Book of Wiener – How Israelis helped themselves after fear

“It was a terrible feeling,” the inhabitant of Vienna Anita Haviv-Horin remembered from 7 October 2023, when she was sitting at breakfast in Israeli Netanya and suddenly one horror message after the other popped. It was the day of Hamas’s raid on Israel, in which around 1200 people killed, more than 300 were kidnapped and thousands were injured.

The State had failed that the army had failed, and then the institutions, most authorities – failed everyone was just overwhelmed. But then the coherence of Israeli society showed. Originally a groundbreaking company that was dependent on the will to survive. “Everyone who could have helped to help,” says Haviv-Horiner. “In small or large. The civil society has arrived for the state.

This was so enthusiastic about the educational expert and author, who partly works in Israel, partly in Vienna and partly in Germany. In 17 interviews she spoke with volunteers who tried to help people – in trauma therapy, memorial work, with their use for domestic refugees (tens of thousands of Israelis lost their homes on this and the following days), in agriculture or by suddenly going into the arms.

Some were only scared of the night
She was particularly impressed by an Ultra -Orthodox woman who took care of families of soldiers. Within a very short time she collected more than 3000 strictly religious women around them who are the same. It was about everyday things such as help with shopping, childcare, cleaning or by authorities. “Or that some women were afraid of being alone and for someone who stayed in the apartment with them,” explains the Israeli Estres of Double.

Or a family from which two family members were kidnapped. On the evening of October 7, all family members gathered in the kitchen of the father and divided the “jobs”: one must provide contacts with authorities, one about the media, the following for traces of the abducted and much more. The contacts soon varied from Tel Aviv via Berlin to New York. And of course it was no longer just about your own family, but about the relatives of all hostages.

A kidnapped family was released – the second was murdered by Hamas. The use for the release of the remaining hostages continues to this day.

Vet took care of dogs and cats
Or a psychotherapist who collected my colleague to take care of those for whom the state of Israel generally does not have much interest-over the Bedouins, sometimes no sedentary Arabs with Israeli citizenship, who were also massively affected by the Hamas theft. Because they did not count for the terrorists that they are Arabs and Muslims, they were Israelis for them.

The final chapter in the book tells about a young vet who had made himself the task of taking care of those dogs, cats – but also cows, sheep or goats – who were suddenly alone – and may not survive.