About 160 Haredi women whose husbands or close relatives are serving in the IDF spent three days this week at the mehadrin Hotel Nof Kinneret in Tiberias, their first organized break since the war began. The retreat was meant to give them emotional processing, rest, and a sense of community after months of managing homes, children, fear, and long waits for phone calls from the front.
The women came from across Israel, including Beit Shemesh, Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, Elad, and Ashdod. Many said they had felt alone until the retreat brought together others facing the same reality. One participant said, “I arrived exhausted. My husband has been in reserve duty for many months, and for the first time I felt that someone sees me. I started breathing again.” Another said, “Suddenly there is a community. There is someone to call and someone who understands without words.”
The retreat was organized by the nonprofit Ohsot Chayil, in cooperation with Eshkolot and with support from Netzach Yehuda and Shomer Yisrael. Its program included empowerment workshops, emotional-processing sessions, stand-up comedy, and music, but participants said the most meaningful support came from conversations in the corridors and over coffee.
Ohsot Chayil was founded during the war by Chavie Erlenfeld and Michal Chalmish-Wachtel, both reserve-duty wives and mothers of soldiers. It began about two years ago as a small WhatsApp group with Yael Boimel and has grown into a national community of about 1,000 women. Erlenfeld said, “When the war broke out we understood that we were not the only story. We created Ohsot Chayil so no woman would have to deal with this alone, and so there could be a place where one can be both Haredi and proud of a family member’s service.”
