing,” she added. “If they have electricity, I use a small fryer. If they don’t, I use a bowl on top of the fire.

“The sfinge became the food for this war,” she continued. “I received 350 kilos of flour as a donation before Chanukah. I used 240 kilos during the eight days with no mixer, all by hand. We call ourselves — me, Amy and Karen — the Sfinge Angels. They took that from the American TV show ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ When people ask me who Bosley is, I tell them it’s Hashem.

“This period of time could make me very depressed, but I’ve found my calling. Amy and Karen are my connection to the outside world. They are good ambassadors and do important work for the soldiers. They give us strength.”

Ms. Lieberman returned to the United States in late September to attend her nephew’s bar mitzvah; she returned to Israel in December. “I wanted to continue to support Natalie,” she said. “The scope of the need has expanded. There are soldiers in the north and in Lebanon, as well as Syria.”

Karen Grossman returned to San Diego when her apartment swap ended in September. But like her friend Amy Lieberman, she also has returned to Israel.

“We are staying together in Rosh Pina, supporting Natalie as wandering cooks,” Ms. Lieberman said. “While at this point I don’t have definitive plans for my next steps, I know I am staying here in Israel through the spring. I want to be here to see the end of this war and to see the hostages brought home.

“Israel is a place surrounded by enemies on all sides, but I’ve been surrounded by a community of people who, despite devastation and hardships, believe in light and love,” she said. “It’s like a magnet. I’ve never felt more like a Jew than I have since arriving in Israel just nine months ago.” She has connected with a large community of generous people, both in Israel and the United States, whom she met through volunteering.

“What binds us together is Israel,” she said.

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