Getting back to Israel to serve has been a struggle for some

NEW YORK – Itay Bright had just landed in New York on Saturday morning for his post-army three-month “big trip” around the US when he turned on his phone and saw the news from Israel.

“We had no Wi-Fi on the plane,” explained the 22-year-old from Ramat Gan, who was discharged as a medic six months ago. “It all happened when we were in the air,” he said, referring to the Hamas invasion of Israel’s South. “We were shocked.”

Like thousands of young Israelis at various places around the world, he and his friend, another 22-year-old, from Modi’in – reservists who received “Tzav 8” orders to return immediately to base – started trying to get back home. To no avail.

As Israel called up hundreds of thousands of reservists for operation Swords of Iron, many were stranded around the world with no way to fulfill their military orders.

“For the last three days we were just trying to find any flight to Israel, calling donors, joining WhatsApp and Facebook groups for reservists,” said Bright.

On one group – Israelis in New York, The Official Group (35,000 people) – they met a donor who bought them tickets home. At a rally in front of the UN on Sunday, they connected with other Israelis.

“At the demonstration, I was angry and happy at the same time: there were so many Israelis there, it was a magic feeling – but there were too many pro-Palestinians there; I was very angry. But the Jews were more. We felt a lot of support from the New Yorkers – a lot of cars drove alongside us, telling us, ‘We stand for Israel.’ It was every emotional.”

Bright said the minute he landed in the US he knew he could not stay. “It’s mandatory for me: my family is home, my unit is on the front,” he said. “I can’t do my trip – I don’t want to spend any money having fun. I want to contribute anything I can to my friends. I don’t see any option but to go back to Israel.”

Kedem Dmitris, an Israeli raised in America (who preferred not to give his last name), who sent Bright and his friend back to Israel with 10 duffel bags full of equipment for their elite reserve unit, said he knew what it was like to be ill equipped in the IDF, especially as a lone soldier, as he was.

“During past conflicts, in my service, when something happened, everyone tried to help, but a lot of money got squandered in the process,” said Kedem, 49. When he served in the IDF in early 2000s, “they gave me a gun, a helmet and a faulty vest,” he said, but he didn’t have batteries for his night scope, wires to fix his equipment, a camouflage net, and other items needed in the field, like knee pads. That’s what inspired him to help out Bright and his reserve unit. “It’s ridiculous. Reservists know no one will take care of us except us,” he said.

The minute the Queens, New York City, resident heard what was going on, Kedem started to mobilize and look for ways to help, raising money from his colleagues in the jewelry business. When he connected with Bright, he first had to calm Bright’s mother down. “She was wondering, Who is this stranger who grabbed my kid?” said Kedem. “I’m just a nobody. I don’t represent anything.” But he helped purchase thousands of dollars of equipment – headlamps, flashlights, night-vision goggles – to take back to Israel, where Bright was headed on Monday night. They hoped El Al would let them on with 10 duffel bags.

Supporting the IDF

Across the country, from New York to Los Angeles, Jewish and Israeli expats collected money to outfit soldiers and to help send them home. Even as El Al increased its number of flights back to Israel – in the face of other airlines canceling travel completely – Israelis abroad were confused about how to get home.

Yael and her husband, Tomer, originally got “Tzav 8” orders to return, but the orders were canceled when it became apparent they were abroad. They did not know whether they should show up at a New York airport where one anonymous haredi man funded anyone’s flight who showed him their military order. “Which airport? Where do we go? When?” asked Yael, who preferred not to give her last name. She also responded to a Facebook message that said “We are chartering a flight for free from New York on Friday.” She tried to call the number, but it went straight to voicemail. She left a message but still hadn’t heard back as of Wednesday night.

Yehuda and Aviah Eitan, 25 and 24, respectively, were on a monthlong trip to America, and were staying with Aviah’s brother, an Israeli emissary, in Nebraska, when they heard the news of the attacks. (They waited till after the holiday to find out all the information.) The religious couple, from Yad Natan near Kiryat Gat, flew from Chicago to London, and on Wednesday to Israel on British Airways on their original flight home.

But after the plane full of soldiers heading home had almost made it to Israel, it did not land. The pilot, aware that rocket-warning sirens had sounded in the area surrounding Ben-Gurion Airport, kept the plane aloft over Israel for an hour before turning around and heading back to London, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The 10 hours on the plane were awful, Aviah said. “Mothers with babies didn’t have food; we didn’t have kosher food... we wanted to jump out of the plane and swim to Israel,” she said.

When they arrived back in London, they found that there was an El Al flight to Israel with room for soldiers.

“They told us to just buy any ticket – even a month from now – and they’ll get us on the plane,” said Aviah, who was eager to get back to help her sister with six kids from Sderot, whose husband was serving in the army.

Despite the difficulties in getting from the Midwest to Israel, Yehuda didn’t hesitate about returning. “It’s my destiny. I’m supposed to be there; I’m supposed to help. That’s what I can do and should do. I need to get home.”Yet not all Israelis were sure they wanted to go back to Israel.

Nadav, a 22-year-old in Bogota, Columbia, was eight months into his big post-army trip around the world on Saturday when he and his fellow Israeli travelers started getting direct messages from partygoers at the nature party in the Negev about rockets and gunshots. He actually woke his parents and his older brother in the center of Israel to tell them the news. Only 10 months out of the army (Nahal Brigade), Nadav got orders to return and serve.

“We decided to wait a few days and see,” he said. “A lot of people don’t want to go back; our parents and friends are yelling at us not to come home. My parents are worried sick – my brother went to serve.”

Nadav said it was a difficult dilemma. On the one hand, after eight months of traveling, it would be hard to go to Israel straight into a war, but on the other hand, “Am I a coward, who isn’t coming back when my friends and family are serving, and I’m not?”

Donors were trying to charter a plane from Columbia. Another plane left from Lima, Peru, on Tuesday.

“You can’t stay here and sit shiva and watch the news all day – it’s not healthy for the soul,” said Nadav. “So you might as well go home and serve or volunteer. But if you’re going to stay and travel, you have to cut yourself off from the situation at home.”

Nadav had secured a flight to Brazil and then to Israel, but was still undecided whether he was going to take it. “My parents really don’t want me to return.”

Some Israelis stuck around the world were too old to serve in the army but needed to get home nonetheless.

It took Eitan Chitayat three days – and a lot of traveling – to get back from Munich to Tel Aviv. The brand builder responsible for the viral video “I’m That Jew” (around 12 million views on social media) went abroad for a friend’s wedding, but, when he heard the news, realized he had to get home immediately to his wife and kids in Tel Aviv. But there we no flights out of Munich. So he flew to Turkey to get a flight out on Saturday night, but his flight was delayed three times, then canceled, so he flew back to Munich on the same day.

“I didn’t sleep for 36 hours,” he said, noting that Germans he had just met at the wedding – non-Jews – helped him by fronting the money for the flight and, in the middle of the wedding, drove him over two hours to the airport. “They helped me emotionally, too. I was alone for 36 hours, understanding the atrocities back home, with rockets falling, and these saints helped me feel less alone.”

Back in Israel, Chitayat is already creating films and messages in support of the Jewish people and Israel.

“It’s wonderful to ask us how we’re doing,” he said in a LinkedIn video, which has gotten almost 100,000 impressions, “but what you really could do to help is to be vocal, speak out publicly that you are with us.”