Janina Naskalska-Babik, 42, who was dressed for summer and had not expected such a religious group, quickly put on a jacket from her bag out of respect.

“In other circumstances, we would likely have never spoken to each other,” Naskalska-Babik told JNS, noting the unusual encounter between the men in black hats and sidelocks and a shiksa, the Yiddish term for a non-Jewish woman.

But the unlikely tour guide had something they wanted: information about their ancestry and relatives buried at the site in Plaszów, on the outskirts of Krakow, before the Nazis destroyed it during the Holocaust—records she had painstakingly researched and digitized.

Naskalska-Babik accompanied them to the barren hill, where only one intact Jewish gravestone remains from the cemetery where thousands were buried, and guided them to the likely burial site of their relatives so they could recite the Jewish mourner’s prayer, Kaddish—the purpose of their visit.

“It gave me a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction to do something for others who are so different from yourself,” she said.

Studying a hidden history

It was a decade and a half earlier that the tour guide first became interested in Jewish history after studying to become a licensed city guide.

She was stunned to learn, almost in passing, that Krakow had been one-quarter Jewish before World War II, with nearly its entire Jewish population decimated in the Holocaust.

“It came as a shock to me that there was so much history I wasn’t told about,” she said, noting that Jewish history was not part of Poland’s educational curriculum at the time.

She enrolled in courses at the Jewish Historical Institute, then became determined to visit the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem and learn Hebrew.

After returning home, and while stuck at home during the COVID pandemic with two young children, she pursued an online master’s degree in Jewish studies at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University and set out to write a meaningful thesis.

She began guiding small groups around the mostly barren site of the Nazi camp at Plaszów—which since the Communist era has been used as a public park, although a museum is scheduled to open there next year—where officials told her they had extensive archival material on the two Jewish cemeteries that had existed there before the war but no one to focus on the research.

The camp, immortalized in the 1993 Academy Award-winning film Schindler’s List, was built in 1942 on the grounds of two former Jewish cemeteries that the Nazis forced imprisoned Jews from the Krakow Ghetto to demolish.

Today, two monuments honoring the camp’s 6,000 Holocaust victims, the lone surviving prewar Jewish gravestone, fragments of others, a restored monument marking the grave of Bais Yaakov founder Sarah Schenirer, who was buried there in 1935, the original building of the Jewish Burial Society (Chevra Kadisha), and the house where notorious S.S. commandant Amon Göth lived dot the green landscape.

Discovering the lost past

Getting to work, the tour guide used local death records to compile a list of 9,100 Jews buried in the cemeteries before the war and digitized the information in both a book and an online database, where the New York Hasidim who sought her out last month found details about their relatives.

“The research was a little melancholy,” she confessed, “but I felt as if I was with them.”

Her family was convinced that her interest in Jewish history was “a short-term fascination” that would eventually pass.

(“Are you still counting the Jews?” her young daughter once asked while watching her work through the database.)

But it did not.

She is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Jewish studies, and in addition to her city tours, leads specialized tours focusing on Jewish women and Krakow’s mezuzah trail, tracing the small decorative cases affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes.

“When you uncover these names, it’s like meeting these figures, and it gives you the energy to go on,” she said.

“These people didn’t know what happened to their ancestors, and this is another stone I can add to their story.”

Presented annually by the Association for Israel Studies, the award recognizes the best book in the field published during the previous calendar year.

While much public discussion has focused on growing divisions between American and Israeli Jews, Ferziger’s award-winning book offers a different perspective, arguing that a relatively small group of American Orthodox rabbis and educators who immigrated to Israel quietly helped reshape the country’s religious landscape over several decades.

Rather than emphasizing ideological rifts between the world’s two largest Jewish communities, Ferziger examines how these immigrants helped shape what he describes as Israeli Moderate Orthodoxy.

The book traces how they established institutions and advanced religious approaches that offered alternatives to both ultra-Orthodox and hardline Religious Zionist models, addressing issues including women’s leadership, pluralism, LGBTQ engagement and academic Jewish studies.

According to Ferziger, the movement’s broader influence became fully apparent only in the 21st century, when Israeli-born students and protégés of those American immigrants emerged as leaders in their own right.

“I am grateful and honored by the recognition that the book has received,” Ferziger said. “The rich and mutually beneficial interfaces between American and Israeli Jewries chronicled in the work offer novel insights that move beyond divisive political and ideological binaries.”

In an interview with JNS in November 2025, after the publication of Agents of Change, he said, “The key to my book is not that the American immigrants transformed Israeli society immediately or directly … The phenomenon I observed is how their impact emerged from an indirect path.

“First, they attracted Israelis to the institutions that they established or led. The Israeli students, in turn, internalized the novel ‘imported’ ideas but then reformulated them, considering their local sensibilities.”

In announcing the award, Association for Israel Studies officials praised the book’s broad historical perspective.

“By following individuals from their educational and religious background and upbringing in the United States through their re-settlement and activities in Israel, as well as placing a plethora of cases and a polyphony of voices, [Prof. Ferziger] provides a persuasive account of a broad, nuanced and multifaceted set of influences over several decades,” the judges wrote.

“This all leads to a convincing case with much potential for further exploring and understanding various long-standing undercurrents in Israeli society, culture and Jewish identity, topics that any student of Israel Studies might find relevant.”

Ferziger is a social and intellectual historian whose research focuses on Jewish religious movements and religious responses to secularization and assimilation in modern and contemporary North America, Europe and Israel. He holds the Samson Raphael Hirsch Chair for Research of the Torah with Derekh Erez Movement at Bar-Ilan University. He is also a senior associate at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and co-convener of the annual Oxford Summer Institute for Modern and Contemporary Judaism.

The 2026 Shapiro Award was shared with Dr. Elizabeth Imber of Clark University for her book Uncertain Empire: Jews, Nationalism, and the Fate of British Imperialism (Stanford University Press, 2025).

The Shapiro Award honors the memory of Israeli sociologist Yonathan Shapiro (1929–1997), one of Israel’s most influential scholars of Israeli society.

Her story was one of many shared on Sunday at a Jerusalem conference examining how Israel’s prolonged wartime reality is reshaping marriage, dating and family life.

As Israel’s war passes the 1,000-day mark, transforming daily life across the country, English-speaking bridal teachers, educators, therapists, rabbis and community leaders gathered to confront a question many young couples are quietly asking: How do marriages survive prolonged uncertainty, repeated reserve duty and trauma?

The conference, titled “Navigating Today’s Realities,” was held at the Nefesh B’Nefesh Jerusalem Campus at Cinema City and organized by the Eden Center in partnership with Nefesh B’Nefesh. The event brought together nearly 200 participants, both in person and online, for discussions on relationships, mental health and Jewish family life.

While not a mental health conference, the gathering reflected how Israeli civil society is adapting in real time to the pressures of war. Speakers addressed challenges that organizers said previous generations rarely faced, seeking practical ways to help couples build resilient relationships under extraordinary circumstances.

Marriage under fire

“Complexity that previous generations never imagined” has become the defining reality for many Israeli families, Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet, founder and executive director of the Eden Center, told JNS.

A sociologist whose research led to the organization’s founding in 2010, Marmon Grumet said there is a growing need for trained female leaders who can help couples navigate an era shaped by war, displacement and emotional strain.

“This conference is the very definition of The Eden Center’s core mission: to strengthen relationships, to break silences by increasing open discussion around intimacy, and to support women’s physical, emotional, and spiritual health throughout the lifecycle. We firmly believe that when you support a woman, you support the entire family. And that is at the heart of Jewish continuity,” she said.

Throughout the conference, speakers emphasized that the emotional impact of the war extends well beyond the battlefield and into homes, relationships and family life.

The human dimension behind the statistics emerged during a panel discussion on marriage during reserve service.

Unterslak, a 26-year-old nurse, spoke candidly about the first years of her marriage to an IDF veteran living with PTSD. She described not recognizing the signs of trauma or understanding the anxiety attacks her husband experienced. Receiving the diagnosis, she said, ultimately came as a relief because it finally explained what they had been experiencing.

Through therapy, the couple learned to recognize the emotional wounds beneath the surface and began rebuilding trust together.

Her story resonated with an audience that included women supporting husbands serving repeated reserve duty during Israel’s current war.

Trauma beyond the battlefield

Dr. Jodi Wachpress reminded participants that trauma cannot simply be left behind.

“Don’t erase what came before,” she said. “We carry it with us. The body stores memory.”

Mental health professionals repeatedly stressed the importance of distinguishing between trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, warning against assuming that every difficult emotional response constitutes PTSD.

Addressing the changing emotional landscape of dating and marriage in Israel, Aliza Gillman presented research showing sharp increases in psychological distress since the war began. According to figures she shared, reported PTSD symptoms rose from 16.2% to 29.8%, anxiety increased from 24.9% to 42.7%, and depression climbed from 31.3% to 44.8%.

“Trauma and PTSD are not the same,” Gillman said. “Understanding the distinction is essential.”

Rather than viewing trauma solely as injury, speakers emphasized that healing can become a source of personal, marital and family growth when appropriate support is available. They explained that prolonged war keeps the nervous system in survival mode, making emotional regulation, communication and healthy relationships significantly more difficult.

‘The lioness holds up the family’

Roni Loeb Richter, a clinical social worker, said the country’s emotional baseline has fundamentally changed.

“We are all in trauma,” she said. “We’re all in the same pond, with a baseline that’s not fine.”

IDF Rabbi Binyamin Zimmerman reflected on the burden carried by reservists’ wives and mothers throughout the war.

“During war, the lioness holds up the family,” he said. “She is a hero.”

“War requires a survival nervous system overwhelm,” he added, noting that every soldier also needs “a place to come home to.”

The conference also featured halachic sessions led by Rabbi Assaf Bednarsh, TED-style presentations and roundtable discussions designed to equip teachers and community leaders with practical tools for supporting couples facing unprecedented challenges.

A recurring message throughout the day was that resilience is not the absence of hardship but the ability to move through hardship together. Speakers encouraged participants to create space for trust, acknowledge grief while fostering hope, and replace criticism with compassion as families continue navigating the uncertainties of wartime Israel.

Building stronger foundations

Closing the conference, Marmon Grumet urged participants to take what they had learned back to their communities.

“These are heavy, complex, and intimate topics—not extras, but the reality of what people are dealing with,” she said, challenging attendees to share two lessons they had learned with two other people.

After the conference, she told JNS that the demands on educators have changed dramatically since Oct. 7, 2023.

“Jewish continuity is not only about whether people get married,” she said. “Bridal teachers and educators are often the first to address questions that no one else has answered, at one of the most vulnerable and formative moments of life. They hold anxiety, confusion, trauma, hope, family pressure, body image, sexual questions, religious aspiration, and sometimes deep pain.

“Since Oct. 7, the reality has changed. We know that couples are entering marriage in a world shaped by trauma, by pornography, by PTSD and other effects of three years of war, and we have to have tools to respond in ways that are sensitive and meaningful.”

As Israel enters another year marked by reserve duty, loss and ongoing security challenges, participants agreed that while the pressures on marriages and families are immense, they are not insurmountable.

With professional guidance, community support and open conversations about trauma and resilience, they said, Israeli couples can build stronger foundations even amid extraordinary circumstances.

It has become the driving force behind a Maccabiah-wide initiative honoring 18 athletes with ties to the Maccabi movement who lost their lives in Israel’s wars. Through sporting events and educational programming across the country, organizers hope participants will return home as ambassadors carrying the stories of these fallen athletes to Jewish communities around the world.

Goren, 49, who has held senior positions in Israel’s tourism industry, has spent much of his career working in various capacities for the Maccabiah, rising to his current position as chairman of Maccabiah Israel in September 2022. While he concedes that he is not an Olympic or Maccabiah-level athlete, he proudly noted that he hurried back to his office for an exclusive interview with JNS after taking part in an open-water swim in the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) held in memory of fallen IDF Capt. Eden Nimri.

Nimri, 22, a team leader in the Artillery Corps’ “Sky Rider” drone unit and a competitive open-water swimmer, was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, at the IDF’s Nahal Oz outpost. By standing guard at the entrance to a shelter, she saved the lives of 17 unarmed soldiers. Before her military service, she represented Israel at the 2014 Mediterranean Cup, the International School Sport Federation’s 2017 World Championships and the 2018 European Junior Open Water Swimming Championships, where she finished 30th.

Sunday’s open-water competition featured 1.5- and 3-kilometer races, but also included a symbolic 170-meter swim—10 meters for each of the 17 soldiers Nimri saved. Her parents, Sharon Yael and Michael, attended the event.

Nimri is one of 18 athletes with ties to the Maccabi movement who lost their lives during Israel’s wars.

“After the 2022 Maccabiah, we decided the Maccabiah couldn’t be just a once-every-four-years event,” Goren said, noting that the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre occurred between the 2022 Games and the scheduled 2025 Maccabiah, which was postponed because of the war with Iran.

Goren, who spent seven months serving in the reserves during the war, said he was proud of the response by Kfar Maccabiah, the Maccabiah organization and the Maccabi World Union in helping those affected by the war.

Kfar Maccabiah, the hotel and conference center in Ramat Gan established by the Maccabi World Union in 1957, opened its doors to approximately 1,000 evacuees from Sderot and Ashkelon.

“We had schools, a nursery school, dogs, birds, and we even built glamping facilities for Nova festival survivors,” he said.

“We realized very quickly that we couldn’t celebrate sports as originally planned—we went back to the drawing board,” Goren said. “We needed to be together, tell the story, and emphasize Israel, Judaism and sport more than ever. We need the Maccabiah more than ever with antisemitism rising in the Diaspora.”

Those discussions took place while Israeli hostages were still being held in Gaza.

“We needed to find a way to make the stories of these athletes part of the Maccabiah without turning it into Memorial Day,” Goren said. “We wanted what happened here to have a lasting impact.”

Maccabiah Games organizers met repeatedly with the families of the fallen athletes, interviewed their friends and teammates, and sought to understand how each person should be remembered.

“We wanted athletes from around the world to connect with the experience and memory of each person who lost their life,” Goren said. “We want every athlete to leave knowing at least three of these stories in a meaningful and lasting way.”

They created a series of round blue commemorative pins, each honoring one of the 18 athletes, continuing the long-standing Maccabiah tradition of athletes exchanging pins. Among them are a soccer ball for Guy Simhi, a surfboard with a microphone for Raz Mizrachi, a heart for Noa Zander and an orange swimmer for Eden Nimri.

Families also identified a favorite food or drink of their loved one—from Milki chocolate pudding to Danone yogurt—which organizers highlighted during the commemorative events.

“We had a story, a pin and a taste to make sure the impact goes on forever—that a light will glow forever,” Goren said.

Following Nimri’s memorial swim, participants toasted her memory with Limoncello and Danone Pro 25 vanilla, two of her favorite drinks.

Among those commemorated was Adi Leon, a Givati Brigade soldier who was killed on Oct. 31, 2023, when an anti-tank missile struck his Namer armored personnel carrier. A longtime member of the Maccabi Tzair youth movement, Leon was also an aspiring electronic music producer who left behind a notebook titled To Be Read After My Death, describing the values that guided his life and military service.

At the Maccabiah, participants listened to Leon’s original music, watched videos of his performances and gathered in a room decorated in the purple colors of the Givati Brigade.

Goren said he is especially proud that each tribute celebrates the athletes’ lives rather than focusing only on their deaths.

“No one can take part in one of these events and walk away unchanged,” he said. “Years from now they’ll still remember these stories. ‘More Than Ever’ won’t just be a slogan—it will stay with them.”

In a statement, SAZF National Chairman Craig Pantanowitz said recent comments by Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi and International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola sought to shift attention away from longstanding domestic problems.

According to Pantanowitz, the Sunday Times, South Africa's biggest Sunday newspaper, reported over the weekend that Kubayi implied Israeli involvement in recent anti-immigrant marches, although she offered no evidence to support the allegation.

He noted that Lamola, responding in May to questions about what he described as a hostile narrative against South Africa, referred to unnamed “state and non-state actors” and linked them to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

“Two senior ministers, the same insinuation, and between them not a shred of proof,” Pantanowitz said.

'Conspiracy theory'

Pantanowitz argued that such claims distract from the government’s failure to address domestic unrest.

“When senior members of cabinet reach for a hidden foreign hand rather than account for a failure at home, and do so months before a local election in which immigration is being openly exploited, it stops looking like a careless remark and starts looking like a habit,” he said.

Pantanowitz said Kubayi herself had acknowledged that elements of the recent anti-immigrant mobilization were linked to local political campaigning and ambitions ahead of municipal elections.

“Every one of those drivers is domestic. None of them is foreign,” he said.

The SAZF chairman also pointed to South Africa’s long history of xenophobic violence, noting that deadly attacks occurred in 2008, 2015 and 2019—years before Pretoria filed its ICJ case against Israel.

“The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights recognizes xenophobia as a longstanding South African problem,” he said. “It cannot have been caused by a court case filed 15 years after the first bodies were counted.”

Pantanowitz said migrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Mozambique had been driven from their homes and businesses in the latest unrest, prompting formal diplomatic protests from several African governments.

“The victims are real and close at hand,” he said. “A conspiracy theory protects none of them.”

Calling on the South African justice minister to either substantiate or withdraw her remarks, Pantanowitz said: “If she has evidence of foreign state involvement in these marches, she must produce it or place it before the appropriate authorities. If she does not, she must withdraw the insinuation. There is no third path that is truthful.”

“Deflection is the easy road,” he added. “It buys the government time. It buys the victims nothing.”

The SAZF represents South Africa’s Jewish community on Israel-related issues and works to strengthen ties between South Africa and Israel through advocacy, education and community engagement.

But 15 of their fellow field observers, or “spotters,” were killed and seven were taken captive by Hamas terrorists and brought to Gaza. Video of the young women being captured—including a Hamas gunman telling one of them, “You are beautiful” as he bound her hands—went viral.

Serving as a field observer is an intelligence role that requires intense concentration and the use of advanced technology to monitor enemy activity. Women almost exclusively fill the position.

Of the seven young women taken hostage, one was rescued by the Israeli military, one was murdered in captivity, and five were held for more than 460 days before being released.

Ben Hagai and Billig said they rarely spoke about what happened on Oct. 7, even though both lost close friends in the attack. After completing their military service, they decided to do something together that would commemorate those who were killed or kidnapped.

They recently opened "Nuli"—a childhood nickname for Billig—a tiny café in central Jerusalem with a sign at the entrance reading: “This business is dedicated to the memory of the operations room (hamal) at Nahal Oz.”

Alongside quality coffee and a small selection of pastries, salads and cakes, the two young women share the story of what happened that day. They also collect donations for a nonprofit organization that supports the Nahal Oz field observers and their families. Handmade pottery and other gifts are also available for purchase.

“First of all, we just want to make people happy,” Ben Hagai said. “Who gets chocolate, coffee and a gift and doesn’t smile?”

Ben Hagai and Billig warmly greet every customer who walks through the door, including several regulars on a recent afternoon. Others stop to ask about the sign dedicating the café to their friends.

Both women say opening the café has become part of their own healing process.

“Because we were so close to so many of those who were killed, I didn’t really like to talk about it,” Billig said.

“It’s hard,” Ben Hagai added. “But I feel that part of my own process of recovering is telling the story of what happened that day.”

Asked whether Israeli society is beginning to forget the events of Oct. 7, nearly three years later, both women paused.

“I think some people really don’t know the story of Nahal Oz,” Billig said. “For others, it’s a reminder of what happened there.”

The two young women hope the world will never forget what happened at Nahal Oz on Oct. 7. And they hope to help keep those memories alive—with good coffee, a pastry and a smile.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, joined Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion and other ministers, lawmakers and public figures at the ceremony at the airport’s historic terminal building in northern Jerusalem.

“In Atarot, we are restoring former glory,” Netanyahu said. “‘Operation Yonatan’ elevated Israel’s standing among the nations as a small country with colossal audacity. Its story will be immortalized in the heritage center we will establish here.”

The center is being established as part of events marking the 50th anniversary of the July 4, 1976 rescue of more than 100 hostages from Entebbe, Uganda, in an operation that claimed the life of Lt. Col. Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal (General Staff Reconnaissance) unit and the prime minister’s older brother.

Preserving a century of history

The heritage center will also tell the story of Atarot, one of the first modern Jewish agricultural communities north of Jerusalem. Founded in 1919, the moshav was destroyed during Israel’s War of Independence after its residents were forced to evacuate in 1948.

Adjacent to the moshav stood Atarot Airport, originally established during the British Mandate more than a century ago. The airport served Jerusalem for decades before permanently closing at the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.

Netanyahu recalled flying through the airport before its closure and said the site represented both Jerusalem’s past and its future.

“The final word regarding the development of Atarot has not yet been spoken,” he said, pledging continued development of northern Jerusalem. “Together, we will restore former glory to Atarot.”

From Entebbe to today

Reflecting on the Entebbe operation, Netanyahu said its success rested on bold leadership, meticulous planning and Israel’s willingness to act far from its borders.

“‘Operation Yonatan’ elevated Israel’s standing among the nations as a small country with colossal audacity,” he said. “The story of the operation, on the ground and high in the skies, will be immortalized in the heritage center we will establish here.”

He also linked the legacy of Entebbe to Israel’s current military campaign.

“Just as the heroism of our fighters in the War of Redemption draws from the heroism of our fighters in Entebbe, so the heroism of Entebbe drew from the heroism of previous generations,” he said.

Looking to Jerusalem’s future

Among those who played a leading role in advancing the transformation of the historic terminal into a museum was Chaim Silberstein, founder and chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP), who has also promoted development of the surrounding Atarot area.

“The ceremony is over—now it’s time to get back to work,” Silberstein told JNS. “What happens on the ground will determine whether we can pass on the heritage of Atarot to future generations alongside a magnificent new 5,000-unit neighborhood on the northern border of Israel’s capital.”

Silberstein said he also spoke with Netanyahu during the ceremony and recalled a conversation years earlier with the prime minister’s late father, historian Professor Benzion Netanyahu.

“Prof. Benzion Netanyahu urged me to continue working to unite and build Jerusalem,” Silberstein said.

“The love for Jerusalem and the commitment to its future are passed down from generation to generation. It is clear that Benzion Netanyahu instilled in his sons a deep connection to Israel’s capital. I am pleased to see that Prime Minister Netanyahu continues his father’s path.”

Palestinian Authority objects

The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem governor condemned the project, claiming it was intended to strengthen Israeli sovereignty in northern Jerusalem, reshape the area’s historical narrative and advance plans for the future Atarot neighborhood.

The P.A. called for international intervention, arguing that the project undermines the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

Israeli officials, however, presented the heritage center as both a preservation project and a cornerstone of Jerusalem’s continuing development, commemorating the city’s pioneering past while looking toward its future.

On the evening of June 24, two powerful earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 ripped through northwestern and central Venezuela just 39 seconds apart, flattening neighborhoods in the coastal state of La Guaira and causing widespread destruction in Caracas. The quakes, among the most powerful to strike the country in more than a century, have killed more than 2,600 people, injured over 12,000 and left an estimated 15,000-16,000 homeless. Officials agree that these numbers are set to grow significantly.

For the Israeli humanitarian volunteers working in the disaster zone, however, the rescue also underscored another reality: Even as search-and-rescue operations continue, the far longer process of caring for survivors has just begun.

One week after deploying to Venezuela following the earthquakes, NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief said it entered a new phase of its mission.

Israeli doctors, nurses and mental health professionals are working alongside local healthcare providers in La Guaira and Caracas, treating survivors while helping hospitals stretched beyond capacity cope with the continuing influx of patients.

The organization announced Thursday that a second team of volunteer professionals is preparing to join the mission, including two physicians, a nurse and two social workers. Their arrival reflects the changing needs on the ground as emergency rescue efforts gradually give way to sustained medical and psychological care.

"Behind every statistic from this earthquake is a family without access to medical care," said Alice Miller, CEO of NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief.

"The scale of this disaster is larger than any single organization can address. What we can do is be present where the need is greatest, in damaged hospitals, in makeshift clinics, in the communities hardest to reach. Our doctors, nurses, psychologists and social workers are doing exactly that."

The inclusion of mental health professionals alongside medical teams has become a hallmark of Israeli disaster response. While broken bones and crush injuries require immediate treatment, survivors often face psychological trauma that can persist long after the physical wounds have healed. Families who have lost loved ones, children displaced from their homes and exhausted first responders all require support as communities begin rebuilding.

Overcrowded emergency departments

Beyond providing direct patient care, NATAN is also preparing for what could become one of its most significant contributions to the recovery effort.

Two senior physicians are being deployed to assess hospitals that have suffered structural damage while struggling with overwhelming patient numbers.

Working together with local hospital leadership, they will evaluate whether to establish an Emergency Ambulatory Surge Extension, or EASE International, a temporary medical facility designed to relieve pressure on overcrowded emergency departments by treating patients with less critical injuries outside the main hospital.

Such facilities allow emergency rooms to focus their resources on critically ill and severely injured patients while ensuring that those with less urgent medical needs continue to receive timely treatment.

Dr. Sharon Shaul, NATAN's medical director, will also accompany an official Israeli engineering delegation traveling to Venezuela in coordination with local authorities. While engineers assess damaged infrastructure, Shaul will serve as the delegation's physician, reflecting the close relationship between engineering and medicine in disaster zones where the safety of healthcare facilities directly affects patient care.

At the same time, NATAN continues to work closely with leaders of Venezuela's Jewish community and other humanitarian organizations operating in the country, helping direct medical resources toward the communities with the greatest need while strengthening local capacity to continue providing care after the Israeli teams eventually depart.

The approach reflects NATAN's long-standing philosophy that successful humanitarian missions are measured not only by the number of patients treated, but by how effectively local healthcare systems are supported during and after an emergency.

That work has become increasingly important as the scale of the disaster has become clearer. Thousands of people remain hospitalized or displaced, while damaged medical facilities continue operating under enormous pressure. Although dramatic rescues such as that of Gil Flores capture international attention, the medical consequences of major earthquakes often unfold over weeks and months rather than days.

For NATAN's volunteers, the mission has evolved beyond emergency deployment. Instead, it has become an effort to help stabilize a healthcare system facing one of the greatest challenges in its history, treating patients in hospitals and temporary clinics while helping local professionals build the capacity needed for the long recovery ahead.

Or even the moment he saw his commander, Lt. Col. Yonatan (“Yoni”) Netanyahu, commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal (General Staff Reconnaissance) unit and the older brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, struck by enemy fire.

He remembers the hostages.

“If there is one thing I need to single out about the operation,” Ilan told JNS in an exclusive interview marking the 50th anniversary of “Operation Entebbe,” “it’s the scene of the hostages when we broke in.”

On July 4, 1976, Israeli commandos flew more than 2,500 miles to Uganda to rescue more than 100 hostages held by Palestinian and German terrorists at Entebbe Airport. The mission became one of the most celebrated hostage-rescue operations in military history.

For seven days, the hostages had lain on the floor of the old terminal at Entebbe Airport. They had barely slept. They had watched armed terrorists and Ugandan soldiers come and go. The deadline set by the hijackers would expire the following morning. Many believed they would not survive the night.

Then the explosions began.

“They instantly believed the time had come and they were about to die,” Ilan recalled. “They tried to cover their children, or just their own faces. Then they saw soldiers bursting inside wearing Ugandan uniforms, which they knew all too well after seeing them throughout the week.”

For one terrifying instant, they froze.

Then they heard Hebrew.

For the hostages, rescue arrived not with the sight of Israeli soldiers, but with the sound of their own language.

“All of a sudden, they started hearing us shouting in Hebrew, directing them to keep lying down and telling them we had come to take them home.”

Fifty years later, it is still their faces that return to him first.

'A very different mission'

He was 21 years old in July 1976, one of 33 Sayeret Matkal commandos chosen for the assault force that would spearhead one of Israel’s most daring military operations. Sitting inside the black Mercedes that would later become synonymous with the operation, designed to resemble the vehicle used by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, he and his teammates were among the first soldiers to storm the terminal and free more than 100 hostages held by Palestinian and German terrorists.

He speaks less about heroism than responsibility. Less about history than about people.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the operation, declassified Cabinet protocols released by the Israel State Archives on June 26 shed new light on the agonizing deliberations that preceded the rescue mission. They reveal a government weighing negotiations alongside military action until almost the very last moment.

But official records cannot capture what it felt like inside the terminal.

Ilan can.

“We realized this was a very different mission right from the moment we came back to the base and heard about it from Yoni,” he said.

The soldiers had already gone home. Their military service was drawing to a close when they were suddenly called back to base.

None of them imagined Uganda.

Even after boarding the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, many remained convinced the mission would never happen.

Back in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government was still debating whether to negotiate with the hijackers or authorize an operation that would send Israeli commandos more than 2,500 miles into hostile territory.

The aircraft took off anyway.

The plan was to fly as far as Ethiopian airspace with enough fuel to turn back if approval never came.

‘If we don’t do it, nobody else will’

Before the planes departed from Sharm el-Sheikh in Sinai, then under Israeli control, Netanyahu gathered the commandos one final time.

“He gave a commanding speech of motivation,” Ilan recalled. “He summarized it with the words, ‘If we won’t do it, nobody else will.’”

Nearly five decades later, it is still the sentence that stays with him.

The second leg of the journey lasted about seven hours.

The Hercules flew low for much of the route to avoid radar detection. Inside, the cargo hold remained almost completely dark.

Having barely slept for the previous day and a half, Ilan climbed onto the hood of the Mercedes and fell asleep.

“The loud, boring noise of the C-130 was like a sleep machine,” he said with a laugh.

He slept through the moment the government finally approved the mission.

Someone woke him about an hour before landing.

As Entebbe drew closer, Netanyahu quietly walked the length of the aircraft.

There were no grand speeches.

He simply stopped beside each of the 33 commandos, shook every man’s hand and wished him good luck.

Looking back, it is another powerful image Ilan has never forgotten.

Fifty-three minutes that changed history

Everything that followed unfolded in just 53 minutes.

The Hercules touched down shortly after 11 p.m.

Its rear ramp opened.

The Mercedes rolled onto the runway, flanked by two Land Rovers.

For a few moments, the deception worked.

Then Ugandan soldiers near the control tower challenged the approaching convoy and opened fire.

“The silent approach had exhausted itself,” Ilan said.

“There was no more surprise.”

The commandos leapt from the vehicles and sprinted toward the terminal.

Inside were four terrorists guarding the hostages.

Outside, Ugandan troops had begun returning fire.

The greatest fear had always been that the terrorists would start executing hostages the moment they realized Israeli forces had arrived.

Instead, the assault team reached them first.

Within moments, all four terrorists inside the terminal were dead.

Only then did Ilan allow himself to look at the people lying on the floor.

“Once we secured the hall, understanding that we had killed the terrorists there, meaning no harm could be done to the hostages anymore, and realizing that the great majority of the hostages were alive and well, our tense posture suddenly fell away.”

What replaced it surprised him. Relief gave way to humor.

One bewildered hostage looked up and asked him how they were supposed to get home.

“Did you bring a plane?” she asked.

Even now, Ilan smiles at the memory.

“I told her, ‘What do you think? You want to walk home? It’s a bit far.’”

For a fleeting moment, amid the gunfire and confusion, people laughed.

Outside, the fighting continued.

Israeli forces secured the airport while engineers destroyed Uganda’s Soviet-made MiG fighter aircraft to prevent pursuit.

Somewhere during those frantic 53 minutes, Ilan saw Netanyahu struck by enemy fire.

He knew immediately that his commander had been hit.

What he did not know was that the wound would prove fatal.

Netanyahu was evacuated aboard one of the Hercules aircraft and later died of his wounds en route to Nairobi. He was the operation’s only Israeli military fatality, and the mission, originally named “Operation Thunderbolt,” was later renamed “Operation Yonatan” in his memory.

Four hostages, Jean-Jacques Maimoni, Pasco Cohen, Ida Borochovitch and Dora Bloch, also lost their lives as a result of the Entebbe hijacking

Yet when Ilan thinks back to that night, his thoughts return not to the battle outside, but to the silence that followed inside the terminal.

“Their faces,” he said quietly. “I still see their faces.”

Remembering Yoni

Yoni Netanyahu had commanded Sayeret Matkal for only a few months before the operation. Ilan and his teammates were among the unit’s most senior soldiers, he admits with a smile, and they were not inclined to make life easy for their new commander.

“We were probably judging him every step of the way,” he said.

There simply wasn’t enough time for that relationship to grow.

The operation that made Netanyahu a national symbol also claimed his life.

Today, Ilan believes Israelis know the military hero. Fewer know the man behind the uniform.

“Yoni was, in addition to being a professional and outstanding soldier, a spiritual person,” he said. “Israelis became aware of that when his poems and thoughts were published after his death. Still, I believe that side of him remained more in the shadow.”

Ironically, “Operation Entebbe” is not the mission that left Ilan with the deepest scars.

Long before Uganda, he had already taken part in two hostage rescue operations that ended very differently. In May 1974, Palestinian terrorists seized a school in Ma’alot in the Galilee, killing 25 hostages, including 22 children, during the rescue attempt. The following year, terrorists seized Tel Aviv’s Savoy Hotel, killing eight civilian hostages and three Israeli soldiers after detonating explosives inside the building. Ilan participated in both operations.

“I don’t really have post-traumatic memories from Entebbe,” he said. “We had been through more traumatic events before.”

Entebbe, he said quietly, “went very smoothly.”

Courage beyond the commandos

Perhaps that is why, when asked what history has overlooked, Ilan doesn’t mention the Israeli commandos.

Instead, he speaks about the crew of Air France Flight 139.

When the non-Israeli passengers were released several days before the rescue, Captain Michel Bacos and his crew were offered the opportunity to leave.

They refused.

Knowing they might never leave Uganda alive, they chose to remain with their Jewish and Israeli passengers until the very end.

“For me,” Ilan said, “their bravery has always been overshadowed.”

A different hostage crisis

Nearly five decades later, another hostage crisis unfolded.

This one, Ilan watched from Texas.

On Oct. 7, 2023, his younger daughter was visiting Israel with her American boyfriend. They were staying in the country’s south, near Eilat.

“I woke up and had 10 missed calls,” he recalled.

At first, he assumed Hamas had launched another round of rocket fire. Only gradually did he realize Israel was facing something entirely different.

His daughter made it safely to his apartment in Netanya before returning to the United States two days later.

Others were not so fortunate.

Many people have drawn comparisons between Entebbe and Oct. 7.

Ilan does not.

“I was careful not to equate the Entebbe hostages with those of Oct. 7,” he said. “The reality is completely different.”

Entebbe lasted days.

The hostages taken on Oct. 7 endured captivity measured in months and, for some families, years.

“The times and circumstances were so different,” he said.

Then he paused.

“We were also lucky.”

He recalls what the pilot of the Hercules aircraft reportedly told Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after landing back in Israel.

“God worked overtime today.”

Yet despite everything that has changed over the past half century, Ilan believes one principle has remained constant.

Israel does not abandon its people.

Asked whether that commitment feels any different today than it did in 1976, he answered without hesitation.

“Not at all.

“It is the same promise. The same commitment. The same devotion.”

Preserving the story

For Ilan, preserving that story has become a responsibility of its own.

A decade ago, he joined fellow veterans in publishing Entebbe Declassified, a collection of first-hand accounts written by every participant in the operation, from commandos to pilots. Published by HaMasder, the Sayeret Matkal veterans’ association, the book helps support the organization’s work with at-risk youth, veterans and, since Oct. 7, wounded soldiers, trauma survivors and the widows of unit members.

Asked what he would say to the young commando climbing aboard a Hercules transport aircraft on July 3, 1976, Ilan doesn’t mention history, heroism or sacrifice. His answer is as practical as the act of heading to Uganda on a secret mission because it was simply the right thing to do.

“I’d say, ‘Go do the job. And come back in one piece.’”

The events opened with a gala concert at the library titled “The Sounds of Freedom,” featuring works by two of America’s greatest Jewish composers, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. The Student Choir of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance performed alongside the academy’s Big Band Orchestra in a celebration of American Jewish music.

“America is often referred to as the land of endless possibilities, a place defined by its commitment to liberty, democracy and innovation,” David Brownstein, chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, said at the event. “Tonight, through the music of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein—two Jewish-American giants—we are reminded of the profound contributions that the Jewish community has made to the American tapestry and the enduring bond between our two nations.”

He emphasized the values shared by the United States and Israel.

“Think about the values we share: the belief in human dignity, the pursuit of justice and the constant striving for a more perfect union,” Brownstein said. “These are not just American or Israeli values; they are universal aspirations that unite us. As we celebrate this milestone, let us also celebrate the vibrant, multifaceted friendship that continues to grow and flourish between the United States and Israel.”

Because Independence Day falls on Shabbat this year, the National Library has extended the celebrations into next week.

On Sunday evening, the library will host three Hebrew-language lectures on American history and society. Dr. Ronny Regev of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will speak on “Not Every Vote Counts: Voting Rights and American Democracy”; Nettanel Slyomovics of Tel Aviv University will discuss “American Assassins: When Violence, Politics and Culture Collide”; and Professor Gad Yair of the Hebrew University will present “Loneliness in America: A Contemporary Epidemic or a Deep-Seated Cultural Trait?”

Before and after the lectures, visitors will be able to join guided tours of a display featuring maps, books and historical American artifacts.

The library will also host an English-language panel on the American Jewish experience, examining the history of Jewish life in the United States, the issues shaping the community today and the challenges it may face in the future.

Panelists include Rabbi Abi Dauber Sterne, educator and author; Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States; and Felicia Sol, rosh kehillah (community leader) of B’nai Jeshurun in New York.

Chaim Meir Neria, curator of the library’s Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection, told JNS that Jewish life in North America predates American independence.

“For example, there is Haym Salomon, whose signature we have on a ketubah [Jewish marriage contract], who helped finance George Washington’s war against the British,” he said. “The big wave of Jewish immigration came much later, but Jews had an impact far beyond their numbers.”

At the time of American independence, Neria said, only a few thousand Jews lived in the United States, out of a population of about 2.5 million.

The National Library also houses a ledger documenting emissaries from the Land of Israel who traveled to the United States in the mid-19th century to raise funds for Jewish communities in Ottoman Palestine.