Cooking and Baking for Soldiers in Israel

In recent days, Israel has mobilized 360,000 reservists, asking them to put their lives on the line to protect Israel during the current war. It’s the largest call-up in Israel in decades.

This isn’t the only army that’s mobilizing in the Jewish state: a veritable army of civilians has also risen up, aiding Israel’s soldiers by providing food, supplies, and moral support. It sometimes seems in Israel today that every person is engaged in cooking, baking, and delivering food to soldiers, helping them supplement their cold field rations and offering them a much-needed taste of home. Thousands of Israeli civilians have also relied on the generosity of their fellow-citizens: many Israelis have been forced from their homes by fighting, and are taking refuge in other parts of the country, relying on their friends and neighbors - and even total strangers - for help with cooking.

In a series of Jewlish.com exclusive interviews, some of these extraordinary amateur cooks and bakers explain why they’ve been working so hard, cooking up a storm to help their fellow citizens in their hour of need.

Tova Horowitz: Busy Mom Cooking Breakfast for Hundreds

“I’m the egg lady,” Tova Horowitz explains with a chuckle. A busy wife and mom living in the small Israeli town of Mitzpe Yericho, Tova and her neighbors have found themselves hosting scores of families who’ve been forced from their homes by Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s relentless bombing. As soon as the first internal refugees began arriving, Mitzpe Yericho’s women launched into action. They began organizing rotas of people to cook and help out, providing “meals and childcare and entertaining their kids - anything they need.”

It’s not only the displaced families who’ve benefited: with all of Israel’s military age men off fighting, their families are in need of help, as well.

As if helping out desperate families wasn’t enough, the women of Mitzpe Yericho also mobilized to cook for soldiers on a nearby army base. “The army gives field rations,” Tova explains. Ever the caring Jewish mother, she notes: “We want to make sure our soldiers have a warm protein-rich breakfast to start their day every morning.” Local women plan daily menus, and Tova and her neighbors sign up to cook different parts of the meal. Tova has found her niche: three to four mornings a week, she cooks 120 scrambled eggs for soldiers on the base.

It’s an expensive proposition. For the first week, Tova footed the bill for hundreds of eggs - plus cooking oil, spices, and cooking gas - herself. “A couple of days ago, I mentioned to people that this is starting to add up,” she notes. People began donating: first her neighbors, then a friend of a friend in America helped defray the costs. Tova waves off any suggestion that what she’s doing is extraordinary. “We try to step in,” she modestly says, before going back to cooking.

Dave Kaplan and Elliot Aurbarbacher: BBQing Across Israel

A few years ago, Dave Kaplan and Elliot Aurbacher, friends in the Israeli city of Modi’in, wanted to do something nice for Dave’s son, who was completing his army service. They brought grills, meat, plates, cutlery, side dishes, drinks - all the fixings for a huge barbeque - and grilled at his son’s base. The soldiers enjoyed the meal so much Dave and Elliot decided to do it again. They set up Grilling for IDF, a charity to enable people to sponsor BBQs on army bases.

With the current mass call-up, Dave and Kaplan have ramped up their grilling. “Before the war, we’d do between one and two BBQs a week,” Dave explains to Jewlish.com. “Now we’re doing seven to ten a day.”

Volunteers have flocked to meet the demand. Over 150 Israelis stepped forward to purchase food and other goods, travel to far-flung military bases, and cook a slap-up BBQ for entire bases of soldiers. “We grill steaks, hamburgers, hotdogs, chorizo sausages….” Dave explains. “We also bring side dishes, desserts, and drinks. We bring condiments, the grills, BBQ coals, bread - the works…. Our duties have gone through the roof.”

So far, Dave and Elliot have been able to accommodate every single soldier who’s got in touch with them, requesting a barbecue. As word spreads, the number of calls has been growing exponentially. An increasing number of volunteers respond to each request within an hour or two. In some cases, the barbecue is more than a fun meal: Dave and Elliot have seen units which have been on the move and lacked any food for the first several hours in their new locations. In some cases, the barbecues they set up have been the first meal that hungry soldiers received in a new position.

“The morale that this brings is amazing,” Dave notes. Soldiers “all tell us that we boost morale better than anything else you can imagine. We offer them a top-notch barbecue. When they see this, it’s like you’ve changed their lives.”

Ilan Blumenthal: Yeshiva Student Packing Food

When Ilan Blumenthal, an 18 year old from Chicago, headed to Israel for a gap year after high school to study in a yeshiva, he didn’t realize that soon he’d have another vital job too: packing food for soldiers. Ilan’s Jerusalem-based yeshiva (boys’ religious school), Eretz Hatzvi, is encouraging its students to find ways to volunteer to help Israel now that it’s at war. “It’s our way to be involved and cope and help out with what’s going on here - otherwise we’d feel so useless in a time of need” like this, Ilan explains.

Ilan and his fellow students have been volunteering at a local charity, packing boxes of shelf-stable foods to be shipped to army bases. The charity, Kvutzot Gorema, usually sends food boxes to poor families; now it’s also helping out Israeli soldiers - and it needs all the assistance it can get. “Obviously, we can’t be serving on the front lines,” Ilan observes. “This is something we could do to feel that we’re helping klal Yisrael (the people of Israel).”

Shira Katz: Delivering 30,000 Loaves of Challah

“Challot4Chyalim started ten days ago; it’s doubled in a week,” explains Shira Katz, a busy wife and mother living in the city of Modi’in. As soon as the mass mobilization of Israeli reservists was announced, Shira knew she wanted to do something to help. “I love to make challah,” she explains. “Challah is an easy food to prepare…it’s also more or less shelf-stable.” It also offers bakers the chance to make a bracha (blessing), an integral part of making a large batch of challah dough, Shira notes. Receiving a loaf of freshly-baked challah “is like a hug from your home” for Israel’s soldiers.

Shira offered her home as a drop-off location for people to bring home-baked challah to distribute to soldiers on October 12. About eight other people offered their homes in Modi’in and Jerusalem to be drop off points too. By October 19, Challot4Chayalim had about 17 drop off locations around Israel. (“Challot” is the plural of challah; “Chayalim” means soldiers.)

It isn’t easy. Israeli schools have been canceled in recent weeks, as Hamas and Hezbollah lob thousands of rockets into Israel and air raid sirens disrupt daily life. “My kids haven’t been in school since Yom Kippur,” Shira explains. Yet even with the constant fear of rockets and the responsibility of looking after her kids at home, Shira is undaunted. She continues to cook, bake, and organize what has become a major, nation-wide charitable endeavor.

The first week Challot4Chayalim ran, people donated over 10,000 loaves of challah. Shira resolved to double that by the following week: by October 19, she’d collected about 30,000 loaves of challah to distribute. Getting the challah to soldiers is a huge challenge: Shira’s worked with volunteers to make sure that the challah loaves reach soldiers across the country.

Neeli Engelhart is one of the volunteers baking challah these days. “We made eighty challot,” the busy medical professional from Modi’in explains, insisting that baking this staggering number of challot is no big deal. “We’re the tiniest piece in this; we’re a tiny piece in these enormous chesed (kindness) initiatives” that are engulfing the Jewish state, Neeli explains.

The response to Challot4Chayalim has been overwhelming. “Everyone is loving it,” Shira Katz notes; “It’s just heartwarming.”

Alise Gold: Tourist Stepping Up to Help

Alise Gold was taking a long-anticipated vacation in Israel with her young family when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. As she sheltered in a bomb shelter with her husband and children, Alise also was fielding calls from her students back home at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, where she teaches Bible. “The Ida Crown girls wanted to do something,” Alise explains; “they wanted to raise money for Israel, but they didn’t know what to do with the money.” Alise offered them a challenge: if they raised funds to help Israel, Alise would find a way to spend it helping the Jewish state.

An old friend who lives in Israel told Alise that she was bringing food to a newly set up army center where soldiers gathered before being sent to forward positions. Alise immediately took her kids shopping near Jerusalem, buying goods that soldiers had requested and putting it all on her credit card until her students could raise money back home.

“We bought peanut butter, cans of tuna, protein bars,” Alise explained. She and her kids also purchased toiletries like deodorant, and supplies like flashlights. Alise sent the supplies to the base, along with letters to soldiers that her students emailed and Alise printed off. Almost immediately, one of Alise’s students received a voice message from a soldier telling her how much their efforts meant to him and his entire base. (Alise’s students eventually organized a bake sale, raising so many funds they were able to purchase additional goods for soldiers, too.)

“It was nice to feel there was something tangible I could do,” Alise explains. “We were able to see right away (the goods we purchased) were put to use.”

Helping Through Food

As Israel is attacked, food provides a potent way to reach out and help, aiding both soldiers and Israelis who are displaced by fighting. Neeli Englehart, baking scores of loaves of challot for soldiers each week, notes that “We’re coping with chesed,” using the Hebrew word for acts of loving kindness. “We’re all just wanting to help,” she explains; “there are so many people who have done so much.”