Four English-speaking Israeli writers convened in Jerusalem on Sunday night for a candid discussion on spirituality, creativity and resilience, reflecting on how Oct. 7, 2023, transformed their inner worlds and their work.
The panel, one of several, was part of the first-ever “Book Shuk” at the Nefesh B’Nefesh Aliyah Campus in Cinema City, a literary fair featuring more than 50 olim (immigrant) authors who have written and published their own books since making aliyah, the majority from North America and English-speaking countries.
Some 300 shoppers came to check out the book selection, whose genres included fiction, memoirs, poetry, cookbooks, history, nonfiction, self-help, health and wellness, and children’s books, Nefesh B’Nefesh said.
Titled “Faith in Times of War,” the panel discussion on writing and spirituality following Oct. 7 featured therapist Shira Lankin Sheps, who made aliyah from the United States with Nefesh B’Nefesh, and educator Rachel Sharansky Danziger, co-editors of a new prayer anthology Az Nashir: We Will Sing Again; Gabi Katz, author of Alone with God; and Rabbi Uri Pilichowski, author of Together We Win.
When writing becomes a lifeline
Asked by moderator Gaby Stemp when they realized they had to write their books, the panelists pointed to the shock of the early days of the war. Together, they reflected on how writing can offer clarity, comfort and connection at a moment when ordinary language often fails.
Katz, 27, a South African-born educator who came to Israel from the United States as a lone soldier and whose wartime journals became the basis of his book, said he had sensed immediately that people abroad would need a window into the lived experience of soldiers.
“As soon as I was called up, I felt a responsibility to document my journey,” he said. “Personal moments of fear, faith and connection. People needed inspiration in real time.”
What began as updates for friends and family soon spread far beyond his immediate circle. “My grandmother in South Africa was going through cancer,” he said. “She told me reading my journals gave her strength. That stayed with me.”
For Sheps and Danziger, who began organizing Az Nashir within days of the Hamas massacre, the urgency was palpable.
“So many people said, ‘We don’t have words,’” Sheps recalled. “We felt a responsibility to give them language for their grief, fear and hope.”
Danziger said her shift had been immediate: “Before Oct. 7, I wrote for inner beauty or exploration. Afterward, the motive became responsibility—to write only what could help others endure.”
Women’s voices
Unlike most wartime documentation, often dominated by male soldiers, commanders and politicians, Az Nashir brings women’s experiences to the forefront. Sheps and Danzinger told the audience of several dozen immigrants.
Reflecting on the impact of the massive mobilization of IDF soldiers and reservists, Sheps said, “Cities became cities of women overnight. Men were called up, and women kept the home front running—children, workplaces, communities.”
The anthology includes poignant prayers for women sending husbands and sons to the front, mothers comforting children during sirens, widows, and women serving in uniform themselves.
“Women were carrying the emotional and practical universe at once,” Danziger said. “Their leadership language—collaboration, kinship, compassion—offered a different lens on the war.”
Alone and together
The panel wrestled with the tension between individual trauma and national unity—reflected even in their book titles: Alone with God, Az Nashir, Together We Win.
“How do we balance personal grief with collective solidarity?” Stemp asked.
“We created a communal space built from individual stories,” Sheps answered. “Your loneliness is held within something larger.”
Pilichowski said unity remains Israel’s greatest challenge. “We had a moment after Oct. 7 when unity felt possible,” he said. “But politics returned quickly. I don’t know how we regain that togetherness without courageous leadership.”
Still, he said the core message of his book remains relevant: “We don’t win unless we are together.”
Katz described writing during combat as both difficult and necessary. “In the army, you don’t have much time,” he said. “I wrote at night, before falling asleep. It was my way of processing—not just for myself, but for the people who needed to understand what we were living through.”
Now, reading his journals as a civilian, he said he sometimes feels that he is encountering a different version of himself.
“The passion I had then inspires me now,” he said. “It reminds me why I serve and why we fight for this country.”
The writers said the war changed not only what they wrote, but how they wrote.
“There was a breathlessness to everything,” Sheps said. “People were thirsty—to be seen, to be understood, to have their feelings named.”
Danziger agreed: “Many pieces I wrote, I didn’t publish. I felt they would spread sorrow instead of strength. The responsibility to uplift—not to expose people to more pain—was enormous.”
Pilichowski, who serves as director of Israel Advocacy and Education at Nefesh B’Nefesh, said he had sought to help readers contextualize events historically and theologically.
“Panic comes from the fear of the unknown,” he said. “My goal was to show people that what we’re seeing now fits into a larger story.”
Toward the end, the panelists were asked to recommend texts and books, other than their own, that had sustained them during the war. Their answers ranged from Psalm 91 in the Tanakh to historical works such as Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Yardena Schwartz.
“All offer grounding,” Danziger said. “They remind us that we are part of a story bigger than our pain.”
In closing, Stemp observed that although each writer’s work grew out of a different experience—frontline service, motherhood, prayer, teaching—their shared message points toward resilience.
“These books don’t end the pain,” she said. “But they offer light. And sometimes, light is what gets us through.”
