Israel Independence

Friday, Oct. 6, 2023 was Shelly Shem Tov’s 51st birthday. It was a perfect day. “We woke up in the morning and went to Jerusalem. We ate and drank and laughed, and I was very grateful. On the way home, I looked at the sky and said, ‘Thank you, G-d. I have everything I need.” That “everything” meant Mikey, her husband of 30 years; daughter Danna, 27; and sons Amit, 24, and Omer, almost 21. They live together in the upscale city of Herzliya on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.

It is somewhat surprising that Hila Novat has become a leading figure in the pro-Zionist scene at CSU in Fort Collins. She is Israeli-American and has served in the IDF. But after Oct. 7, 2023, she laid low, trying to protect her mental health. It was her first year on a new campus, in a new state. But two things started weighing on her. First, the mis- and disinformation campaigns on campus. “A loud minority was becoming the majority of people hating us for things that aren’t true,” she says.

For one soldier identified for security reasons as O, the dream began years ago while watching Israel’s Independence Day ceremony from abroad, where her diplomat parents were posted. “I always watched the ceremony even when I lived abroad,” said O, who now serves in the IDF’s Behavioral Sciences Unit. “I would sit with my grandparents. It was their favorite part of the year.”

Michal Peer’s job is not one most people could ever do. As a forensic anthropologist, she examines human remains to help try and identify to whom they belonged. In what could only be described as a macabre twist of fate, her first day of employment at Israel’s Abu Kabir Forensic Institute was Oct. 8, 2023.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is an enigma. On one hand, the IDF is a powerful, no-holds-barred, get-the-job-done military machine. At the same time, the IDF is human, striving to be compassionate whenever it is safe to do. This dichotomy poses a challenge to the IDF’s mission, often difficult to navigate. Gadi Ezra, an Israeli lawyer and diplomatic advisor, experienced this first-hand when he served in the IDF Special Forces in Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza in 2008, three years after Israel evacuated Gaza and handed it over to the Palestinians.

An excerpt about a trip to Israel after Oct. 7 from Jeff Myers’ memoir, Should Christians Support Israel? Myers earned a PhD from DU and is president of Summit Ministries based in Colorado.

Almost immediately after Oct. 7, local Jewish agencies began organizing. And elsewhere in the intermountain region, where the infrastructure did not exist for an immediate response, it didn’t take long for local community activists to activate. The IJN speaks to Dan Berger of the newly formed Idaho Israel Alliance.

Last summer, when Carol Ann Schwartz of Cincinnati was elected national president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, she was set to lead the organization through its planned expansion of Hadassah Hospital’s services and facilities in Israel. The future looked rosy.

Four young adults — Shinshinim — have been making the rounds in Denver since last August. They are relatively in concert on a number of topics; they like Colorado’s four seasons, and they are not totally sold on the food scene here.

JEWISHcolorado’s Israel and Overseas Center is directed by Edina Segal, whose personal journey and connection to Israel makes her perfect for such a position.