SAJUR, Israel—It was two years ago, shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, that Yossi Newman and Pinny Rotter were asked if they could help another soldier get a pair of tefillin. At the time, the two residents of Efrat—one a new immigrant from New York and the other who moved to Israel as a child with his family—had been running a volunteer donation center in Efrat since Oct. 8, 2023, seeking to provide soldiers with winter clothing and other items.
But the request for phylacteries—small black leather boxes containing Torah verses traditionally worn during weekday morning prayers by adult Jewish males—gave them an idea.
“This request was the light bulb for the idea to commemorate every soldier fallen in the war,” recounted Newman, 39, who moved to Israel four and a half years ago from New York and settled down in Rotter’s neighborhood in Efrat.
The project they launched—dubbed “A Hug for Heroes,” through the Just One Chesed organization—would commemorate fallen male soldiers with tefillin, and female soldiers with a pair of candlesticks.
Then, as they were trying to figure out how to commemorate the fallen non-Jewish soldiers, Rotter’s son called to tell his parents that his Druze company commander, Maj. Jalaa Ibrahim, 25, of Sajur, had been killed in Gaza.
“He was the best company commander I ever had,” Yishai Rotter, 23, told JNS. “I went to the funeral and told my parents, as they would obviously want to know what had happened.”
His father immediately sprang into action, cold-calling the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, whom he had seen on TV at the funeral, and told him about the commemorative project.
The Druze leader suggested that artwork would be the most appropriate method of commemoration for their community, and so the idea of portraits for the fallen Druze soldiers was born.
The two Israeli-Americans next reached out to New York artist George Wolberg, who they commissioned to draw the portraits based on photos provided by the family members. The first portrait was presented to Jalaa’s family last year, and an additional 15 were presented at a ceremony in Sajur on Monday.
The portraits arrived in Israel only recently, having been delayed by the 12-day war against Iran in June.
A mystic sect that broke away from Shi’ite Islam in the 11th century, the Druze trace their spiritual lineage and ancestry to the Biblical Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, and are considered heretical by Sunni Islam, with radical Islamic groups targeting them, most recently in Syria.
More than 150,000 Druze live in Israel, mostly in the Galilee, representing about 1.6% of the population, according to figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
Fiercely loyal to the country in which they live, most Israeli Druze men serve in the IDF, where they excel and have long been known for their high rate of enlistment in combat units.
Jalaa was a fourth-generation soldier.
At Monday’s ceremony, former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi spoke of a bond formed between the Jewish people and the Druze more than 3,000 years ago.
“It is very important for me to be here today,” he told the crowd at the packed event. “All of the people we are commemorating today received a very good education in your homes.”
“Nations are judged not just by their military prowess, but by their ability to remember their fallen soldiers,” said Ramzi Halabi, chairman of Bet Yad Labanim to the Druze Fallen. “It is our duty to carry on their values in our lives.”
He noted that 445 Druze have been killed in Israel’s wars.
“We defend our home out of a sense of belonging, not out of comfort,” said Sajur Mayor Jabber Hamud. “We are proud to live in the Jewish state. We expect that the decision-makers embrace us with actions and not just words, like the people of Israel do.”
Jalaa’s brother, Bahaa, 43, who served as emcee at the gathering, said that the organization led by the Israeli-Americans put their finger on just that unity.
“They understood that the supreme mission is to unify and carry on together,” he told JNS.
‘Life-changing experience’
Since launching their project, more than 350 commemorations have been held, including some 300 pairs of tefillin, scores of candlesticks, and the 16 artworks, all based on donations.
“As an immigrant who came before the war, it has been life-changing to know that we can offer some level of comfort,” Newman told JNS at the ceremony.
“I haven’t digested Oct. 7 yet because we’ve been so caught up in helping,” added Rotter. “Since the beginning of the war, we have carried the memory of the fallen, and we will continue to honor their bravery every step of the way.”
One by one, the Druze family members were called up to receive their fallen son’s portrait, and the room was suddenly filled with the image of mothers and fathers clasping the portraits in their hands.
