5 Towns Rehab aids in the healing of IDF vets

With an assist from a rehabilitation facility in the Five Towns, IDF Commander Jonathan Benhamou is seeing his vision come to life, with other IDF soldiers getting the chance to come to the US for properly fitting prosthetics and rehabilitation, just like Benhamou did last year.

A rocket-propelled grenade that exploded 30 feet from his vehicle during a Gaza mission on Nov. 2, 2023, seriously wounded Benhamou, 24. After doctors at a Tel Aviv hospital removed shrapnel and amputated his left leg, he underwent five months of physical therapy before being discharged in March 2024.

He initially came to the US on vacation, and ended up receiving additional surgery and rehabilitation.

After Dr. Oren Michaels, of Cooperman Barnabas Hospital in New Jersey, performed nerve-reattachment surgery on Benhamou’s left leg and nerve transplants on his right leg that June, Benhamou rehabilitated at Five Towns Premier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Woodmere. There, he formed close bonds with the staff and received a free prosthetic from Dr. Michael Nadata, whose practice is in Valley Stream.

“I needed a new prosthetic, and he made for me a prosthetic like a Ferrari — then I started walking, running and playing basketball,” Benhamou said of Nadata. “Here they are very professional and technologically advanced.”

Over a year later, Benhamou has helped a number of IDF soldiers receive proper care after being injured while fighting the ongoing war in Gaza.

“The surgeon asked me if I had more friends who need help, and he was also a soldier in the second Lebanon War, so he wanted to help others,” he said.

Benhamou said he believes that Hashem saved his life, and that his mission is to bring more soldiers over to get the same treatment he had, through his nonprofit, Care for Heroes. Nadata offers his services and the prosthetics at cost, just the price of the materials.

“My mission is to change the rules for wounded soldiers, close the charity and hand it over to the government,” Benhamou said.

Noam, 22, and Ilan, 28, who were identified only by their first names, are two of the soldiers who have come to the US with the help of Benhamou and his organization.

As a company commander in the Armored Corps 188th Battalion, Noam, in the infantry deployed after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was in one of the tanks in the first wave to respond.

“When we entered Gaza the first time, I was injured on Nov. 16 — my tank was sabotaged from the outside,” Noam recounted. “A terrorist stuck a bomb between the turret and the base, and me and another friends were injured.

I got an amputation on the spot, below the knee on my right leg,” he added. “I was awake the whole time. I put a tourniquet on myself, jumped on one leg toward the exit of the tank and had a very fast evacuation — a half-hour from the explosion to the hospital.”

He was in the same rehab unit in Israel as Benhamou, and was unhappy with the prosthetic he received.

“I talked to Jonathan, and wanted to get a normal prosthetic done, and came here in March, got a new one and then came back, received an adjustment and got a running prosthetic as well,” Noam said.

Ilan is a reserve soldier who was injured on Nov. 11, 2024, in Lebanon. He has been in the IDF since he was 18, and is a combat engineer who operates heavy machinery, including bulldozers, excavators and loaders.

“When the war started, I knew I was going to get called from the reserves,” Ilan recalled. “I was called on Oct. 16, 2023, and fought for almost a year, basically in three rounds — got injured twice. The first time was in Gaza — I fell from a bulldozer and broke my ribs.”

After recovering for four months, Ilan returned to Lebanon for two months, and was injured again.

“I was (on) an excavator working on the border and I got hit by a new anti-tank missile — it was fired from five miles away,” he said. “I broke my neck, and had shrapnel all over my body. One of them was stuck in my neck, 2 millimeters from the spinal cord.”

He spent over two months recovering at a hospital.

“I have a few nerve problems, and I told Jonathan I will do anything I can to help him,” Ilan said. “I came here and got checked out by a surgeon about a nerve problem in my hand, and will need surgery in the future.

“The Jewish community has been the best thing I’ve seen. We’re here for doctors and prosthetics — we just want our lives back,” he said.