When I think of Hadar Goldin Z”L, I think about the terrible price we pay when we let ourselves become complacent. On August 1, 2014, at 9:00 A.M., just after the ceasefire during the 2014 conflict began, Hamas launched a surprise attack. They killed Hadar and two other soldiers, Major Benaya Sarel Z”L and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni Z”L, and then dragged Hadar's body into a tunnel. It took eleven long years and a tremendous price to finally bring Hadar back home.
Eleven years later as the current conflict winds down, Hamas repeated its horrible actions yet again. Right after the October 2025 ceasefire, more IDF soldiers were killed. The reality of being a soldier is that you can never let your guard down. Not as a soldier. Not as a civilian. Not as a country.
When someone vows to kill you and chants “From the river to the sea”, you understand that unless the next generation is taught differently from the bottom up, there is no hope for real peace. Peace on paper or on social media is not something we can depend on for even one second.
Serving in the IDF, one of the hardest things to see is what happens when a nation becomes complacent. The past few years were very difficult. Even before October 7th, Israel was divided. But October 7th changed that and brought us back, for a time, to unity.
Last Yom Hazikaron, at a Rockland Federation event, I shared about my four teammates who were killed and the six who were injured. This occurred a few months prior in Lebanon, just hours before Simchat Torah 2024. Three of my four teammates were fathers with children, a wife - a loving family. These were people who cared only that the Jewish nation would be safe. The price we continue to pay is too high.
We say that when you save one life you save a world. In Jewish tradition, every life is truly a world. As a Lone Soldier, I know how different the challenges are when coming back from war. I have already returned to New York three times during this war. The hardest part has been being able to just go back to normal life. Yesterday I was in the war zone returning my gear, and less than eighteen hours later I was back in Rockland County taking my kids to school like it was any normal day.
Combat stress and PTSD affect all of us. This war changed all of us in a very big way. When I got back from the IDF and started Nevut in 2017, it was to help lone soldiers return to civilian life with community, mental health, well being, and career support.
After October 7th, our numbers tripled overnight. Thousands of lone soldier reservists picked up and flew to Israel. This left spouses with no support and parents who did not know what to do. This is when all of you became our partners. Nevut has been picking up the pieces across the USA and especially here in Rockland County. Because of the Jewish Federation of Rockland County and its incredible donors, we are able to provide critical programs and real support for lone soldiers and their families.
Over the next two weeks and especially on Giving Tuesday, let us give back to these heroes. Let us be the lamplighters for all those who lost their lives to give us a better world. Let us make sure no soldier who was killed is ever forgotten. We should all try to do a mitzvah every day in their honor.
Join us as we work to make this world a better place for these heroes. The IDF recently released the newest numbers on mental health from this war. These numbers should shake every one of us. Suicides have gone up. In the decade before the war, the number of soldiers taking their own lives in the army averaged 13 per year. Since the war, that number has risen, with 21 soldiers dying by suicide last year according to the army. These numbers include active duty and reserve troops but do not include soldiers who took their own lives after leaving the military. The individual, experiential trauma behind these painful statistics is shattering, and it is compounded by the societal trauma all Israelis grapple with.
A report from Israel's parliament last month said that 279 soldiers tried to take their own lives from January 2024 through July 2025, but survived. This cannot continue. We must do whatever it takes. A Lone Soldier is most often someone who comes from abroad, and the truth is that abroad includes our own communities right here in Rockland County and all across the USA.
Let us not become complacent about the war or about mental health. Let us stand up for our heroes as we head into the month of Kislev with Chanukah around the corner.
Thank you to the Jewish Federation of Rockland County for standing with us and with all of our Lone Soldiers.
Am Yisrael Chai
Rabbi Sgt. (Res.) Ari Abramowitz
Founder and Executive Director of Nevut IDF Lone Soldiers
[email protected]
nevut.org