Yosef Green | Faith on the Front Lines - A Soldier's Story of Emunah | CHAZAQ

Okay, good evening. Welcome everyone to tonight's very special event. We have the great great honor to hear from somebody who was on the front front lines, frontline hero, the IDF soldier. Let's give a round of applause to Yoseph Green. [applause] Before we call upon him, um we're going to be leading off with with some tom with some opening remarks. Of course, it's being presented by Kazak and these are Queen's Valley Queen Link. Of course, give a special thank you to Ruben Paris, the all the rabbis, leadership of the show. Let's give a round of applause. And of course, all the Raan [applause] for hosting and for joining us. Of course, let's give a special thank you to uh Yakos, the Queen, who helped us coordinate. [applause] Of course, his great nephew is going to be um inspiring us um today. And of course um and of [snorts] course Kazak is of course we know organiz different events programming for the community at large events for for men for women for for young and old everyone everyone for to give inspiration to give and of course you know the one of their main missions is to inspire tens of thousands of public school students um who are in our neighborhoods whether it's a relative whether it's a neighbor it's your coworker you don't even realize that you might have kids in public school Kazak is on the forefront with after school program, Sunday school programs over 20 different locations and stop transfer over 2,000 students from public school yeshiva and um it's our great great honor of course it's a very great gathering tonight and of course we want to start with some hill so we're going to call upon the CEO and founder of Kazak and of course everyone should join in to him while he's released let's give a round of applause to Robbie ael for all that he does for Chicago thank you for all abundant heaven organizing once again to the show. Okay. Adon Adonai. At this time, it's a big honor to call upon the Rabbi Meritus of Yang Valley Ravita for an opening [snorts] remarks. Thank you very much. I was about to say good, but I know it's not. [clears throat] It gives me great honor to say a few words tonight because I go back into history. I was once a teacher for about three years and young Israel of Q garden shows and one year I had a class and in the class there were four girls they all became Shabas and film Eden one of those four girls was a grandmother of today's speaker and to his And that is Anita Sur. She's my tiger. [snorts] And she walked from Agular Garden to Ash on 78th Avenue in the life place. Every single shop together with a few friends. and my wife is pregnant. He said, "I need if I have a child, I want you to be the babysitter." But she saw what kind of a girl this was with the way she got the way she dealt with people. And so it was my Yi was born and neither was our babysitter. [clears throat] And as time went on, all of a sudden I got a call from Fred N's family people learn the nephew is getting wants to get married and he has a girl and neither doesn't know anything about her. I sure do. I became a righty way. And I was on the plane with them the first time they went to the Weissman Institute where Fred Nater was going to teach. If anything on the plane there were many [groaning] there were conference in there many on the plane and the natives were sitting amongst them against you were noticing so much they are mus So young kid that's it standing up standing up there all sleeping and that was shakers as well and it went to a few years ago. She was sitting in Staten Island. I'll come back to that in a minute. But I had a cousin, a very very cautial cousin who married a brilliant guy who was once a lawyer and then he decided that he has a better business than being a lawyer. He bought 40 brownstones in the Boston area and he rented it out to students. So he got the cash before the semester started. He went back to Israel, come back the next semester, got the cash the next semester. He said he was a wealthy guy. You understand that 40 brown songs means millions about at least 400 students. Can you imagine what that means? So one day finally finally finally they got the lost and once a person came into my cousin and said you're divorced now. Your husband has 40 brownstones. You deserve 20. And the cousin looked at Brownston. What are you talking about? I have skyscrapers. I don't have brown. So, you can have all the brown you want. He has water and look what I have come. And she took them over to the wall. Look, my children and grandchildren all the time. What do I have? I have skyscrapers. I have to talk to them. But these are my children. And very similar story happened when I went to sleep [snorts] on the ocean. She was sitting sugar [snorts] gardens and I he told me her sister in a sat island. I went in there many people in the house. I walked in. She was surprised and she said to everyone, "This is my rabbi. Because of him, I have my family. Come over here." And she took us over to the wall and told us to the grandchildren to these are my skyscrapers. She didn't say that skyscrapers but big on them cuz that's what I said. These are skyscrapers. That person is a family such as this. I just wanted to say these few words are here the guest speaker tonight. He didn't come to listen to me. He came to listen to him and he will tell you about his experiences and will be inspired and hope that song will be shown on your show. Let's give the round of applause. Great physic inspiration tonight. Um, someone behind the scenes for tonight. Raashem is our dear friend who is the publisher of the Queen Jewish Link Jewish Link. And that's not only what he does behind the scenes. He's involved in so much great um community and cla work. And it's um a great great honor to go up on >> Hi. Well, this is amazing. Thank you all for coming and Rabbi Steinberg, you really inspired me. actually Bacheva who is Anita's granddaughter, my sister had a tremendous influence on me because of Rabbi Steinberg. And uh I I just want to thank all of you for coming. We're honored to have an organization like Boo for Israel here, Kazak, and uh just all of you coming. And one thing I want to say to everybody is that during the two years of the war uh from October 7th as soon as soon as the war happened my um my great nephew he was drafted in immediately they commander they they called him on his thorough he went into the army he fought he was telling the stories that he'll tell you tonight will will just amaze you that you know the inspiration and he also also mentions that uh I mean my my my niece mentions how much the oppus from claustro was was uh what was so inspiring. She would get flowers from people she didn't know. She would she would get um uh pe people would come. They'd want to do whatever they could for her, for the mothers, for the wives. And she was also, you know, she had just gotten married and and she was pregnant with a a child and uh she was all alone. I mean, she had she had, you know, Anita and her and her father, but and her grandparents and her parents, but she didn't have a husband who she just married and and uh and then they had a baby. And uh Yoseph was Baroo Hashem able to come home on leave at at at one point when the baby was born when their their daughter was born. But the fighting that he did in in uh uh in Gaza and in Lebanon was uh he was fighting for all of Claire and all of us. And we as a community we got together we said to him and we did all these things but uh for a soldier to be there a young I was tw how old are you 20 >> 23 >> 23 I don't know when you started in the army you're probably about 21 so uh a a young guy to fight for all of us we we really have to give him a a big round of applause [applause] so I think you wanted to say a few words okay and this is the the rabbit sense. >> Hi, first of all, thank you all for having us. I'm going to give like a short introduction so you know what our lives looked like for the past three years and Yoseph will soon share his inspiring miracle stories that even though I've heard them dozens of times, every time I hear his stories, I get chills because you mamash mama see the miracles firsthand. So, we met in 2020 when we were 18 years old. Yosi volunteered to come help me um during my national service. I helped out with families in my community and he helped out and then we started dating. We were very young. He was in yeshiva at the time um a Hester program. So he was in yeshiva and then um he would have been drafted to the army and we said we're going to wait to get married when we're 21 when he finishes the army. But a few months into dating we said you know what we're not going to wait. We're going to get married. So at the age of 19, we find ourselves getting married three months before he was going to be drafted to the IDF. We moved up north to his yeshiva to Malot and we lived there for a few months until he got drafted. The big day came. He went into the army and I went back to my parents. I moved back in with my parents and this lifestyle was supposed to last about a year and a half of being together every other weekend and the rest of the time we're living our separate single lives again. Um, after a year and a half of serving, we were very excited that the day was coming that he was going to be released and we would finally be able to live a normal life as a normal family. And we were especially excited because we were pregnant and we were excited to announce announce our pregnancy to our family and friends. So, the entire month before I made a whole countdown and I stayed up all night the day before and I baked a cake and I surprised him early early in the morning. He made this whole video leaving base for the last time saying that's it. I'm not going to be back here for for a while. And it was very very exciting. Um this was a few days before Sukis and then over Sukus on Kamoy his family hosted a barbecue in their house for his unit for all his friends to celebrate their release from the army after serving for a full year and a half. It was really exciting. It was a whole big deal. And as we all know just a few days later on Sastora October 7th everything changed. Um, I moved back in with my parents and it was it was just, you know, all over again but on steroids. He was called back in. I remember um on some him walking into out to our apartment early in the morning on his phone. I was very very confused and within a few seconds there was the first siren. We ran we ran to the back room in our apartment because we didn't have a safe room. So you need to go to the inner room. And in between sirens, when I'm still half asleep, we ran over to his parents' house that live a few minutes away to to go find a shelter because they had a mammad in their in their house. Ysef was on his phone off and on speaking to his commander. He'll share more about it, but he was he was, you know, packing his bags, getting on uniform, and within probably an hour, he was already out of the house. Saying goodbye was very hard. It felt like a weird movie. Um, we didn't know what was coming next. For all I knew, he was coming home that night or the day later. We had no clue what was happening. Um, so it was hard, but it wasn't so hard because I didn't know what I was getting into. So, Yoseph left. We had no communication for about I would say definitely the first few days no communication at all. Um, obviously end of Sastor, we open the news and we see, wow, this is much bigger than we thought. Probably everyone here had that same reaction. Um, and there was a few weeks leading into the going into Gaza for the first time, the first entrance by foot. So that entire time we were trying to find out how we can come see my husband. Um his mother was coming with me so to come see his son because there was not no visiting allowed. And something that was a huge help for us was that our family and friends from the US were sending in duffel bags with underwear and socks and energy bars and all these different things that the soldiers needed. So we would call up his commander and say, "Hey, we have a duffel bag with many things that are worth letting us come for." And then we're able to go and visit him for a few minutes. Sometimes we didn't even get to see him, but it was an opportunity to try to go see him. So the week leading into going into Gaza, every day they said, "We're going in tomorrow. Prepare yourselves." So I would get a phone call from Yoseph saying, "We're going in tomorrow. This is my last phone call. I don't know for how long. Um, but stay safe. Stay positive and I'll speak to you when I can." The next day, he calls again. We didn't go in yet. It was pushed off. We're going in tomorrow. The whole unknown was also very hard. not knowing, not knowing, not knowing. And then finally came Friday and they had the first official visiting day. This is three weeks into October 7, official visiting day. All the mothers and wives, I was one of the only wives, came down to where the the boys were staying. They had these big tents put up cuz there were so many soldiers. There w there wasn't even space in bases anymore. And we went down. We brought some food for Chabas. We got to visit for one last time. Chabas was very hard because for all I knew, he was in Gaza already. And it was terrifying not knowing what's happening. First time going into Gaza. But mostly Shabs I get a call again. It was pushed off to tomorrow. So one last time we were trying to think how can we go see him one last time. His mother managed to pull some strings. She got these like bulletproof like plates that go inside the vest. Very worth it for them to let us come. This can really really protect our soldiers. So we found ourselves driving down south once again. And we got there when the soldiers were mama standing in their circles with the commander preparing them, giving them a nice pep talk about to enter Gaza. I don't know if this was so great for Yoseph, but I was so lucky to see him that one last time before going in. Now, this was a full month of him being in Gaza. We had no communication and I had a very hard time in the beginning. I don't remember much of it. But my mom, before we came to the US and before we were going to speak, she said to me, you know, you were really in bed. You were depressed. I don't remember this, but we have to pull you out. But a few days later, I pulled myself together and I said, "My soldier is in Gaza. If he knows that if it was his wife at home is down and sad and depressed and is and in bed, it's not going to help his fighting." So, I had to get up and I had to continue with life because that's what he was fighting for. So, I got myself together and I went back to work and I went back to being happy and meeting up with friends. And for me, that was not he has one less thing to worry about. When I sent him letters, I always made sure to to send a little summary of what my day looked like to make sure he knows that I was happy and positive. A huge thing for me that came out of this war, a really huge thing that I like, as much as things were so hard and terrible stories happened, we're trying to stick with the positive right now and share our positive um like miracle stories. But for me, what happened was is that I saw a huge like togetherness of amas was trying to put us down and separate us as a nation. The opposite has happened. I was receiving phone calls and messages and emails from people who knew me or didn't know me. I was getting flowers to my door almost every shave. I was getting cookies sent every time I would go down to visit my soldier. But many soldiers on the base. As soon as someone heard that I was driving, they would quickly stop by and drop off cookies or kala for shabas or shinsel for shabis. I found myself going down with a car full of either equipment or food for the soldiers because everyone wanted to take part and people telling me like we're domining for Yoseph people would hear his name and say oh I know him he's he's in my sitter he's in my tahill they were and and if I was receiving all this love there were so many wives of soldiers so many families so many mothers if I was receiving that that means there were thousands and millions maybe that were receiving the same type of love so for me that was a huge deal and I thank you all because I know that everyone was part of that love. We really felt we felt that love the virtual hug and that's what really helped us keep going and for me it was a huge deal seeing that togetherness of Israel and now Ysef will share his incredible miracle stories. [applause] First off I want to say thank you to young Israel and Kazak and my great uncle Yakob Surl for having making this happen tonight. um means a lot to me too. Um so I'm going to give you guys a little bit of a backstory um you know before October 7th and then we'll dive right in. So I was born in Bocaron, Florida. Uh I made Ali in 2009 and throughout you know since I made Ali before I love playing sports um I love playing baseball. That was my favorite sport. I would actually play on the team national team. I played for team Israel. I would travel around Europe. Um, I was really involved in baseball and I got an option um before I got my draft date saying that I could play baseball and represent my country and my sport instead of drafting into, you know, combat or intelligence. So, when I heard that, I'm like, "Wow, that's, you know, that's a great option. You know, I this is my dream. You know, I could play baseball for my army service. That'll be amazing." Um, before I uh before I had my deadline to decide what I'm doing, um, I sat down with myself a lot and I decided to go the yeshiva route in combat because I knew that I was only going to have this one opportunity in my life to serve as a combat soldier in the IDF. Um, it was a very hard decision. Um, but that's what I went for and I would never take it back till today. [applause] So, I'm going to move over now to October 7th. Um then we'll get into my stories. Um so I was in sh um shas Torah morning we were starting a kafos and I was heading outside to start dancing with the Torah and then my rabbi and my friend ran into shul told me that your commander is trying to reach you. Uh you have to run home, get on your phone. So at that point I didn't have my phone on me because I just got released like four or five days before that. I gave back my gear, my gun, my gear, and my gun. And um so I run back home. I get my phone like what my wife said. She said that she was in bed. It was early in the morning. I get on the phone with my commander. He says, "You got to get back to base. Um we don't know what's going on exactly. We just got to get everybody together and then from there we're going to figure out what we have to do." So I get back to the last base that I was based at. Um we get there with all my guys. Um, like I said, I didn't have my the gun that I had at the beginning or the same gear that I had throughout my service. Um, and they just gave us, you know, random gear that they had, anything that they could throw at us. Um, and they gave me a gun. Uh, I was a machine gunner, so I had this, uh, really heavy gun. And when I went to shoot it at the shooting range to make sure that, you know, my gun is shooting right and everything, uh, my gun started like didn't shoot. And I'm like, oh no, this isn't good. Um, so I go to my commander. I'm like, "My gun's not shooting. What am I supposed to do?" I'm like the frontline machine gunner. I'm going into the houses. Whatever happens, I'm going to be leading the way. I need a gun that works. So we went back. There was no guns for me. Everybody had a gun. The everything was chaos on the 7th. Um, so he's like, "If it shoots a bullet, it's better than, you know, nothing." So I'm like, "All right, thank you." So stick with that gun. Um, October 8th. Um, we didn't head down south. we were still getting all our gear and getting everything all together. Um my commander circles us in a circle telling us that we're getting on helicopters. We're heading up north. So when he said that, we're like, "Okay, you know, we're going to be fighting against now. They might be entering from the north to try to start a war over there, too." Um so we go in the helicopters, we travel like a half an hour. Um we land by the border and we were there for around like a week and a half. Um there wasn't so much action like there was down south. So they told us we're going to be heading down south. We're going into Gaza. So it took us about like three to four weeks to actually enter Gaza. I don't know if you guys remember at the beginning Biden came and they needed the air force to flatten the grounds a little bit before the combat soldiers come in. So it took a little bit of time. Um so while those I had those three weeks I got a new gun. Thank god the army came with new guns and I got a really good gun that they got my gun on steroids is really really good. Um, so I was happy about that. Um, so when they told us we were finally entering Gaza, they told us we're going to be going in by foot. Some units went in by vehicle. They said that us inati. I was in Nahal 931. Um, and we're going to be going in to Gibbati. We're going to be the first units going in from from northern Gaza to Jibalia. I don't know if you guys ever heard of Jibalia. It's a very big area. Um, we're going to be walking in 7 and a half kilometers. Um, so it was very tough because everything sank in Gaza as you guys see in videos. It's like you take a step, you kind of sink in. Um, so we entered Gaza after 7 and a half km. Uh, we started conquering, you know, a lot of territory. And then about 3 to 4 weeks there was the first ceasefire with the hostage deal. Um, for us it was very, you know, we were very happy that we're getting that hostage deal. We're getting hostages out. But at the same time, we know that, you know, we're going to be paying the price. the combat soldiers, you know, now kamas has time to regroup and they could put their explosive devices back in places that they want to. We can't, you know, so we knew that we're going to be paying a price, but at the same time we're getting our hostages out. Um, so that first month we didn't see face to face action with Hamas terrorists. It was more like the tanks and air force and other like drones were, you know, kind of doing the job for us. Um, after the first ceasefire, um, it started getting a little bit more difficult. So, I'm going to move into my first story. Um, I I call it the cookie story. So, about like a month and a half into the war, I was in this area called Chhati. It's also nor Gaza. And at this area, we were there for like a week and a half in this strip. And it we didn't sleep so much. We slept like an hour or two a night. And we'll be fighting day in and day out. Um, it was very, very intense and tough. Um, halfway through that first week, uh, some guys, including me, were breaking down a little bit, uh, mentally and stuff. It was just very hard. We weren't eating so well. We weren't sleeping. It was very tough. Like, we knew the purpose of us coming in and know what our job is. But sometimes it was very tough. Um, so what we do is at night, we have this, we stay in a house. We do bana. That means that we do like our defense. So like we build our own house and we guard it during the night and then when it's the day we start fighting again. So we have different guys guarding at different times. So I remember when I was guarding by the window, I was looking up to Hashem and I was telling him, "Hashem, we need some strength." I know like, "Thank you so much for keeping us alive, healthy, and we're doing our job. We're getting everything, you know, we're doing, you know, the best we could do, but we need a little bit more strength. You got to strengthen the kayo." So there so um I there's this thing called a tpuk. Every 24 hours they come with army jeeps and they give us water and canned food, whatever we need for the next 24 hours of fighting. Um, and sometimes they give you like chip bags and Doritos, something to cheer you up and like you share with the guys. Um, so my commander went down with a couple other of my friends, other soldiers while I was guarding and they went down to the Hummers to pick up the food. Uh, they come back up. Usually what we do is we guard and we want to go right to sleep, you know, because we're not going to have so much time till we have to get up again. Um, but I had a feeling that I just wanted to check out and see what was in the boxes. So, so, um, my commander came back up with the food. I finished my shift. And we can't use flashlights. We cuz if we use a flashlight, you know, there's no electricity or water in Gaza. So, if we use the flashlight, they could spot us, you know, from miles away. So, we have these little red flashlights that we could go around the house and use. Uh, so I took my red flashlight. I went into the box and I see a box that said Yose do Benel for his protection and I'm like that sounds like me. This is like I was like I was like what's going on here? So I open up the box and it was my mom's cookies in the middle of Gaza. So I'm like oh my gosh. So I called over my friends cuz I had some friends from my community that was also with me in my same unit and we started eating my mom's cookies and we were very happy. So after we got out that first time I called up my mom after we left Gaza. There was another ceasefire and um I called up my mom and I'm like I got your cookies and she's like no way. She's like you have to hear this story. So there's this guy uh that he learns in the mirror yeshiva in Jerusalem. He's my age 23 and there's this program in that yeshiva that if anybody wants to learn towards a soldier you know they could do so. So he landed on my name and he finished the mase and kadushing and um he invited my mom over with my in-laws to for the sem and my mom's like can I make some cookies and he's like for sure. So she made some cookies and after you know the sem leftovers so she's like I'll just pack it up and give it to the army and let's see where it goes. So it landed in my hands my mom's cookies so it's like it kind of you know rounded up. It was crazy until today I'm learning with uh that guy. We're learning 20 to 30 minutes a day and hopefully we'll finish our own CM together. So that was a beautiful story there. [applause] So next story this is uh the first night of Kaneka. Um we entered this is after like three three and a half months of fighting in Gaza. Um we were in Jabalia this whole time. It's very big. In Jabalia in the middle the center of Jabalia there's this place called Mee Jabalia. It's like the headquarters of where all the hiring kamas leaders and terrorists and a lot of hostages on the 7th also went towards that area. They were in that area. Um so they told us 3 days before the game plan of how we're supposed to enter this area. It's very tricky. Um it was very squishy. It's like the streets in how you like walk through these little narrow um walkways. You know, it's like soldier by soldier. You can't walk with two guys. Um so they told us the tanks can't go in. It's only going to be us. So we knew that this was going to be more intense because usually the tanks will hit the house and then we'll go in and but here they can't do that. So we we knew that this is going to be you know this is going to be tough. Um so the first day uh we start entering in and I was the frontline machine gunner. So I my partner was my commander and I would go into houses and I would spray bullets before we go into the house and then we'll go in. Um we got a command on the walkie-talkie saying that there were three terrorists running around in these strips. We couldn't catch them. Just be alert. Be ready. Um, so we headed this next house. They told us we're going into this house. There's going to be, you know, you know, some guns. Yeah. Well, 99% of the houses are guns, like rocket launchers, grenades, but they said that there's more in this house. So, um, what we do is we don't go through the normal doors to the house because then they could surprise us or they could have an explosive device connected to the wall in the house. What we do is we have this thing called a miser pizza. It's like a It's like a door that we like lay off and like makes a hole and then we could go through. So we try to go through like living rooms and different areas of the house so we could surprise if there's a terrorist we would surprise them and we'll go in. Um so in this house particular they told us that we cannot go in with shooting because we have other units around us so we don't want to hit them through the walls. Um so they said only if there's a terrorist then you shoot. So I'm going to try to explain to you guys how how it looked. So we like let off the the vice. We just randomly put it on a certain part of the wall. It was a very weird long shaped house. Um, so I'll say we put the explosive device here. Um, we let it off. We waited like 30 seconds for the smoke to go down. Then me and my commander broke to the left side of the room. And then my sharpshooter, my friend, and my other friend broke to the right side of the room. And I started hearing gunshots right next to my foot. Um, and then I looked to the side and tell my friend, "Stop shooting because we weren't supposed to shoot in that house. Maybe he didn't hear that we weren't supposed to shoot." Then I see behind a couch underneath blankets um I see a sandal with a foot sticking out and uh my friend starts shooting whatever and everything like that. Uh we pick up the blanket and we see a terrorist with a machine gun waiting for you know me. I was going to be the first one coming around the corner from any other angle in the house to surprise us and he would shoot us. Um the big miracle of that is not just my friend saving my life and seeing the terrorist under the blanket. It was also that we put that explosive device right next to the wall that he was hiding behind the couch because if he would have put it in any other angle of the house, he still would have had time to, you know, not he wasn't so he would had more time to prepare to shoot whatever he had to do. So it was a miracle that we just randomly put that you know right there the explosive device and we took down the terrace. I actually in that house afterwards we like went to you know check up in the rooms and see and see what there was and we found like 16 machine gun palatches and 15 rocket launchers in a suitcase. Um and then we went back to the house. It was the first night of Hanukkah and in the tspook in the Hummers that came by with the food and stuff they gave us some uh light like candles to light you know if you have anything you want to light for the monora. So I took those tuno kiss can cans with the oil in it. I stuck it in there and I lit my first uh my next Hanukkah. So beautiful. Yeah. [applause] Um the next story, um this was already four fourish months into the fighting in Gaza. Um we were actually out, we were waiting for our next mission to go back in. Uh my commander told me that it's going to be at least a couple days. I'm going to It was like Friday morning when this happened. He said that you could go home, you know, you could be with your wife. if you hadn't seen her throughout her whole pregnancy, you could be there for Shabas. Come back home and we'll see Shabas Sunday morning. We'll call you back. Uh so I was thr I was thrilled, you know, to come back home and see my wife. Um so I get back home. It was Shabas night. I went to a shower with my friend. He had a a baby boy. And I had my phone in my pocket just to make sure if he calls me back, you know, I should just be, you know, alert. So of course, you know, he calls me Friday night, Shabas night. He says, "Then we need to get back tomorrow morning. We have a new mission." sound like great. So I gather my bags and I head back 6:00 a.m. back to the base. Um so we get on the Hummers quickly. We had a new mission. It was like a 48 hour mission. There was a tunnel we had to guard and uh Shayet is like an elite unit that was going into the tunnels. We had to just guard the tunnels when we go in. Um so we get to Mabal. This is a new area that we entered Gaza. Usually we went through Zikim. We went through also the Nova sometimes like certain areas. This one area we never went through. Um, and usually when we go into to Gaza, the first time we went in, we went by foot. After that, we went with army vehicles. Um, and it's like Hummers that, you know, are open in all sides. It's like a jeep ride. It's not like it doesn't really protect you. Um, so we have tanks going over the roads that we're about to go on in the are going to be going on to make sure that there's no explosive devices. A lot of times they put me tanim on the roads and stuff. Um, so I guess they didn't do such a good job or they didn't go on it this time. Um, so we get into the the vehicle and uh it's how it works is there's a driver, there's a machine gunner that's a little bit higher in a higher seat and then there's the commander on the right side and then there's us, you know, the Kyle in the back. We're all squished. There's like 10 Kaleim in the back. And what we do is we put our big backpacks on the outside. They have like a chain to like hang it on the outside uh to make it a little bit more space for us in the Hummer. Um, so 5 minutes in this area we already conquered months ago. We didn't even put our earplugs in or or our glasses on, our bulletproof glasses because we're like, "Okay, we could breathe a little bit more till we actually have to put it on for a very long time." Um, so we enter 5 minutes in, I get I hear a big explosion, boom, and the sand in my vehicle goes up in the air and my ears start ringing like in the movies. And I hear another two big boom booms. And then I start feeling uh like raindrops. And I start looking at myself and I'm covered in blood. And I look at my friends and they're all covered in blood. At that moment, we didn't know what was going on. Um, our vehicle kind of flipped over to the side. Whoever, you know, me and my friends jumped out of the vehicles and we tried to get behind cover to make sure, you know, we didn't know exactly what's going on where the terrorists are. Um, and then there were three soldiers that didn't get off the vehicle. Um, the driver was I hope he got up. Um, they said that he was unconscious. He was in a coma for a couple months. I hope he got up. Uh the machine gunner, he was 24 years old. He died on the spot. Um and then the meake, the commander of that vehicle, he was critically injured. Um what they said was that there were three explosive devices, two on the on the path and one on the wall. And I guess the one that was connected to the wall splashed on the front of the vehicle and they got all hurt um or you know died. And we for some reason I look down and I look at all my friends. We're all fine. And I'm like looking like how is this possible? And then I look at our bags from the distance and I see our bags torn apart. And then I realized that the shrapnel went into the bags and it saved our lives from getting hit. So as much as it was very sad that we lost, you know, a soldier and hopefully just one soldier and some guys got injured um 10 of the other soldiers in the back got saved because of these bags. Um, so that was, you know, as much as I was very sad, it was a very big miracle. Um, the next story I'm going to share with you guys, um, I was, this is after I got released from, uh, Gaza. I, uh, I was there for like four or four and a half months and then, um, they said that we could go home and you guys could rest. We have a new group of guys going to be switching you guys out. So, my wife was really happy, um, that I'm finally out. And I got out like a week before she was due. So, I was there for the uh for the bird. Thank God. Um about like two months after uh I go to the butcher shop with my kid. I go to the butcher shop with my kid and I went to pick up uh hamburgers and they only had frozen hamburgers. So, I picked those out and I was going to go make it for dinner. I get home and I take a knife to try to separate the hamburgers and me being green and the type of guy I am, I slice it right through my hand. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh so then I had to get surgery. It was a whole crazy thing. My friends actually made a joke about it until today. They still laugh about it. Tamas should have just put frozen hamburgers on the table when you entered the house and they would have knocked you out um after all those miracles and stuff. So there I am after surgery. My wife, you know, was kind of, you know, down that I can't now help with the kids so much uh because my hand wasn't in use. Um and then about a month and a half later, my friends get a a text message. This is already now I'm going into my reserve duty. I was they brought us back to our actual service. So we were like no the normal service now we're going to reserves and they split us up into different groups also. So my friends got uh a message saying that we're going they're going into Lebanon. We need you guys now. We're going into Lebanon. We're going there now. Um so um I went to my wife and I'm like can I please go in? And she's like no you're not going. The doctor doesn't let whatever. My hand wasn't really in use. So I was kind of bummed out. And at the same time, I forgot to mention when I got released from Gaza, um my baseball team, I played, as I said, I was on the national team. They were qualified to play in the in the European Championships in uh Switzerland. And my coach came up to me like, "Oh, you're out of Gaza. You're coming with us. You're going to pitch for us. You're going to come." So, I was all psyched, you know, ready to go pitch in this crazy tournament. And then two weeks before, these girls in hamburgers took me down. So, I couldn't play. Um so, I went to my wife after she was, you know, very, you know, bummed out. And I said, "Listen, you know, we have to look at the positive from it as much as, you know, I couldn't be on the team. It's hard, you know, I couldn't help as much as I can with the baby. Um, we're going to see it, you know, we're going to see the light um of Hashem." So, they went to Lebanon and I was actually with a different group. I wasn't with exactly the same group that I was with in Gaza. They switched me with a different group to be their frontline machine gunner. And I don't know if you guys remember around Suka's time there was uh an incident in in Lebanon with uh a couple uh another big incident with a rabbi with 10 kids. He he died. >> Yeah, you guys heard that. So I was supposed to be with those guys going into Lebanon and I was supposed to be in the front line there and if I was there, I would have been in that, you know, situ. As much as it's hard to have other soldiers, you know, have been fallen and it wasn't, you know, it's very hard to put that there. Um but Hashem kept me at home so I could stay safe. Um because if I would have been there I would have been in that you know same house and who knows what would have happened to me. Um so that was a very big you know miracle that I know Hashem gave me another chance. And I'll tell you guys the biggest thing I think for me that kept me going throughout the war um and my wife and my family was a big part of it. Um but before I entered Gaza um I told her I took upon myself that I'm never taking off my tits and it doesn't matter what I'm doing. If I'm walking into the house if I'm whatever whatever I'm in I'm not missing a doing. So in the four and a half months that I was in Gaza I never took off my tits and I do every single doing and that's what also kept me going. I also went up to my commander early in the morning to give me a half an hour start so I could put on spillin. We brought in two to three pairs of spillin into Gaza. So us and our friends, as much as our bags were so heavy, we were never going to leave that behind. So we could put on our twill and say shama in the morning before we go out to battle. So that gave us a very big boost. Um so yeah, [applause] um if you guys have like questions, we can do some question and answers. I'm free to ask. You know, you guys can ask anything you guys want and I'll answer. Yeah. >> What happens to the weapons that we capture? So what happens to the weapons that we capture? So we give it to the tanks and they bring it back to Israel. We don't use it. They're like their weapons are trash. Like ours is way better. So [laughter] So we bring it back to Israel and they do stuff with it. We don't use it. We don't Yeah, we don't touch their stuff. >> What? >> What position are you playing? >> What position baseball? I was a pitcher and center fielder. [laughter] >> Yeah, good question. Last question. Yeah. Are you done with the army? >> So, she asked if I'm done with the army. I actually just got released from again from my reserves. I was there for five months. I was in Lebanon. They built actually a couple bases inside Lebanon to make, you know, a line to make sure doesn't come too close to the border. So, I was there for 3 months and then I was two months in Bushan, you know, where the terrorist attack was like a week ago. So, I was there like a month ago. They just switched us out. We're exactly where we were. Yeah. So, I was there and now I'm out, you know. I'm here. My wife and Yeah. Yeah. >> Did you know where the hostages were anymore? >> Did we know? No. So, we did not know. And that was also very tricky for us because we didn't want to go into a house and, you know, shoot a hostage. Shalom. Um, but in war, you can't really, you know, think, you know, you can't just go into the house and like think that there's a hostage. You know, we have to be, you know, careful, but we have to still go in spraying bullets and also protect ourselves, you know, going in. But we had no clue. I know the intelligence and for sure other, you know, they knew, um, but we had no clue. We did find a hostage though that you know that was killed on the 7th, a girl next to a mosque. Um but uh besides that we didn't see really anything else. >> Yeah, >> we have we have a stepson in Israel and he went to similarly you know this kind of battles that you >> um my husband was trying to connect with [snorts] his wife while he was out but he would always say I don't know where he is. He cannot let us where he is and she she was very careful to communicate the messages to WhatsApp. She says that they were watching us. How they >> So yeah, they also told us we didn't have our phones. I didn't I forgot even my password when I came out. I was so lost. I didn't have my phone. Um but yeah, they didn't want us to have our phones because they could kind of hack into our locations and like figure out exactly where we are. Um but we did go in. My commanders had this like army phone that it was only meant for knowing, you know, what area we're in or if we have to call a certain person in the army or message somebody. But yeah, they didn't let us have it cuz there's ways to hack it these days. I don't know. I'm not such a tech guy, but they they for sure could find ways. And soldiers would post things on Instagram. I don't know what they would do. So, you never know what they, you know, these soldiers would do. So, they said no phones. And also, we didn't want to hear any bad news. We wanted to focus on our mission because there's always bad stuff going on. So, we had no clue. Like, I had no clue when I would come out. Um, like I would come out and I have no clue what was going on in the other side of Gaza or anything like that. I just knew what was going on with where we were. So, yeah. >> Yeah. >> How much intelligence do you have about this? So before we start our mission or sometimes while we're you know conquering houses they would alert us that there's a certain house that might have an explosive device connected to it. I actually lost my commander to to that um he was next to a house and uh there were three terrorists that let it off and him and I don't know if you guys ever heard of Green Lake. He was on Xfactor. He was a singer. I don't know. Um his parents are also very you know acted now. They're speaking a lot of places. Um so they fell together. Um, and then there were another 11 guys that got got injured. Um, some of my friends lost their legs. Um, it was it was a very hard uh, situation. Um, but it just shows how like, you know, we get into these, you know, sad situations and we don't know what's up with our friends, but we got to continue. We got still a job to do. We still have to fight. Um, and, uh, we kept it going and we did our mission and we conquered what we had to do. Um, and yeah, anybody else? What? >> I can't win. Yeah. >> Besides baseball, what are you doing now? >> So, what am I doing now? So, I'm coaching an under 18 uh baseball in Israel. So, I'm still involved in it. They still try to get me back to coach. So, I'm coaching there. And I started working in real estate. So, if you guys are looking to buy in Israel, you guys know where to go to. Best guy market. So, I got my license. If you guys are looking, my cards are over there. So, uh if you guys are interested, I'm buying right there. >> Yeah. Which area in the army you want to go into? Like how did you end up being a gunner? >> Um, so yeah. So they also That's a good question. So how do they choose me as the machine gunner? >> Choose what did you choose what unit you're saying? >> Yeah. >> So I didn't choose because I drafted with my yeshiva with some of the guys. So they kind of like put me in a combat unit. All the units if they're not elite units are kind of the same thing just different names like Givati Nah. They're all the same stuff. It's just different names to the units. Um, how I got the gun, it's just I guess I'm a little bit strong, so they said you could take it and I I got the gun. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. But Chevus during the war. >> Yeah. >> What What's the feeling in Israel now it's relative peace? Is the Do you feel the same after? I mean, they have the whole thing with the with politics and the draft and all these things, >> right? So you guys could see a lot of things on the news and if you guys could be like, "Oh, that's exactly what's going on." >> Also in Gaza, you could there's videos of like it's horrible videos of saying like soldiers are, you know, doing this to Palestinians. And I could tell you that when I was in there um with my commander and other guys in my unit, we would go into schools and houses that had older people that it was hard for them to walk and we would help them down the steps and we would cross the street with them. And it would be in the fire zone like kamas, you know, it could be anywhere. But we would first think, you know, try to help, you know, whoever we can get out of the house before, you know, we would do, you know, explode it, whatever we had to do, and we make sure they were safe. Unlike them on the seventh, they would come in and they would just, you know, do a massacre and see whatever they do and just kill. >> Yeah. The world doesn't advertise. >> Exactly. They don't advertise the good stuff. Exactly. >> Yeah. >> How do you overcome the fear of it all? How do I overcome it as being there or after? >> When you were going into it, how do you how do you sleep at night and how do you um >> what if you're really scared? >> If I'm scared, all my friends are scared, too. So, but the only thing that really pushed me and my other friends is that if your friends are in, you're not going to leave them behind. So, you're going to go in with them. Um and that was the biggest thing for me. Like my my friends came up to me. There was another machine gunner in my maka. he would be, you know, in the other class, so he'd be a little bit be far like behind me. Um, and he's like, "Let me switch you." You know, you have your wife is pregnant and, you know, she's at home. I don't want anything to happen to you. You know, because there's a bigger chance of something happening to you than if you're, you know, in the front and you're here in the back. I said, "There's no way you're switching me. I'm nothing else. You know, I'm here. This is my job. Hashem put me in this situation. This is my, you know, and I'm going to do it." So, thank God I'm safe today and I got the job done. Yeah. >> Were you able to assess how well trained is how how good fighters they are. >> So, they are horrible fighters. Um they're really really bad. They're not even an army. They're a group of terrorists that come out of tunnels and they come and they shoot an RPG and they hide back down. We're not fighting against an army. We're fighting against more like a terrorist group. Um and it wasn't like them saying even we went up to like they would show us like when I was in my opual service they'll show us you know if you go into this is their game plan. The second the war happened there they started running back. they were scared of us. You know, it's not like, you know, you're really fighting against an army. Um, they're, you know, they're scaredy-cats at the end of the day. They'll come and they'll shoot, but at the same time, they're not scared to die. So, they would, you know, again, they'll be in a house waiting for a to come in. They'll try to take down that, but, you know, he knows he's going to die at some point. You know, he's not going to get out of that house alive. Um, but that's, you know, that's who they are. So, we value life a lot more. We'll be more careful going into houses. They don't really care. Um, but yeah, they're not really an army. They're a terrorist group. Yeah. >> Did you interact at all with the Palestinian citizens in Gaza? And what was their how do you feel their attitude was about? >> So, I'll tell you the truth. There's no uh civilians in Gaza. As much as you see it on the news or on YouTube and you see all these videos of donate to us, this that on October 7th, you could see a lot of video footage of a lot of, you know, civilians as you say, u running into, you know, the Kubim and killing and stealing and doing all these things. I can even tell you in Gaza like we we knew that you know these guys are terrorists but at the same time um the army said that we can't shoot like I would get to this we got to a school that had over 2,000 Palestinians in that school and I saw five terrorists running around and my commander said don't shoot because we can't kill a kid. We don't want to kill anybody. As they say, innocent even though they're not really so innocent. As you see in these videos with the whole ceasefire, you see kids, you know, sitting around looking at the hostages, you know, getting released and they're they're saluting them and like they're not so happy about like, you know, the they're, you know, they're here and their bodies and it's horrible stuff going on there. Um, being inside and seeing, you know, the the videos today, it's it's totally different. It's really not like that. most of uh you know as you see you know kamasos and schol they they got elected to being you know who they are because of the you know because of these Palestinians that live there um but yeah that's what I >> every house I can tell yeah 99% 9% of the houses there were things to do with kamas guns whatever rocket launchers snipers pictures of kamas leaders even in like if you think they're civilians there are no civilians like my friends I have some friends that are leftist and they would come into Gaza at the beginning they'd be like, "Oh, I don't want to just shoot up houses and explode them because there might be civilians there." We went into every single house. They had something or bullets or something to do, you know, with Hamas. So, yeah, that's how more like it. >> Do you feel Is there any there is such a thing as an innocent Palestinian? >> I truly don't think no there. No. No. And we have to like look at it like that. But there's for sure in the family there's something to do with Hamas from me experiencing going into the houses. There hasn't been one house that I went into and I went into hundreds of hundreds of like I don't know even thousands of houses and there was we always found something about you know do with or weapons or something. Yeah. Anybody else? Yeah. >> Perhaps you could give me some advice. Yeah. You know, I run across a fair share of anti-semites and other assorted people who call Israeli baby killers and of course me and well I've had my experiences and they're quite sure that the Israeli army killing children and doing all sorts of horrible things. What can you tell me? What proof can I give to these individuals to tell the truth? I'm actually sick of it and I'm too old to join the Israeli army. And >> if I was you and I was already here and I got this whole chant of like kill the IDF or this guy keeps me on the streets. Ignore them. Who cares about them? We have our own, you know, we have our family here. We have Ammy right in front of you. Who cares about what these people think? You know, they're all, you know, crazy in the head. Um, as you see, you know, you can see these beautiful my friends. You're going to look at these stickers. I have stickers here of my friends that fell in the battle. Just look at their smile. And if these people can't see, you know, these sweet young men that, you know, fell for our country and you see their smile on their faces, you can just that just shows the whole story. Like there's nothing really else to show besides just, you know, seeing these guys that put their bodies on the line at 20 years old. You know, in the US military, they have guys that are 30, you know, they're going into battle. We got guys coming out of high school going right into battle, you know, putting their lives on the line, saving their friends. It's like there's stories that in in Gaza one of you know one of the other units they told us that you know my friend he said that a guy in his unit fell on a grenade so he could save the rest of the guys in the room like who does that at age 1920 you know that's you know our mindset you know we care about that we value life we value you know you know we're here to help others we're here to that's my biggest goal now is my since I came out of the war I would always try to find somebody that needs help if it's on the street or just say thank you to the the guy that's you know stacking the food in the grocery store because these guys don't always get such a thank you. You know, without them, you wouldn't get the food over there. So, I I visualize life right now a lot different than since before I went into Gaza. >> Yeah. >> I don't have a question. I just wanted to thank you so much for your service and for coming here and, you know, because I don't get to see a lot of soldiers, I want to thank you so much. You guys are like a different breed of people. You guys are so resilient and you truly are the front line. [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you so much. Means a lot. And it means a lot for me to also spread it to you guys because I know like what my wife said, you guys done so much for also for the and you guys are far away. I know you guys wish to be with us, you know, in Israel at the same time and fight with us. But we feel you guys, my friends feel you guys, and my friends wear all the underwear that you guys bring in for us. So [laughter] yeah. Yeah. >> So thank you so much. >> Of course. You're amazing and and you're also so positive. What's the degree of the percentage of post-traumatic stress and how is that being handled? [clears throat] >> I'm sure not everybody is amazing and it's positive. >> Right. So, >> a main day should be >> right. So, what they did actually for us when we got out of Gaza, uh we actually arranged it ourselves. We had like this we went to like this uh how do you call it? Uh the word retreat. Yeah. like we went like where there's a pool and a and a sauna and a hot tub and we had some psychologists come to us and we like did these games and we kind of spoke about our experience and what we felt. That was really really nice. [clears throat] Um yeah, a lot of people are going through a lot of tough stuff. Um >> talking long term like that's great that's beginning but there are people who need >> Yeah, there are people. >> Yeah, people also need it now. I it's a war. I don't know exactly what I could say about that. you know, a lot of people, you know, experience this uh different ways. Um I just really hope that everybody gets better from it. It's, you know, we're in a hard time right now. You know, we're in a war. It's been going on for two years. It's a very long war. We're still [snorts] losing, you know, Kyle after the ceasefire. Still a couple hail fallen. Um it's it's not easy. Um but you know, hopefully everybody will be, you know, good and and safe and everything will you know, settle down hopefully after this. >> Yeah. You you you've um what are you going everybody saying? positive you are and uh do you feel that soldiers that come here to speak yourself personally and I know that uh some of your family have had hostages in Florida this past week and uh just um real is that therapy for you that >> so this is this is really good >> proud and and telling your story. >> Yeah. So, I'll tell you the truth. When I first got released from Gaza, the first like couple months, it was very hard for me to get back to reality and get back to life. I was kind of in my bed on my phone. I didn't really want to go out and see people. It was very tough for me after losing, you know, my friends and stuff. And then I kind of sat down with myself and I like, listen, you'll you got to get a grip. You know, you have a kid, you you got a wife and you can take this in two different ways. Or you could be in bed all day and not do so much. Or you could get up and try to inspire others and share your stories and and stay strong and be there for your family and be there for your friends. And thank God I had the strength to get up and uh do this, you know, today. Yeah. >> I don't know if you aware and December the 3 my niece with the family are are donating a drama unit and celebrating it for for soldiers who are coming from the war. Thank you so much. >> And the first of December. >> Wow. Thank you so so much. Wow. Thank you. [applause] >> I want to do we have time for a small clip or Yeah. Okay. So, I just want to go back. I got when I was in Gaza, we got mail from my family twice when I was in there. It's pretty nice. So, in one of the messages, my sister worked in Shaba. It was uh she did her national service with kids with uh Down syndrome. And there was this one kid that we really connected to and he would come over for shabases and he would dab it for me every day when I was in Gaza. So I did, you know, those Gamba show videos. I went to visit him in Ga not in his uh in Shalva. And I'm going to play the video and you guys could see it. I don't know if you guys saw it. It went a little viral, but you guys could see it again. >> Why is it not working? music. I'm play after. [music] [singing] [laughter] >> [singing and music] [singing] [music] [applause] >> And I'm going to show you guys one last video. It was like kind of like a recap after my four months of fighting. We had like GoPros and stuff and my unit came out with this uh cool video and you guys get to see a little bit of what we went through. >> Yeah. So the guy is speaking now, this is my commander [music] before he fell and he gave us like this uh his name was Shai Shamria and uh he gave us you know every time he would speak he would give us some type of strength that would keep us going. Uh so he put his uh speech you know at the beginning here You'll see me twice in here. Quick. [snorts] That was my commander. [music] It [singing] hangs a fear in your heart like cinder [music and singing] blocks crushing your chest. Prison break escape [music and singing] from the dark. Can't get it out of you. [singing] This is my world. [music] Trust me, this is what you learn. [music] This is my world. Can you feel [singing and music] it coming alive? Daylight's [music] turning into [singing] locked up for the rest of [singing] your life. Slip it up. Get ready [music] to fight. This is my world. [music] Oh, you took the wrong. [music] Trust me. [music] This is watching. This is my world. [music] >> [music] >> All right. [applause] And I got in