From Secular Haifa to Chabad Emissary and Filmmaker

Anat Nir, who grew up in secular Haifa and was once part of Israel's gymnastics team, recounts her journey of returning to religious observance and her subsequent four decades of Chabad emissary work in Kiryat Malachi. In a conversation with Dr. Chana Klein on Channel 7, Nir shared her experiences, from a childhood in Haifa where religious observance was rare, to her later involvement in a Chabad community, nursing, and assisting women. Later in life, she pursued a lifelong passion for cinema, leading her to documentary filmmaking.

Nir described her upbringing in Haifa during the late 1950s, a period when she rarely encountered observant Jews. Her curiosity about religious life was sparked by seeing people in Haredi attire in Jerusalem, which she viewed with an "anthropological" interest. A pivotal moment occurred in school when she questioned a teacher about why they didn't observe the commandments discussed in the Torah portion of Shema, receiving the answer that they belonged to the past. This question, along with the Pirkei Avot warning against procrastination, "Do not say, when I have free time I will study, perhaps you will not have free time," stayed with her.

Despite her secular upbringing, Nir emphasized that her home was filled with values of honesty and concern for others. She fondly recalled her father, Avraham, who worked for the Electric Company and made significant efforts to avoid disconnecting power to families unable to pay, sometimes even using his own money to help them. He also instilled the value of hard work by taking his children to find odd jobs during their school breaks.

Nir's athletic background, including her time on the national gymnastics team, prepared her for making significant life decisions, likening it to performing a difficult, unfamiliar move for the first time. After her military service in the Nahal brigade, she studied nursing, a field that had interested her since childhood due to the compassionate environment of hospitals. A severe accident during a post-army trip, where she instinctively helped injured friends, further solidified her ability to act and assist under pressure.

The most significant shift in her life began during a 1978 trip abroad when she felt ashamed of her lack of knowledge about Jewish tradition when questioned by others. The thought of how she would answer her own future children if they asked about their Jewish identity motivated her to study Judaism upon her return to Israel. She began her studies in Jerusalem, unaware that the learning period coincided with the month of Elul, her birth month.

Her return to religious observance was met with challenges from her family, particularly her two older brothers. The decision to marry a man her family didn't know, though he was a medical student, eased some concerns. After marriage, the couple initially considered living in a kibbutz where her husband grew up, but faced resistance from some members who were wary of their religious lifestyle. They eventually moved to Kiryat Malachi, where Nir has been active in the community for forty years, working as a nurse and in the field of Jewish law for women, even participating in a professional training program that combined medical knowledge with Halachic understanding.

Alongside her community and nursing work, Nir rekindled her childhood love for cinema. Her father's part-time job as a cashier at a Haifa cinema and her mother's love for films exposed her to movies from a young age. She developed a deep appreciation for filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman and François Truffaut, drawn to the profound stories cinema could tell. This passion led her to study filmmaking, specifically documentary, where she is fascinated by real stories that unfold unpredictably, viewing the director as a conduit for divine narratives. Her recent documentary, "It's Never Too Late," focuses on the lives of the elderly, a theme that Dr. Klein found moving and a way to highlight the stories of older individuals.