Tiny hero stands tall

“The first thing I do when I speak at an event is check out the box that I stand on because they don’t realize how short I am. I call it the Bar Mitzvah box, that boys usually stand on when they speak,” said Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor. She was preparing for her keynote speech at the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) dinner held on Tuesday night at Fresh Meadows Country Club in Great Neck. Over 500 prominent lay leaders and supporters from across Long Island came together to pay tribute to the women who serve in the IDF. The evening’s honorees included two outstanding women from the Long Island community: Lana Bakhash, who is a founder of the Babylonian Jewish Center in Great Neck, and Stacey Bernstein Malakoff, who is the Executive Vice President and CFO of the Hospital for Special Surgery and is involved in Temple Beth El of Great Neck, UJA, Sid Jacobson JCC and Shalva in Israel.

Dr. Ruth, as she is commonly referred to, is best known for having pioneered talking explicitly about sex on radio (Sexually Speaking) and television.

Born in 1928 in Frankfurt, Germany, she lived with her parents and grandmother in an Orthodox home. She was an only child and was sent to Switzerland by her parents at the age of 10. Her parents perished in the Holocaust and thereafter she lived in an orphanage. Dr. Ruth moved to then Palestine to join the Haganah (Israeli Freedom Fighters) where she fought for Israel’s independence in 1948 as a trained sniper.

Also present at the gala was Ethiopian-Israeli IDF Officer, Lt. Rachel Samani, who serves as a platoon commander in the Educational Corps where she manages four officers. Rachel participated in FIDF’s Amir Course, which helps integrate Ethiopian Israelis into military and civilian society. “The FIDF gave me the tools and skills to get into the system. What a difference the support means to someone like me,” expressed Rachel. Joining Rachel at the event was her fellow soldier and IMPACT Scholarship recipient Yonatan Benjamin Asseraf, who served as a combat soldier in the Paratrooper’s Brigade in the IDF during the Second Lebanon War and now studies law at the IDC in Herzliya. Yonatan received an OZ medal, an award of excellence, for his participation in the Second Lebanon War. “FIDF’s IMPACT scholarship gave me the ability to earn a degree in law. It helps out soldiers who come from low income families,” noted Yonatan.

The event, chaired by Edeed Ben-Josef, and emceed by Martin Rosenman raised over $700,000 for the FIDF.