“Our greatest generation,” Israelis are calling this generation of young people, “the new founding generation.”
From those heroic hours in which people saved others, whom they often didn’t even know, from near certain death at the Nova, to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who served in Gaza and in the North, often at grievous cost, to the many thousands of civilians who already by the afternoon of Shabbat, October 7, had begun to set up civilian command centers, to the young reservists who are founding political parties to afford Israel a new start—it seems there’s no need that many young Israelis are not determined to fill.
Today, we hear about yet another angle, from two young Israelis who realized that Israeli souls had to be saved not only at the Nova, not only in Gaza, not only in the hospitals or recovery units, but far away from home, in India.
What happens when a person travels to India on their proverbial post-army trip and only there experiences symptoms of PTSD? What if the symptoms are so severe that they can’t even figure out how to get home? What if someone else knows they’re in trouble—to whom can they turn?
Enter HA-MAKOM, “The Place.”
Yet another story of Israeli love and care, creativity and devotion—yet another expression of the Israeli sense that we’re all responsible for each other.
For more information about Ha-Makom we invite you to visit their website, here.
Tamar Friedman is a military mental health officer (Kabanit) in the reserves, social worker, rescuer, tour guide, and a musician.
Hezi Shohat is a trauma social worker, search and rescue specialist, and reserve Company Commander.
For our paid subscribers
The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.
For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
During the weeks of January 25th and February 1st, I will be out of the country, and for most of that time, in an area with literally zero connectivity. We will, of course, continue to provide our podcasts for paid subscribers and previews of those podcasts for free subscribers, but there will be fewer other posts.
In the event that there is a dramatic development in Israel (Iran, Gaza or anything else) and we do not post about it, it’s because we may well not even know about it, and even if news does each us, we will definitely not have the connectivity needed to post.
We’ll return to a normal pace and schedule the week of February 8th.
With prayers for quiet and good news ….
