From Digital Defense to Soldier Support: The Organizations Rebuilding Israel
By: Aaron Herman
From Fighting Online Antisemitism to Operation Israel to the Simchat Torah Challenge—seven leaders reveal the infrastructure sustaining Israel through a decade-long recovery
WASHINGTON—When Jewish Federations of North America closed its $908 million Israel Emergency Campaign last week and launched Rebuild Israel, the message was clear: the crisis phase has ended. The reconstruction era—estimated at seven to ten years—has begun.
But what does national reconstruction actually look like on the ground? Who is doing the work? And what are they discovering about Israeli society’s breaking points, resilience mechanisms, and deepest needs?
At the General Assembly, I interviewed seven organizational leaders operating across Israel’s most critical frontlines: digital security, military welfare, community rehabilitation, family support, emergency medicine, spiritual renewal, and agricultural recovery. From Tomer Aldubi combating industrial-scale digital hate, to Adi Vaxman supporting 90,000 soldiers, to Neri Shotan managing decade-long kibbutz reconstruction—their testimonies reveal a portrait of a nation not just defending itself, but fundamentally rethinking how diaspora partnership can be embedded into long-term civil resilience.
These are the organizations—and the people—holding Israel together.
Fighting Digital Hate at Industrial Scale
Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA), founded in 2020 by Tomer Aldubi, has become a critical infrastructure in protecting Jewish communities from digital harassment. As a designated “Trusted Flagger” on major platforms, FOA achieved a 40% content removal rate in 2024—nearly double the standard user report success rate.
The organization’s pre-October 7 systems “prevented a collapse” when antisemitic content exploded globally, Aldubi said. Recent interventions include documenting violations that led to the suspension of extremist influencer Nick Fuentes from X, and rapid-response protection for a 16-year-old Israeli girl in London who was doxed and targeted by peers.
“We want anyone being targeted online to know there is a professional response system ready to help,” Aldubi said.
Watch the full interview with Tomer Aldubi
Grassroots Volunteer Army Supports 90,000 Soldiers
Operation Israel emerged from Adi Vaxman’s sleepless night in New Jersey on October 7, when she watched footage from Sderot and felt “the first moment in my life that I felt actually helpless.”
Within hours, a call from a friend whose lone soldier son lacked basic protective equipment—ceramic vests, helmets—set Vaxman in motion. She maxed out personal and company credit cards for $162,000 worth of IDF-approved gear.
What began as a single mother’s desperation has grown into an $11 million operation that has shipped over 100,000 items to 90,000 soldiers—run entirely by volunteers with zero salaries and zero administrative overhead.
But Vaxman warns the war continues: “There are 900 smuggling drones coming over the border from Egypt every month. Soldiers are still fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria.”
Most troubling: 64 IDF soldiers have died by suicide since October 7. Operation Israel now runs trauma-processing workshops and distributes letters from children to soldiers. One soldier said the letters “saved my eyes… and my soul.”
“People think the war is over,” Vaxman said. “Funding has been ridiculously difficult. But the mission continues—with or without headlines.”
Watch full interview with Dr. Adi Vaxman
Kibbutz Movement Faces Decade-Long Reconstruction
More than 300 kibbutz members were murdered on October 7—representing a quarter of all civilian deaths. Neri Shotan, head of the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund, estimates full reconstruction will require seven to ten years.
“Probably 100% of Israelis are carrying PTSD,” Shotan said. “Our communities were the first line—maintaining the borders has always been the Zionist mission.”
Thirty thousand kibbutz residents remain displaced. Some families won’t return due to trauma, prompting recruitment efforts to strengthen communities in the Gaza envelope and northern border regions.
Alarming trends are emerging: rising teen substance use and increased mortality among elderly returnees. “We treat the community like a patient,” Shotan said. “We need to bring it back to life.”
Watch the full interview with Neri Shotan
20,000 Volunteers Mobilize for Reservist Families
When 360,000 reservists were called up, their families faced immediate crisis. Former Knesset member Rachel Azaria launched HaOgen from a single Facebook post. The organization now mobilizes 20,000 volunteers across 1,000 localities to support 35,000 households.
The organization has prevented a PhD candidate from abandoning her degree through emergency childcare, and supported a new mother whose husband returned to Gaza 48 hours after their baby’s birth.
“Thirty percent of reservist families are talking about divorce,” Azaria said. HaOgen is now expanding into trauma counseling and family resilience programs with formal IDF backing for at least three years.
Watch the full interview with Rachel Azaria
Magen David Adom: Engineering Life-Saving Systems
Israel’s national emergency medical service has engineered split-second response protocols that represent what paramedic Itai Orion calls “entering people’s lives at their most vulnerable moment.”
The system includes immediate connection to medics through the 101 emergency line, dispatcher access to live GPS and camera feeds (with consent), and a national registry of 50,000 automated external defibrillators that guides bystanders in real time.
MDA supplies all blood to the IDF and Israeli hospitals. Since October 7, field medics carry refrigerated blood—cutting preventable hemorrhage deaths by more than half. The underground, fortified Marcus National Blood Services Center ensures supply continuity even during missile barrages.
Watch the full interview with Itai Orion
The Simchat Torah Challenge: Reclaiming Identity Through Torah
While most post-October 7 initiatives focused on defense and security, one philanthropist took a different approach: responding to identity crisis with identity itself.
“We didn’t need another anti-antisemitism project,” said Tanya Singer, who leads the Simchat Torah Challenge. “We needed something that grounded us in Torah and reminded us who we are.”
The initiative hoped to engage 10,000 Jews in reading the weekly Torah portion. They reached that number in five weeks. Today, nearly 30,000 Jews participate.
But the most revealing moment came when the organization offered free Chumashim. Within days, they had distributed nearly 1,000 physical books—and had to temporarily suspend the offer because demand exceeded supply.
“Jews after October 7 had an itch to scratch,” Singer said. “There was a discomfort. People didn’t know exactly what they were searching for, but they needed something.”
The fact that October 7 fell on Simchat Torah embedded trauma into the holiday itself. The Challenge reframes that memory—reclaiming the day not by ignoring pain, but by transforming it into renewed engagement with Jewish text and tradition.
“My hope is that Jews lean into learning Torah,” Singer said, “and that every Jew feels connected to Torah and sees themselves in the story.”
Watch the full interview with Tanya Singer
From Emergency to Reconstruction
JFNA has closed its historic $908 million Israel Emergency Campaign and launched Rebuild Israel, shifting focus from crisis to long-term reconstruction.
The emergency campaign delivered 4,200-plus grants to 877 NGOs and 208 communities. The Joint Distribution Committee assisted over one million Israelis, while the Jewish Agency supported nearly 20,000 terror-affected families.
Rebuild Israel now targets mental health, education, economic recovery, and agriculture. Hamas deliberately destroyed farms in the Negev that supply most of Israel’s vegetables. JFNA has allocated $12.5 million to help farmers replant.
“Hamas tried to destroy our identity and our agriculture,” said Moran Freibach of Kibbutz Nahal Oz. “Our answer is to return to our fields and make them green again.”
A Marathon, Not a Sprint
From digital battlefields to displaced communities, from reservist families to agricultural rehabilitation, from trauma response to spiritual renewal—Israel’s recovery demands sustained global Jewish partnership and strategic investment.
The Simchat Torah Challenge reveals something profound about this moment: when Jews search for strength under existential threat, many instinctively reach for Torah. Not because it’s old, but because it’s foundational. Not to escape reality, but to ground themselves in it.
As Vaxman put it: “The IDF is defending Western civilization. It is our duty to help them so our children can walk free wearing their Jewish stars—as jewelry, not as a yellow star on their sleeve.”
And as Singer framed it: when the world shifts under our feet, the response isn’t only defensive—it’s a return to what is steady, eternal, and ours.