"Shortly after I was discharged from the military, I was walking on the Chords Bridge in Jerusalem and there was an ultra-Orthodox anti-draft protest nearby," Michael Rabi, a Haredi young man, who served in the IDF, began. "I was looking at the protesters from above when a secular guy approached me and began to scream at me 'You, Haredim, don't do the arm, you are such and such.' Around us, there were several more Haredim watching. 

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"At some point, I pulled out my reserve duty card and showed it to him. I told him that I was a Haredi soldier and showed him my military ID. That is when I realized that while he got silent and was at a loss for words, the Haredim who were standing around us, and who initially felt for me, took a sudden step back and shunned me."

Such situations, which can only be described as "between a rock and a hard place," seem to be the norm for many ultra-Orthodox soldiers, such as Michael, who chose to enlist in the IDF, going against their communities norms. They encounter various challenges due to this choice, problems that are not solved once they complete their military service. On the contrary, they become more prevalent and frustrating, affecting their lives as civilians. 

One such complex issue revolves around matchmaking, or shidduchim as it is called in the ultra-Orthodox world. It is bad enough that the soldiers have to deal with the consequences of choices that their families might disapprove of, but they also struggle to move on by establishing a family of their own. 

And even if a particular family is accepting of their son's decision to enlist, the larger community might not be as accommodating. 

"The community looks at parents whose son enlisted in a critical way," Avihai Hatabi, who completed his military service several weeks ago, told Israel Hayom. "Are you sure you educated him properly? What school did you send him to? There are also remarks about shidduchim."

Michael concurred, saying, "The atmosphere feels like as soon as you have a 'rotten apple,' you should throw it out so that the rest of the apples in the basket don't get spoiled. Some families cannot withstand this pressure."

Yehudah, who also served in an IDF unit for observant soldiers, said, "Almost every Haredi soldier who comes from a classic ultra-Orthodox family is considered a lone soldier. Parents don't necessarily hate their son [who enlisted], but they rarely accept someone who chose a different path. At the swearing-in ceremonies of Haredi units, you will hardly see any suits or hats. They [family and friends] just don't come." 

"And even if the families accept it, the reactions and the attitude of the neighborhood cause them heavy financial and mental damage. The whole time you feel you are the disappointment of the family, that you are [negatively] affecting your younger brothers. The experience of returning home for Shabbat, to the ultra-Orthodox community, in uniform, and with a weapon, is not pleasant. That is why Haredi soldiers are often exempt from wearing their uniforms."

I meet the six young men, all of whom chose what the ultra-Orthodox world would consider crossing a red line, at a Netzah Yehuda Association branch in Jerusalem. Established in 1999, the organization supports Haredi soldiers throughout their military service, up to and including their discharge and integration into civilian life.

Michael, 25, served in the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which is part of Nahal Haredi, the IDF's ultra-Orthodox service track. He enlisted in 2017. After completing his service, he completed his matriculation exams and studied neuro-linguistic programming.

Dovi Lichter, 24, from Ramat Beit Shemesh joined the IDF in 2018. He grew up in Modi'in Ilit in an American Haredi family and is now a social worker helping families in need.

Avichai Hatabi, 20, from Jerusalem, who enlisted in 2020, joined the Air Force, and later the ultra-Orthodox recruitment department. After being discharged from the military, he began working at a Jewish bookshop.

Netanel Cohen, 26, has had a slightly different journey. He grew up in the Mevo Horon settlement, in a Religious Zionist family, and chose to enlist in the IDF, the Haredi paratroopers' company. He has since become more Haredi and works at an ultra-Orthodox school for teenagers at risk.

The two oldest in the group are Rabbi Yohanan Landau and Yehudah Shapiro. Yohanan, 33, from Jerusalem, is married with three children. He enlisted after getting married and served in a special Air Force track for older soldiers and later took an officers course. He now works as a rabbi in a combat engineer battalion, helping ultra-Orthodox soldiers.

Yehudah, 30, is also from the capital and also married with three children. He began to work as a manager of the lone soldier department and organized an apartment for discharged Haredi fighters.

Twice a week they come to the association to study Torah, pray, listen to lectures, and above all, meet with the only people who understand and accept them.

"This place was established out of a need," Yohanan said. "The guys here no longer belong to the communities they grew up in, not Breslov, not Chabad, or any Haredi group. Many consider them to be strange. Here, they feel at home."

According to the IDF, the number of ultra-Orthodox military recruits has increased in recent years, but they still remain a minority. Based on data by the Central Bureau of Statistics for 2020, the Haredi population stood at 1,175,00 people. The number of Haredi recruits stood at 1,906 in 2016, 1,374 in 2017, 1,788 in 2018, and 1,222 in 2019, in every case, slightly more than one-tenth of one percent of the entire sector. 

Q: Why did you choose to enlist in the IDF? 

Dovi: I've always looked up at soldiers. I told myself that it was a distant dream that would probably never come true. At some point, I felt I had utilized my studies to the fullest and wanted to get to know the world beyond the yeshiva and the ultra-Orthodox world.

Avichai: I left the yeshiva world at an early age. At first, I transferred to a Religious Zionist school, and from there, the path to recruitment was short as the community is much more accepting, and even encourages, service in the IDF. 

Yohanan: I enlisted after getting married, and after studying for a few years as a bachelor. The military offered me to teach lessons on bases. The initial plan was to serve a short time, but in the end, I became an officer and the service was extended to longer than three years.

Michael: I made the decision after not studying consistently in the yeshiva, learning less, and working more. I realized that there was no reason for me not to contribute to society, and along the way, I would also get to know it better.

Q: How did your families react? 

Dovi: My parents supported me and attended all my ceremonies. In the yeshiva, they were against it. My rabbi told me to get married. The moment I enlisted, I was shunned, and my connection with the yeshiva and friends began to deteriorate. Once I visited there as a soldier, and they were quite degrading about it, told me I was a loser for enlisting, but that is not how I saw it. From my perspective, I was contributing to my country. 

The situation was complicated in the community as well. There were some who respected my decision, but in general, the ultra-Orthodox society does not value those who serve in the military. No one knows how hard it was during training or making arrests in Ramallah. No one understands this, there were quite a few who looked down on me and this attitude hurt me a lot.

Avihai: My family is very Haredi, and I had fights with my parents, especially my father. It started even before the army when I studied in yeshiva, and I bought a smartphone and changed the way I dressed. My family and those around me called it a deterioration, but I was just looking for something a little different.

I went to very close yeshivas. I was taught one particular way. In the end, the goal is to find a match and maintain a Haredi lifestyle. Therefore coming home in a uniform was unacceptable. All the neighbors look at you and make comments. It's not just the family. It's also the environment. 

When I worked recruiting ultra-Orthodox soldiers, I met with young men before they enlisted. One of them told me that if his father found out about his plans to join the IDF, he would have killed him. I was shocked. Of course, he didn't mean that his father would actually kill him, but a sentence like this should never have been said in any way. 

Yehudah: This difficult outlook exists. I had a soldier who lost an eye in an operation. I called his dad and told him that his son was injured during an arrest. His answer was, "He is over 18. Let him figure it out on his own<" and then he hung up. 

Another time, a graduate of the association tried to commit suicide. When I spoke to his father, he told me something similar, that his son is no longer a child, that he should learn to take care of his own, and asked me not to call him anymore.

Michael said that during his service he lost two friends, who were killed in an attack in 2018, having been shot by a Palestinian terrorist. 

"After our friends were killed, soldiers went home crying and upset, and the parents didn't know what to do with them. No one knows how to approach you, because no one has experienced the reality of the military. Unlike others, when a Haredi soldier goes home, he is not greeted as a respected fighter, and no one understands him. 

A year ago, The Netzah Yehuda Association opened several apartments for Haredi soldiers who felt they could not fit in at home anymore, and for those who were rejected by their families for enlisting.

Yehudah explained why the organization was established.

"I saw that after being discharged, people were helped by associations for soldiers who were no longer religious, although they still were. In the worst of cases, they simply lived in a car. I understood that they needed an anchor to begin their lives after the military," he said.

Dovi: The issue of identity becomes particularly acute after the army. I tried to integrate into other places, but in the classical ultra-Orthodox public, you are disrespected for serving, and Religious Zionism is not the right environment for me. To this day, I keep searching for my identity and can't find it.

(photo here)

The issue becomes even more prevalent when it comes to finding a match. The most common, if not the only, way to find a match in the ultra-Orthodox world is through matchmaking, and oftentimes, the success of a match is determined by family lineage, background, and the reputation of the candidates and their families. In addition, a recent poll showed that an average Haredi girl gets married at the age of 20, and a man at 22. 

As such, serving in the military hinders the Haredi soldiers' ability to marry in several ways. 

The young men become visibly more disheartened at the mention of this subject. 

Michael: There is a stigma about Haredi boys who served in the army, that they are not serious, and there are even degrading nicknames, and the feeling is that we are second-class citizens. 

Q: How so? 

Yohanan: For example, a 26-year-old young man told me that he was suggested a 31-year-old woman. Now, without going into whether the general public views it as problematic or not, the fact is that in the ultra-Orthodox sector, had he not done the army, he would have never been offered such a match.

Yehudah: That's right, and what the Haredi community doesn't understand is that more often than not, the boys who serve in the military are the good ones.

Q: What do you mean by that? After all, we know that a Haredi family values sons who study Torah. 

Yehudah: I'm not talking about someone who sits and studies in a yeshiva for years, which is the ideal, but someone who usually clings to the yeshiva world, even though it's clearly not for him, because that is what he is familiar with, and in the end, he gets frustrated and gets nowhere. Alternatively, an ultra-Orthodox person who went to the army is a more wholesome person. He achieved something in life. 

Michael: If a guy left the yeshiva and joined the army, it doesn't mean he is not as religious anymore. He could have maintained the same Haredi values he grew up with. No one understands that. 

Avichai: First impressions really matter in the Haredi world. Where you learned, where you spent time, what family you come from, and what sector you are a member of. All this determines what suggestions you get. The world of shidduchim is full of rules like that. 

If a Haredi guy wants to learn Torah and keep the commandments, but God forbid does not wear a suit all the time, or even worse, went to the army, it all has an effect.

Michael: The economic aspect is also very important. Haredi parents usually help a young couple at the beginning of their marriage. When one of my friends told his parents that they wanted to enlist, they said they would only support someone who learns Torah, so if he does enlist, he should take that into account. 

Q: To what extent is this the preference of the girls who are suggested to you and to what their parents and Haredi society's? 

Michael: Of course, there are girls who would prefer a guy who served in the military, but it is much more complicated than that. The ultra-Orthodox matchmaking world has clear codes. A girl won't date whoever she wants, there's no such thing. Her parents won't allow her to meet just anybody. Before the date, they find out who the young man is, what he did, where he learned, what his family does, and his brothers. As such, as soon as they hear that he was in the army, the match is almost immediately dropped.

Q: But at the end of the day, it was your decision to go against the Haredi mainstream, was it not? 

Netanel: That is not the case. It's not that the options are between a guy who learns Torah all day versus someone who served in the IDF. It's usually between a young man who joined the army and the guy who might have been in the yeshivah physically but probably spent his time drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and chatting with friends.

Michael: Personally, when I meet a girl, I don't apologize for having served in the military. I reveal everything. True, there are those who study all day in the yeshiva, good for them, but there are many who are not suitable for such a life, they do not enjoy it and do not find themselves in it, but they stay in the yeshiva because that is what's accepted. 

If a girl prefers such a guy, someone who does not stick to his own truth, over a person who built himself up in the military, then it's her choice. I am in a different place. 

Attempts by discharged soldiers to recruit help were in vain. 

"I tried to start a matchmaking project," Yohanan said. "I contacted a well-known shadchan, who told me that he had many girls to introduce to the boys. I suggested that he meet the boys. That was two months ago, and he still hasn't come. So he got cold feet, and he really doesn't know enough girls who would be interested in guys who served in the IDF."

Dovi expressed a more hopeful view, saying that in his circles, he receives more suggestions particularly because he served in the military. 

"It's becoming more normal, at least in my community," he said, which the rest of the group attributed to the fact that Dovi is part of the more open-minded American Haredi community. 

The conversation is joined by the CEO of Netzah Yehudah Association, Yossi Levin, who is married with two children and lives in Jerusalem. Born in the capital, he studied at several mainstream Haredi schools. Later, he served in the IDF as an officer and a fighter. 

According to Yossi, worries over the impact of military service on the dating prospects of Haredi soldiers go all the way back to 1999, when, as mentioned above, Nahal Haredi was established. 

Founder Yehuda Duvdevani "was mostly concerned about how serving would affect the soldiers' dating prospects, which is why he went to consult with rabbis. I, personally, never understood this, until I experienced it firsthand," Yossi said. 

Yossi is the youngest of eight siblings. One day, when speaking to his sister about her dating process, "she said that she has problems with shidduchim. And when I asked her what the problem was, she said it was because they say her brother is a soldier. I never abandoned my values or identity, then why is my being in the military a problem? Unfortunately, despite our many efforts, lots of our graduates struggle to find a match."

Q: What could be done? 

Michael believes that besides continuing with the options that are already being pursued, time will also bring about a change. 

"The Haredi world might not admit to this, but many are joining the military and are curious about the world. In the end, they will have no choice, but to adapt, including with shidduchim," he said. 

Yehudah: "As of now, this huge population, which includes tens of thousands of IDF graduates from ultra-Orthodox tracks, has no political representation and almost no rabbinic recognition. But that will change, the revolution has begun."

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In conclusion, after all the discussions about the difficulties they face, the young man wanted to emphasize their strength and righteousness. 

Dovi: We are not poor. It is true, there are many challenges and complexities, but we are also very strong and proud of our choices.

Yehudah: It's important to me that both the Haredi and secular Israeli public understand that a Haredi guy who serves in the IDF is a hero. In the end, these are good people, who despite the difficulties are bringing about a change. Their sacrifice is for the people and the State of Israel. If anyone knew what mental resilience you need to enlist as a Haredi, they would immediately show him the respect he deserves. Not only does this person leave his comfort zone, he completely shatters it. 

Michael expressed optimism, saying, "The change is already happening, and there are quite a few girls who are aware of the advantages of dating someone who was a soldier. They know it will be someone who knows life, a man of patience and discretion. We grew in the military, and are much more mature and ripe for family life."

The post The price of defying convention: Haredi soldiers struggle to find love appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Some 60 years ago, on the night between May 31 and June 1, Pinchas Zacklikovsky returned to his home in Bnei Brak, entered his 10-year-old son Tuly's room, and told him quietly and calmly: "Tonight I cremated Eichmann."

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Zacklikovsky, a professional oven-builder, who spent the war years in the Lodz Ghetto and Buchenwald Concentration Camp, didn't depart from his routine. "The next day dad went to work like nothing had happened," Tuly says. "They asked him 'how was it?' and he answered 'I turned on the oven, put the body in, and that was that. All I did was turn Eichmann into ashes.'"

In 1940, Nazi archcriminal Adolf Eichmann visited the Lodz Ghetto in order to monitor up close the operation to expel the Jews, as the preliminary step towards the implementation of the Final Solution. Someone who saw the senior Nazi officer from a distance was Pinchas Zacklikovsky, then a young man of 20.

Eichmann didn't imagine that 22 years later it would be that same Jewish youngster who would especially build an oven for him, a kind of personal crematorium, put his body inside and turn one of the greatest oppressors of Jews in history into nothing more than a small pile of ashes.

Pinchas Zacklilkovsky was born in 1920 in Poland to a wealthy family of Gur Hasidim. He was raised alongside four brothers and sisters, and like every Jew in Europe was greatly shaken by the outbreak of World War II. At the beginning he escaped on his own, wandered throughout Poland in areas that were then controlled by the Soviet Union, in an attempt to escape from the clutches of the Nazis, but in the end, he decided to return to his family and be with them during those dreadful times.

From the Lodz Ghetto he was transferred to the Czestochowa Ghetto and in 1944 he was sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. "They beat his father to death right before his eyes," Tuly says. In an interview with the newspaper Yom HaShishi in 1990, Zacklilkowsky said that, after the American army liberated the Concentration Camp from the Nazis, he angrily set upon a German officer who had tortured him, and ripped out both of his eyes.

He made aliyah in 1946 on the Enzo Sereni ship, but was then expelled with the other "illegal" immigrants to Cyprus and was afterwards imprisoned in the Atlit Detention Camp. Afterwards he was recruited into the Etzel, and during the War of Independence he served in the Givati Brigade. He met Sara Levitt Neuman, who was born in 1926 and survived Auschwitz, via mutual acquaintances. They married and made their home in Bnei Brak.

Tuly was born in 1952 and was followed two years later by Esther. "Our home was religious in the style of the Mizrachi movement, and I studied at a yeshiva high school," Tuly, who later changed his family name to Ziv, explains.

In 1956 Zacklilkowsky was invited by Amichai Feiglin, who served as an operations officer in the Etzel, to work at the oven factory he had established with his father.

"He gathered around him a number of people from the Etzel, and there my father learned the craft of cutting and bending. He became a real expert in the field and his name went before him throughout the area." His expertise would be to his benefit six years later.

Eichmann was born in Germany in 1906, and at a young age he moved with his family to Austria. A few years later he joined the ranks of the Nazi party, returned to Germany, and quickly moved up the ladder, until he was promoted to head of the Gestapo's Jewish Department. His main role was to ensure the implementation of the program to exterminate the Jews – "The Final Solution."

At the end of the war Eichmann was captured by the US Army without them knowing his identity, but he succeeded in escaping. He moved with his family to South America, and ultimately settled in Argentina under the false name "Ricardo Clement." Some 12 years after the end of World War II information began to reach Israel, according to which the senior Nazi officer was living a peaceful life in Buenos Aires.

"In 1957 Eichmann's son began a romance with a young Argentinian woman," says former Mossad man and close friend of Tuly, Avner Avraham. "Eichmann didn't know that the young woman's father was half-Jewish and a Holocaust survivor. When the father realized that it was Eichmann, he passed the information to Dr. Fritz Bauer, who was the attorney general in Frankfurt, and he passed it on to Dr. Felix Shinnar, who was head of the reparations program and managed the negotiations on the issue with Germany. Shinnar was the one who reported this to the Mossad.

"Around a year later the Mossad tried to locate Eichmann, and was helped by the police captain Ephraim Elrom Hofstaedter, who later became the Israeli consul-general in Turkey and was murdered by a Turkish terrorist organization. Hofstaedter came for a conference in Argentina, and after a short examination came to the conclusion that Eichmann couldn't possibly be living in the country. A year later Bauer himself came to Israel, and in a meeting with the head of the Mossad he supplied extra information – a picture of Eichmann with his fake name, Ricardo Clement." Only afterwards, Avraham emphasizes, did Operation Finale begin.

The first to head out to Argentina was the Mossad agent Zvi Aharoni, who reached the Eichmann family home on Garibaldi Street in February 1960 and photographed Eichmann. He sent the pictures for tests with the Israel Police, who determined, according to the ear structure, that it was indeed the Nazi criminal. The Mossad squad that had been sent to Argentina tracked Eichmann and learned his daily movements. On May 11, May 1960 they ambushed him next to a bus stop and captured him.

At the beginning Eichmann stuck by his false name, but during his interrogation, when he was asked his personal number in the SS, he recited the numbers fluently.

On the morning of May 22, 1960, Avraham says, Eichmann was brought to Israel, and his trial began in April 1961.

Like many in the young State of Israel, Zacklilkowsky and his son Tuly also listened to the accusations of the chief prosecutor, Gideon Hausner. Eichmann was found guilty of all 15 counts against him, and in December 1961, over the course of three days, his verdict was read to him. The sentence was death by hanging. The State of Israel decided that, after his hanging, Eichmann's body would be cremated and his ashes would be scattered at sea outside of Israel's territorial boundaries.

In April 1962, five months after the death sentence was handed out, Zacklilkowsky returned home at the end of a day working at the factory, and in his mailbox there was an invitation to a meeting with Naftali Pat, who had formerly served as the owner of the Mafiot Bakery chain. Already during the trial, representatives of the state had approached Pat and asked him to identify a professional who could build an oven the size of the human body.

"He was interested to know if I could build an oven with certain specifications," Pinchas says. "I heard the requirements and I said yes." Zacklilkowsky still didn't know what the purpose of the oven was, but when he was told that the oven needed to be able to reach 1,800 degrees Celsius, he understood the meaning of the mysterious request. Apart from him, only three other workers at the factory knew that the oven was designed to cremate Eichmann, including the director Feiglin, and the engineer who designed the oven, Yoel Adar.

For two weeks, Zacklilkowsky labored on building the oven, which was 2.5 meters long and 1.5 meters high. Tuly once said, "he did it in complete silence and in appreciation. Not out of vengeance or because of a grudge. Father built the oven as a citizen and a free person in the State of Israel.

"I don't really know what went through his head. He didn't say and I didn't ask. Did he think about the connection between a cremation furnace and an oven for baking bread? Did he see before his eyes the spirit of his parents, his brother and sister watching how he made for them a sort of monument, memorial or tombstone for the grave that doesn't know its place? And now there's nobody for me to ask."

Mission implausible: The story of the police unit that protected Eichmann (Read More)

At the end of the two weeks, and after then president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi rejected Eichmann's appeal, the execution operation began. Zaklilkowsky was asked to tell his family that on that day he would only arrive in the morning. "Dad was the most senior worker in the factory," Tuly explains, "he served as the work director and the senior welder. He tested all the ovens that before they left the factory. But the police announced at the last minute that a truck would come to the factory in order to take the oven to Ramla Prison, where the execution would be carried out, and my father didn't have time to check the oven. The first. The first tests he did were really close to the cremation of the body."

The walls of the house of Tuly and Yardena in Shikun Dan in Tel Aviv are decorated with the paintings of Tuly, who became an artist. "These are pictures form the period when I was still normal," he says with a smile, hinting at the personal change he went through. "I have severe ADHD, and over the years painting saved me. After my military service in an anti-aircraft unit, I studied art at the Avni Institute of Art and Design. Among others, I studied with the famous painter Yehezkel Streichman, and I put on all kinds of exhibitions."

At the entrance to the home, just outside his studio, are pictures of his family that perished in the Holocaust. "I escaped from every aspect of the Holocaust, and until recently I didn't know these pictures existed," he says. "Only in 2010, after my mother died, I went to the attic of her home and found the pictures."

Apart from the pictures he also found the item that changed his life. He takes out a large, yellowing sheet of paper with multiple folds, with straight pencil lines sketched on it accompanied by measurements in inches. "This is the sketch of the oven that my father built for Eichmann," he says. "The moment I found it, I felt like my father was telling me: 'You will deal with the Holocaust.' From my perspective it was his will. I felt a kind of religious obligation and I entered into the madness of creation."

The height of Tuly's madness came with a special exhibition of his paintings titled. "The Oven – My Mental Burden," which was curated by Arieh Berkowitz, produced by Avner Avraham, and designed by Levi Tzarfati. From Tuly's perspective, the exhibition, which took place at the start of the year at the Tel Aviv Artists House, was part of his personal journey to make sense of his father's and family's pasts. Alongside the exhibition, Tuly made the film The Oven with his son Noam, which was presented around a month ago at the Tel Aviv Cinemateque's Epos Art Film Festival.

The production of the film, which Tuly also funded from his own money, already began in 2012. "One of my goals was to meet the heroes who took part in the operation to execute Eichmann and cremate his body. I wanted to complete the puzzle that I started to piece together around the building of the oven by my father."

Zaklilkowsky completely rejected the feeling of revenge that might have been natural for him. "There is and never will be anything in the world that can grant atonement or vengeance for the terrible horrors that I experienced or saw during the cursed war," he said. "In building the oven I felt a mission to close a bloody chapter of the Jewish people's history."

After Eichmann's body was taken down from the rope, it was placed in the room where the oven was located. "At six in the evening I did the first test and I turned on the oven," Zaklilkowsky said in the same Yom HaShishi interview. "Yes, he burned nicely." According to him, it was an especially cold night for the season. A few prison wardens and policemen put Eichmann in the oven. "I was his feet hanging out," he described, "so I took a hoe, pushed him inside, and closed the door. For me it was a major effort."

According to instructions, it was forbidden for Holocaust survivors to take part in the execution of Eichmann, out of a fear that they would take the law into their own hands, but since Zaklilkowsky was the one who built the oven, he was allowed to remain in the room during the cremation and to supervise the whole process.

After the body was cremated, Eichmann's ashes were placed inside a jug, and at 4:30 in the morning it was taken to a boat that was anchored at Jaffa Port. "I was amazed to see how little ashes remained of a person," Goldman says in the film. "At the same moment, I was reminded of my time as a prisoner at Auschwitz. We already knew that there were cremations. When I came close to the [crematorium] building, there was a mountain of ashes and we understood that it was the ashes of human beings. They gave us wheelbarrows, and they told us to fill the wheelbarrows and to scatter the ashes among the paths belonging to the SS officers.

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"At that moment, when I stood by the oven, I understood how many thousands of bodies were in the mountain of ashes at Auschwitz. It shocked me. I will never forget that moment. We went to the edge of the boat. We bent over, we turned over the jug and we spilled the ashes onto the waves. That same moment I said, "so shall all the enemies of Israel perish," and someone said 'amen.'"

"In any case dad said something," Tuly adds, "he described how after Eichmann's body had been cremated he left the prison complex, and when he looked back, there in the cold night, with the barbed wire fences of the prison and the ashes rising from the great oven, he was reminded of Buchenwald."

Tuly is currently dealing with Parkinson's disease, which first appeared while he was working on the film. "Until recently I hid my shaking left hand, but recently I decided to stop the deception. Who knows? Maybe I ended this journey at greater peace, both with my father and with Parkinson's," he says with a smile.

Q: Will you continue to deal with the Holocaust in your paintings?

"Yes, it's a subject that's close to me. The craft of painting is suitable for the message that I want to deliver. I don't sign the paintings and I don't sell them. I don't feel that the paintings are really mine. From my perspective, it's not a mission but the work of a lifetime."

".

The post 'I lit the oven, put the body in, and that was that. All I did was turn Eichmann into ashes' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

A young woman hospitalized after being raped and violently attacked by her husband was recently rescued by nongovernmental Jewish organization Yad L'Achim.

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"Rebecca," 18, grew up in a Haredi household in the south of the country. Her parents divorced when she was five years old, and by the age of 15, she was living on the streets.

Rebecca met with Sari Laufer, a social worker with Yad L'Achim, after her friend contacted the organization, who offered her support.

Shortly after their meeting, Rebecca stopped communicating with Laufer. She had met a man from an Arab village in Samaria who was 20 years her senior. The two married and she moved in with him. Laufer continued to try and contact Rebecca, but with no success up until a few days ago.

Rebecca had called Laufer and informed her she was hospitalized in Jerusalem and was suffering from lacerations after being raped and physically abused by her husband.

"I rushed to the hospital," Laufer said, "and there I heard from Rebecca that since her husband watched her all the time and even slept with her in the hospital bed, she did not reveal the real reason she asked for medical treatment. And now that he had left on a few errands, she took the opportunity to call me."

Rebecca told Laufer she was frequently subjected to violence from her husband and explained to her that her husband had told her she could not leave him.

"I realized that if she return to this village with him, it could end in murder. So I called one of the security people from the organization, and together, we contacted the hospital staff for help," Laufer explained.

"If we hadn't acted quickly, it may have ended in disaster," she said.

The two contacted the head nurse and the director of the hospital ward and explained Rebecca's delicate and complex situation, and the staff helped her escape. "We agreed that the head of the ward would tell the husband his wife needed to have emergency surgery and that up until then, he must avoid making any visits," she said.

The next day, the man accompanied Rebecca as she was brought into the operating room to supposedly undergo surgery. He later heeded the doctor's advice and left the room. Yad L'Achim and hospital security took advantage of his absence to smuggle Rebecca through the hospital basement and underground hallways to an emergency exit. From there, she was taken to a safe house where she remains. When the husband returned to the hospital, he was surprised to learn his wife had disappeared and tried to find out where she had fled to. Ultimately, though, he sent Rebecca a message informing her that from his perspective, she was divorced.

Yad L'Achim plans to hold the man accountable for his actions despite a legal issue that could complicate the situation, the organization said.

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Did the events that gave us the Hanukkah holiday 2,000 years ago shape Jewish religious culture as we know it today? Lessons about the history of the Jewish people in general and the Hanukkah events in particular tend to focus on the Hasmonean leadership and other notable figures of that era. But a new book based on archaeological findings attempts to portray the day-to-day lives of the regular people who lived at the time of the Second Temple and how the Maccabees' victory and the Hanukkah miracle influenced the Jewish population in the Land of Israel at that time.

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"I'm not a historian or a researcher of Jewish history. I examine [archaeological] finds and in this case, Jewish culture according to archaeological discoveries," says Professor Ronny Reich, a former lecturer at the University of Haifa and author of the new book Everyday Life: The daily life of the Jewish community in the Eretz Israel in the Late Second Temple Period in Light of Archaeological Finds (published by Pardes, Hebrew only).

According to Reich, the success of the Hasmonean revolt against the Seleucid rule – which happened mostly as guerilla warfare – poses a challenge for modern archaeologists. After the Maccabees wrested control of the land from the hands of the Greeks, many of the buildings that had been destroyed were rebuilt and it has been difficult to find evidence of them in archaeological excavations. However, Reich says that discoveries made in recent years have been more helpful in revealing how the priest Mattathias and his sons influenced Jews' lives in the period following the events that inspired Hanukkah. 

The revolt against the Greeks began in 168 BCE and 16 years later resulted in the founding of the Hasmonean dynasty, which would go on to rule the land for close to 80 years. According to Reich, "When the Hasmonean dynasty rose to power, we see much stricter religious observance. In my opinion, this was the start of Jewish culture as we know it and had many expressions." 

One example Reich cites is the mikveh, which he researched for his doctoral dissertation. "Maintaining purity as a religious rite, linked to entering the Temple and the Mount of Olives, starts in the time of the Hasmoneans. Jews, who needed places to purify themselves, built these sites. There are no archaeological remains that show that purification facilities, mikvehs, existed in earlier times." 

Another possible indication of more stringent Jewish religious observance after the events of Hanukkah is the matter of pictures and sculpture, which could be a backlash to the Greeks' decrees about idolatry. 

"In Jewish communities, there is almost no depiction of people or animals because of the Second Commandment, 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.' We don't see this in excavations of Jewish communities, in contrast to the non-Jewish communities discovered in the region," Reich says. 

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Reich says that pilgrimage to the Temple also gained in popularity under the Hasmoneans. "The story of the defiling of the Temple and its rededication strengthened the subject of pilgrimage and the Temple as the Jewish people's only place of worship. This is unique to the Jewish religion. The Romans, when one temple got too crowded, simply built another one." 

In his new book, Reich explains that increased emphasis on pilgrimage to the Temple can be seen in the large number of cooking vessels used by pilgrims found discarded on the outskirts of the city, as well as the large number of animal bones they threw away. "Not pig bones, of course," Reich stresses. 

In another development under the Hasmoneans, import of wine produced by non-Jews was stopped, another indication of increasingly stringent adherence to Jewish law about the production and consumption of wine. "[Wine] imports ended. The drastic drop in appropriate jugs [found] is proof of this," Reich says.

History tells us that many Jews, prior to the events of Hanukkah, adopted Greek religious practices, and that the Hellenistic culture left its marks on the Jewish people. But when it comes to how, or if, that was expressed in the period following the Maccabees' victory, Reich says in his book, the question remains unanswered. 

"In my opinion, the question of buildings that were used for leisure in the spirit of the Hellenistic culture remains unsolved. Activities that took place there in the Hellenistic world were far from the religious character of the Jewish population, and even opposed to it. It should be noted that currently, we know about them only from the letters of Joseph Ben Mattityahu [Josephus Flavius], and have not unearthed any real archaeological remnants of them," Reich says. 

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A matchmaking initiative has recently been launched for ultra-Orthodox IDF soldiers by the Netzah Yehuda Association that supports Haredi fighters throughout their service.

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"There is a stigma that Haredim who serve in the military are only interested in clubs and girls, but that is not the case," said Yehuda Shapiro, who overlooks the association's lone soldier department. "Most of them are God-fearing and would also like to get married."

Shapiro explained that the demand for such an initiative came as a result of a growing number of ultra-Orthodox youngsters who choose to get drafted into the military instead of learning Torah full-time, as is common in the community.

"And just as there are Haredi young men who do not want to study full-time, but to serve in the military and enter the job market, so too there are young women who are still ultra-Orthodox but have chosen to pursue an academic degree and are looking for someone who shares their interests. Not everyone wants a husband who learns full-time," he said.

Shapiro and associates set up matches through special Whatsapp groups where the information of young men and women is shared. The service is available for current and former soldier of the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion.

Shapiro estimated that besides spearing heartache for soldiers who would otherwise have to turn to traditional Haredi matchmakers, the initiative would also lead to an increase in marriages.

"Instead of a soldier arriving at a date and realizing that his match is far from thrilled about his service in the IDF, there will be much better initial matches that will increase the chances of getting married," he said.

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Just before Omer gets out of the car to board a bus that will take him from Afula to the Shizafon Armored Corps base where he serves, his father, Eran, asked him if he remembered to polish his boots. No, this isn't a scene from a film or a TV series – it's part of a series of short films in which Eran Schuster documents his life as the father of an IDF combat soldier in an attempt to reach out to other parents whose children are about to be drafted.

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A few months ago, the IDF launched a social media project called "A Brother Who Knows," in which men and women serving in combat role offered a peek at combat life in tanks, artillery, and infantry, to encourage enlistment in these branches of the ground forces.

Now the IDF has continued the initiative with a project called "A Parent Who Knows," in which parents share their lives as mothers and fathers of men and women in combat roles to help assuage the concern of other parents whose children are beginning their army service.

The parents participating in the project underwent special training in which they learned about social media and content creation. They initiate their own ideas about what to document, whether it's filming them taking a son to the train station or meeting a daughter who comes home on leave.

Galit Cohen, whose son, Re'em, serves in the Duchifat Battalion in the Kfir Brigade, says, "The desire to reach out to other parents and by doing so help them through a challenging time is very satisfying. I'm happy I have the ability to serve as an anchor for other parents, and as a group to influence and help every family we can."

Schuster, whose son is about to finish his basic tank training, said, "I wanted to be part of the team, given the personal challenge of a son enlisting in the IDF … I want to have an effect on other parents who are going through the same process I am."

The person behind both these ideas is head of campaigns in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, Yuval Horowitz.

"This is the first initiative of its kind, and was built especially for parents of young people who are about to be drafted into combat roles," Horowitz explains.

"We concluded that it's not only the youth who need guidance before enlisting – their parents do, as well, since they don't always know how to help their children ahead of the draft. They also need tools, advice, and mentoring at every stage of the draft," he adds.

"Guidance not only on the big things, but also little tips about what to bring to the induction base, how to pack a bag, and mostly to help dispel their fears. The internet is full of information that isn't always correct or accurate, so it was important to us to be there not only for the kids, but also for their parents," he says.

According to Schuster, "It's a great privilege to be part of the team of 'IDF combat parents,' a team that tries to see military service from a parent's perspective. I feel it's really important to share, to interest, and to help parents whose children are about to be drafted understand in the most honest and direct way how to make it through the challenges they will be facing as parents of combat soldiers."

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Can an observant woman who has depression listen to music on Shabbat, and can a Jewish man eat bread on Passover if he is recovering from an eating disorder?

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What about a person who has suicidal thoughts while he engages in prayer?

A new institute seeks to answer those types of questions, with the goal of resolving conflict that could emerge when Jewish life and mental health interact.

The Maagalei Nefesh ("Circles of the Soul") institute was set up by Beit Shemesh-based Rabbi Yoni Rosensweig, who has written books on how Halachah and mental health can go together, and Nadav Ellinson, the co-founder of the startup Intelligo Group

"The classical approach is that rabbis need to focus only focus on mental issues because it is assumed that they already know all about Halachah, but that is not true. Rabbis that don't know how to reconcile Halachah with treatment, despite their well intentions, could cause harm," Rosensweig said.

The institute they formed seeks to give rabbis the proper tools to combine both worlds so that they would be able to give correct advice to those struggling with mental issues in their community.

Ellinson, who made aliyah from Australia 8 years ago, felt that despite having a successful high-tech company, he wanted to add more meaning to his life. "I saw all the suffering and stigma that comes with those who struggle with mental issues and after conducting a quick review of the lay of the land, I saw that there was a lot to do in the religious world in that context, so, having already known that Rabbi Rosensweig wanted to build such an institute I approached him and we decided to get moving."

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For most people, the Golan Heights is wonderful for hiking, camping, dipping in chilly springs, and for resting and relaxing at the many bed and breakfasts in the area. For 13-year-old Omer Skolnik, however, the Golan Heights is fertile ground for his favorite hobby – finding historical artifacts, which is exactly what he did this week in an old Syrian army bunker.

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"For as long as I remember myself, I've had this amazing hobby of collecting artifacts," he said. "In recent years, it's developed in the direction of collecting military artifacts."

At the age of 10, he received a metal detector as a gift, and ever since he has been exploring new places, mostly historic battlefields, in search of items that can possibly shed a little light on history.

Skolnik lives in Nes Ziona and will soon enter eighth grade. One of his favorite sites to explore is an old First World War-era battlefield that saw forces from New Zealand, which fought under the Egyptian army, battle soldiers of the Ottoman Empire.

"I live next to a battlefield, and sometimes I go there with my dad or friends to look for interesting artifacts. Up until today, I've found buttons from British military uniforms and mainly old ammunition. Whatever I find I preserve and post online, and along the way, I reveal the history and learn about it myself. Even when we fly abroad, I prepare a map in advance and mark all the places we can go and look for interesting items," he said.

Last week, Skolnik and his family vacationed in the northern Golan Heights, and this time, too, he prepared a list of the places he planned to explore. "During preparations for the trip, I found a spot near the IDF Armored Corps' Revaya base in the area of Trump Heights, which was described as a Syrian bunker. We hiked in the area and eventually started exploring the bunker. At first, we didn't find it, but that's common because sometimes the openings are small and hidden," Skolnik said.

"Inside [the bunker] there was a lot of stuff, actual time capsules. We found the remnants of a hat, pieces of uniform with bloodstains, razor blades, bottles and numerous documents, one of which was dated to 1973," he continued.

Skolnik kept the documents and began the task of translating them with the help of people online and Arabic-speaking relatives.

"Based on the translation, we understood [one of the documents] was apparently written by a Syrian doctor, which contained a long list of medicines he asked the Syrian army to supply to the bunker," said Skolnik. In his estimation, the bunker was likely used by the Syrian army to concentrate and treat wounded Syrian troops.

"Exploring and researching places are two things that interest and excite me," Skolnik added. "I read and am interested in history, and I have a huge library in my bedroom with more than 200 history books. It's hard turning a hobby into a profession, but I want to be a historian. I hope I succeed."

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We all know about agencies for actors, athletes or models. However, a wholly different and first-of-its-kind agency was recently established – this time for members of the Mossad, the Shin Bet security agency, and other clandestine organizations in Israel and across the globe, with the aim of advising Hollywood film producers, actors and directors making spy movies.

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"A short while after the COVID crisis erupted, I got the idea to establish an agency," Avner Avraham, who served as a Mossad agent for 28 years, told Israel Hayom.

Discussing how he began recruiting people to launch his agency, Avraham said, "I have many connections in Israel and abroad. I reached out to interesting individuals from the world of security and espionage and they joined me."

The agency, named SPYLEGENDS, has signed many former Mossad, Shin Bet, IDF and Israel Police officials, such as former Shin Bet chief Yaakov Perry, former Mossad deputy director Ilan Mizrahi, former Mossad agents Yola Reitman and Mishka Ben-David, former IDF deputy chief of staff Maj. Gen. (ret.) Matan Vilnai and others, including from foreign intelligence services, such as former CIA agent Robert Baer.

Avraham, 54, who at the tail end of his Mossad career established the agency's museum and served as its director, was the chief consultant for the film "Operation Finale" about the capture of Adolf Eichmann, starring Ben Kingsley.

"I was approached several times with offers from film and television productions that came across the agency's website," recounts Avraham, "asking me to connect them with the right people to advise and help them with the details and look professional and credible on-screen."

According to Avraham, he cannot reveal what movies his company is advising. "Some movies are finished and others are in production. We are signed on non-disclosure agreements, so I can't elaborate on that," he says with a smile befitting someone who has spent a career keeping secrets.

With that, it's important for Avraham to note that beyond providing consulting services for Hollywood productions, his company also provides other services. "We give lectures in Israel and abroad, hold exhibitions, advise spy museums and commercial companies, promote the commemoration of the Holocaust and [legacy of] Zionism, sell lecture series to Jewish communities in the Diaspora, and we've even begun working with gadget stores in the United States."

Alongside former members of intelligence and security agencies, SPYLEGENDS also employs journalists, authors, screenwriters and actors and even family members of former spies and security officials.

"Avraham Cohen, who is the brother of Mossad hero Eli Cohen, also lectures within our framework. As does Michelle Bineth, the daughter of Max Bineth, who committed suicide in Egyptian prison; or Yossi (Yossele) Schuchmacher, who was kidnapped as a child by his grandfather and taken to New York and later returned by Mossad agents at the behest of [Israel's first prime minister David] Ben-Gurion."

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Among the 2,673 Israeli troops killed during the fighting, there was also a female soldier: Niva Shaul.

Shaul was born in Mishmar Hanegev, a kibbutz in southern Israel that her parents helped found. "She was a quiet girl that always got her way, but did so quietly," her mother said after the war in a special memorial film. "She loved to dance and sing, her friends loved her and she knew how to listen and dispense advice," the mother continued.

In 1968, Shaul started serving in the Israel Defense Forces as a stenographer. During her service, she also met her partner, Benny, who was an aircraft maintenance technician, and following her discharge, they moved to central Israel. She would later start working at a travel agency that catered to tourists in Israel. "They were looking to move into a new apartment, but then the war broke out," the mother said.

During the war, she was called into reserve duty because she had the much-needed telecommunications training. On the third day of the war, she joined a convoy that went toward the southern front in the Sinai. After arriving at the main IDF headquarters in Refidim, the convoy was attacked by a squadron of Egyptian MiGs

"She told me they were about to get married and fixed me a chocolate sandwich, and then the bombing began," recalled Yair Yam, who served on the battalion she was embedded with during the war. She was laid to rest in her kibbutz, leaving behind two parents and two sisters. She was posthumously promoted.

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