Tag: war life

If you would like to contribute a piece to Iron Words, please click here.

Reflections on My Inner Strength

25 October, 2023

The war in Israel – Day 18

The first few days there was shock in the air. We might have to go in the mamad 1 at any time.

I didn’t want to leave my apartment, and the easy access to my mamad. Thank God, our city has been quiet, and I gradually developed the inner strength to…leave my apartment building. Then, to be able to go to my daughter’s home nearby. Days later, I felt strong enough to go to the mall. And days later, even to a nearby town.

Read More »
Mindy Sager Dickler February 8, 2024
Writing from home
Hila Bar

An Evening of Giving

As I completed my notes, I received a WhatsApp from my neighbour. Do I have some cat food for her cat? Just one cup. Thanks to our band of foster street cats, we have a plentiful supply. Chicken is the flavour of the month.

“You can have five cups, six cups,” I write. “Come on over.”

But in my endearing, childish little way, I don’t have the patience to wait. I grab two disposable cups, fill each with the cat food, and head along the wet pavement in my pyjamas and socked feet to Sigal’s house. The air is biting.

I approach the entrance and thump twice on the door, then gingerly open it. It’s just the end of November, but Sigal already has the heating on in her home.

“You didn’t have to come to me,” she says. “I would have come.”

Read More »
Hila Bar February 7, 2024

This Bread Is Moldy and I’m So Proud Of My People

I need frozen broccoli and I should go say ten chapters of Tehillim (Psalms).

The laundry basket is overflowing and the images of burned bodies I accidentally saw on social media are seared into my eyelids.

Our safe room needs to be stocked with bottled water and non-perishable food and how will life change when Moshiach (the Messianic Redeemer) comes?

I’m learning more Torah than ever before and maybe I can make challah rolls for chayalim (soldiers) on Thursday afternoon this week.

We need milk and how will I react if one of the bodies identified will be someone I know personally?

Read More »
Rivkah Lambert Adler February 6, 2024

I and II

“Oh, a little gingy boy”, she says softly and I automatically smile and begin to say thank you, sure she is about to tell me how cute gingy boys are, how her grandson is a gingy boy, how gingy boys have a little extra spark, or any of the other comments older Israeli women love to make …

Read More »
Shev Shatzman February 6, 2024

The Massacre of October 7th

Simchat Torah is every Jewish person’s favorite holiday, you can’t convince me otherwise. Feasts that would put the Beauty and the Beast’s feast to shame, uncoordinated dances in synagogues and living up to true joy. It’s

Read More »
Anonymous, age 17 February 6, 2024

I Have a Moaka

These days I’m walking around with a constant mo-a-ka. My Hebrew-speaking friends know that a moaka is “a feeling of heavy burden, emotional stress or a physical sensation of stress and discomfort.” I want it to

Read More »
Gayle Danis Rinot February 6, 2024

The Scent of Home

When a woman I didn’t know in my neighborhood WhatsApp group asked for volunteers to launder blankets for soldiers, I immediately responded. In addition to the PR efforts I’m doing for Israel (but, frankly, who isn’t?),

Read More »
Gayle Danis Rinot February 6, 2024

Untitled

Writing from work in Ashdod, Israel I worked night shift last night. Usually my shift starts at 23:00. But we are on a war schedule so now it starts at 19:00. Dinner time. I have to

Read More »
Dr Gila Nussbaum February 6, 2024

Diary Entry: Day 3 – Just in Case

Just got up. Have not checked the news yet. Rumblings in the distance were like thunder all night. Since Jerusalem is a no-fly zone, any aircraft that comes near is military. I am sure they have

Read More »
Mallory Serebrin February 5, 2024
Subscribe
Subscribe