‘The Heroes of October 7th’ Presents Tales of Valor for Youngsters

October 28, 2024

by: Sharon Altshul ~ JNS

Monday, 28 October 2024 | After a year of war, Israel still finds itself fighting on two fronts, disrupting life in the south and north of the country.

Adults have trouble understanding and finding ways to cope. Even more difficult for parents and educators is how to explain cruelty and death to children.

Author Hadassa Ben Ari, the mother of seven children, asked herself: “How could I tell children the real story? How could I introduce them to the incredible heroes of our nation?”

“The horrors of the current war pounced on us as adults, and we are doing everything so that our children are not exposed to it, so they won’t know. But they know. They already know. If not from home, then from friends. If not from a reliable source, then from the internet,” she told JNS recently.

“How do we maintain a balance between the need to protect a child and the important role of mediating reality in a way that suits them?” Ben Ari asked herself.

Soon after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught on Israel, she began posting stories in Hebrew online. Volunteers joined her project to write, design, edit and translate to English and French a daily tale of heroism aimed at children.

As Ben Ari shares in her introduction to the newly released English version of the book, The Heroes of October 7th: Heroic Stories for Children—”The antisemitism which has reared its head in unexpected places has served as a call to translate these heroic tales into other languages, to let Jewish children worldwide know that there is a tiny country where Jews can always stand proudly.”

The collection of 71 short stories by 15 authors highlights the physical and emotional strength of Israelis, of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities, who used their skills and talents to help and inspire others on October 7, 2023, and afterward.

One teenager helped save her kibbutz [collective community] by relaying locations of swarming terrorists to soldiers using WhatsApp on her mother’s phone as they hid from the invaders.

The illustrations by Tehila Bar-Hama and short portraits by the 15 authors are written in child-friendly language and were overseen by a team of child psychologists. They are meant to be read together with a grown-up and aim to show the values of humanity, kindness and giving.

Dr. Allison Kupietzky, the English-language project manager for the initiative, shared her connection to it: “On the first day of the war, my nephew, Sgt. First Class Yosef Malachi Guedalia, was killed in action in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Hadassa began publishing Hebrew stories of heroes and I felt it was important to share the stories with a broader audience and offered to put together a team of volunteers to translate the Hebrew stories into English.

“It was important to give a name and face to these heroes who left their homes on Simchat Torah, leaving their families behind to stand in defense of their nation, in an hour of danger,” Kupietzky said.

“This project is so important because it allows children and families to view the situation through these carefully curated stories—stories that give strength and a sense of unity, which we need so much today. The book provides a meaningful resource, especially now that it is available in English, reaching Jewish communities around the world,” she added.

One chess player-turned-commander strategically led his unit to safety; rescue teams treated the wounded under fire, saving thousands of lives; the 85-year-old ‘Ninja Granny’ who smiled when taken captive; the dedicated school principal who sent inspiring messages to his students on his break from combat; and many other average-yet remarkable Israeli citizens became heroes under unimaginable conditions.

Ben Ari lives in Pardes Hanna in central Israel. Before she spoke with JNS, she was in the park when an air-raid siren sounded. She ran to a protected shelter. Alarms are not as common in Pardes Hanna as in the north and south of the country.

Ben Ari wrote the first story in the book, “Rachel’s Cookies.” For many hours on October 7, Rachel Edri from Ofakim was able to talk to and serve cookies to five Hamas terrorists in her home until the police came to rescue her at 2 o’clock the next morning.

More than 47 stories tell of fallen soldiers and police, but many others are of living heroes such as Border Police Supt. Shifra Buchris. On the morning of Simchat Torah [rejoicing in the Torah] 2023, she woke up early, left her 10 children at home in the Negev, and drove toward Kibbutz Re’im and the Supernova festival site. For 11 hours, she and her team drove back and forth, under fire, “to return as many children as possible to their mothers who were waiting for them at home.”

As the book project grew from the website stories, Kupietzky, and Joslynne Halibard engaged a professional translation and editorial team to work on the English version.

Dr. Juliana Brown, the lead translator, noted when JNS asked about difficulties with the project, “There were a few challenges, but the biggest was finding the red line between adapting the texts for an overseas audience of children who live a very different reality than ours do and ensuring that it didn’t become a series of enforced happy endings or leaving out the complexities and true heroics of these stories.

“These are Israeli stories about Israeli heroes and as editors we wanted to help bring overseas kids into an authentic reading zone,” she said.

“I would like the world to learn who we really are, in all our variations. We are a unique nation living in unimaginable circumstances while still raising kids, working, studying in between sirens, reserve duty, terrible fear for our loved ones.

“These stories begin to scratch the surface and I hope that our English-speaking audience takes in the fact that all those heroes started their days eating breakfast with their families, thinking about going to shul or for a family hike, when life suddenly changed forever and they became superheroes,” Brown said.

The collection is published by Yediot Books in Tel Aviv, its first English-language children’s book. With 200 stories already received, there are plans to publish another two volumes as families want the stories of their loved ones shared and not forgotten.

Proceeds from the “The Heroes of October 7th” project are donated to Brothers for Life, an organization dedicated to rehabilitating Israel Defense Forces soldiers injured in the line of duty.

Posted on October 28, 2024

Source: (This article was originally published by the Jewish News Syndicate on October 23, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Courtesy/jns.org