Jewish Americans, motivated by 'duty to protect Israel,' head overseas to fight Hamas

Michael Freund says he is not getting a lot of sleep lately.

A columnist with The Jerusalem Post and former deputy communications director for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the late 1990s, Freund, like a lot of other Jewish Americans, was horrified by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities that left 1,400 people dead.

But there's something, or someone, else keeping him up at night. Five someones, actually.

All of Michael Freund's sons are serving in the Israeli military, a conscripted military service made up of more than 169,000 troops.

"It's been a very difficult time," Freund told USA TODAY. "But I am very proud of them for doing their duty to protect Israel, the land and the country and the people."

It's unclear how many dual citizens and Americans are serving in Israel. The Israeli military, Israeli Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry and Prime Minister's Office all told USA TODAY they are not tracking that information. But Freund said the attacks ignited a collective sense of urgency to unite against an enemy bent on Israel's destruction.

"It's a stressful time for everyone," said Freund, a New York native who lived in Israel for several years before returning to the U.S. temporarily. "Everyone knows someone or is within a couple degrees of separation to someone who was killed or injured or kidnapped (on Oct. 7)."

American identities but a 'strong sense of civic duty'

Freund's sons grew up mostly in Israel and hold dual citizenship there and in the U.S., where they would spend weeks each summer at camp and visiting family. His youngest was already in the midst of his mandatory military service, and his other sons are reservists who were called up after the Hamas attacks.

His sons are "all good baseball fans," said Freund, whose own Jerusalem Post webpage notes his Mets fandom, "and there's a strong American element to their identities."

Two of Freund's older sons are married and one has a child. So worry about the five Freunds is by no means limited to their father.

But asked if he felt any ambivalence about his sons' service, Freund didn't hesitate.

"Absolutely not," he said. Serving one's country is "a duty and a responsibility and in times of national crisis every person has to step forward and contribute as best they can. I did what I can to raise them with strong sense of civic duty toward their country and their fellow Jews."

He also sees their commitment as emblematic of a generation that gives him hope even in the midst of a conflict with no easy end in sight. Israeli young people understand the stakes of the fight against Hamas, and "rather than running away from the danger, they run toward their responsibility," he said.

"As much as they say a son looks up to his father, in this case, the opposite is no less true."

A sister's service makes brother proud

Yosef Lazar said his sister, one of 12 Lazar children, was always "a very girly girl."

But when she enlisted in the Israeli military at 19, he said, Sara Lazar became a soldier's soldier, proud to be one of the few women serving in a combat unit.

Growing up in Brooklyn, Sara talked for years about going to Israel and joining its military, her brother remembered. "But being my sister, I thought she was nuts. Then at 19, she was like, 'OK, I'm going for real.'"

Her family worried she might come back a different person − tougher, perhaps, or hardened by the military's demands.

"When she's in our house in America, she's always wearing jewelry and wants to look her best," Yosef said. "But then there's this opposite side to her that she shows (in the military)."

Sara served 18 months in the Israeli military and came home "still herself, that girly girl," said her brother, who recently moved from New Jersey to Florida.

When Hamas attacked Israel, though, Sara was determined to go back, two years after her initial service ended.

"The second after our holiday ended, she was ready to hop on a plane," Yosef said. "She was like, 'I'm ready to go, and they need me.'" He wasn't sure she was serious, but when the siblings connected, she was already on the way.

Their parents initially tried to talk Sara out of going back, worried about her safety. "Obviously, they're protective like any parents," Yosef said, but they support her.

He's concerned for his sister, too, but also is proud. "When you tell your friends 'My sister happens to be in the Army,' and they think she’s doing intelligence or in the kitchen and then, here’s a picture of her in a combat unit ... that's pretty cool."

Going not to fight Hamas, but to help Israelis

Michael Balaban lives outside Philadelphia and is a volunteer and board member with the Lower Merion Fire Department's Penn Wynne-Overbrook Hills Fire Company.

"People are talking a lot about the war aspect," he said. "But there's a people aspect of this as well."

Balaban went to Israel shortly after war broke out and was preparing to return the day after he spoke with USA TODAY. Balaban, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, met with top-level politicians and families of victims of the Oct. 7 attacks. He visited hospitals to talk to wounded soldiers and met with federation members and staff who were already in Israel.

As Israeli first responders were called up for military service, or were killed or wounded in the Hamas attacks, first responders from the U.S. rushed to fill the void, Balaban said.

He's working with the Emergency Volunteer Project, a disaster relief and response that deploys volunteer doctors, nurses, EMTs and firefighters to Israel during crises. At least 55 firefighters have gone to Israel, and another deployment was preparing to go within the next several days. The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia is funding at least one deployment.

"What's interesting to me is, most of them aren't Jewish. Some of them are. I am. ... But I asked, 'Why are you doing this? I have a stake in this land.'"

A volunteer from Texas told him the fight against Hamas was a battle between good and evil. Balaban agrees, noting Israel's position as a rare U.S. ally in the Middle East, a country that values democracy and freedom.

He wants people in the U.S., and everywhere else, to know the true source of the conflict.

"I don’t know anyone in Israel who believes residents of Gaza shouldn’t be able to live a productive, prosperous and peaceful life, but they can’t do it as long as they are under authority of Hamas," he said. He called civilian deaths and the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the territory "tragic."

He's taking a group of 15 clergy members to meet with and counsel victims of violence, and their families, people who have been displaced or barely escaped the horrors Hamas wrought at places like Kfar Aza and Be'eri, two of the kibbutzim brutally attacked on Oct. 7.

Family members, including their adult children, are worried as Balaban and his wife go to Israel. But, he said, "they know the role we play in our community."

Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard

Contact Phaedra Trethan by email at ptrethan@usatoday.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @wordsbyphaedra.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Some Jewish Americans are in Israel to fight war in Gaza against Hamas