Walking home after participating in the “Shabbat of the Empty Chair” for the hostages at Temple Beth Sholom in November of 2023, I kept thinking: “How can I help?” By the time I arrived home, my heart made my decision for me: “ I have to return to Israel.”
On December 7, 2023, I was on an EL-AL plane, on my way to Eretz Yisrael. Walking in the mostly empty Ben-Gurion airport, with pictures of all the hostages, I knew I had made the right decision. My “headquarters” for my stay was the Arts Hotel on Ben-Yehuda St. in Tel-Aviv. I registered with LEKET (The Israel National Food Bank); two days after my arrival, I was behind the Habima Theater, waiting for the bus to take all the volunteers to the South (Gaza Envelope). It was very dark, with no bus, no volunteers yet. At 5:36 AM, the bus came, volunteers started to arrive, and my heart went from trepidation to positive excitement, as my days of being a farmer began.
I spent every day at a different Moshav (Eitan, Ami-Oz, Mivtahim, Tkuma, Shuva, etc.) harvesting oranges, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and lemons (glorious fragrance, scratchy arms).
I planted garlic for six hours, and unable to remove the smell of garlic from myself, I decided the next day to help cook for the soldiers at a Chabad in Tel Aviv. Again, I arrived early, before they were ready for the volunteers, and I asked the Italian cook if I could be of help until they were ready. What did they give me? A whole box of garlic to chop!! Eventually, I was tasked with peeling potatoes, carrots and avocados, and chopping cucumbers and tomatoes. But Tamara, the Italian cook, kept bringing me more garlic to chop!
After a month of work, I felt so enriched, knowing I had received so much more than I had given. I had the full Israel post-October 7 experience: several alarm sirens, Saturdays at the demonstrations in Kikar-Hatufim(Hostage Square) in Tel Aviv, and sharing the hotel, meals and stories with refugees from Kiryat Shmona. I felt enormous gratitude from the Israelis, just for this little grain of solidarity that I was privileged to offer them.
This was the experience of a lifetime that I will never forget.
– Malka Mordujovich