The women healing the Jewish state

The past two years and three months have tested Israelis like never before. A war with rounds and rounds of active duty, hostages held in unbearable conditions, fallen soldiers, and fallen hostages, it has been barely imaginable. And the horror began the day after the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

And over the course of these 27 months, heroes have emerged, many of them women. The Women of Iron exhibition, created by the Israeli NGO Chochmat Nashim, which aims to promote Orthodox women’s rights, has recognised 18 of these daughters of Israel and is on display at the Nefesh B’Nefesh campus in Jerusalem.

Bazy Rubin is a mother and wife whose husband served in Gaza and who uses social media to comfort women in similar circumstances[Missing Credit]Laly Derai is a journalist and social activist whose son Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Saadia Derai fell in Gaza. She is a major voice in advocating for Charedi conscription[Missing Credit]

The women profiled come from across Israeli society and include paramedics and doctors, mothers and spouses who have lost sons and daughters and husbands, women who have fought Israel’s corner on social media, researchers who have documented the terrorists’ crimes, volunteers who identified and prepare the bodies of slain female soldiers and a woman who was held captive by Hamas. The inspiration for the event was the photographer and my best friend Laura Ben-David who died in July aged 56. We worked together at Chochmat Nashim and Laura was instrumental in creating the Jewish Life Photo Bank, a collection of thousands of stock photos of Orthodox Jewish women with the aim of ensuring that women’s faces appear in Jewish publications. She used photography to tell the story of the Jewish people, and in the wake of October 7, when ignoring women’s testimony became central to the tragedy that befell us, our commitment to bearing witness strengthened.

Sharon Laufer leads a team of women in the IDF's Rabbinic Identification and Casualty Treatment Unit which prepares teh bodies of fallen women soldiers[Missing Credit]Sarit Zussman's son Sgt. First Class (res) Ben Zussman fell in Gaza in December 2023. Since then she has turned her grief into a rallying cry for Israeli unity[Missing Credit]

In the words of Laura’s daughter Lexi Rotem who attended the event: “As a photographer, my mother believed that the way we look at people changes our understanding of the world. She had a way of seeing strength where others saw struggle and she believed in bearing witness even when it was uncomfortable. Thank you to my mother who always believed that women carry the strength to survive. And thank you to the women who faced terror and loss and who found their voices, thank you for your courage, humanity and strength.”