14 Days: Fallen soldiers

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a July 11 news conference on the military investigation into the October 7 atrocities at Kibbutz Be’eri that it was clear the army had failed on that day to protect Israeli citizens. “We did not prepare for Hamas’s murderous terror attack,” Hagari said. “The findings of the investigation are clear: The IDF failed in its mission to defend the residents of Kibbutz Be’eri.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Knesset on July 11 that 3,000 haredim would be drafted into the IDF by the summer of 2025. The announcement came after the High Court of Justice ruled on June 25 that the government must start enlisting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the army because there is no longer a legal framework to continue the practice of granting them blanket military exemptions. “In the midst of a severe war, the burden of inequality is more acute than ever and requires the promotion of a sustainable solution to this issue,” the nine justices said in their ruling.

The Labor Party, led by Yair Golan, approved an agreement on July 12 to unite with Meretz under a single party named The Democrats. “The new party will be home for all the forces fighting for democracy and the image of Israel in recent years,” it said. Under the deal, Meretz was promised two seats in the top eight slots..

Rav Shalom Aharon Shmueli, who worked as a cobbler on Jerusalem’s Agrippas Street, died on June 29 at Shaare Zedek Medical Center at age 106. Known as a “hidden tzaddik,” prominent rabbis visited him to study Kabbalah. His son, Rabbi Benayahu Shmueli, is rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Hamekubalim in Mahaneh Yehuda.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the German-born Holocaust survivor and former Hagana sniper who became a world-famous sex therapist and media personality in the United States, died on July 12 in New York City at age 96. She is survived by a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren. “Looking at my four grandchildren – Hitler lost and I won,” she declared at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York City in 2018. Dr. Ruth received an honorary doctorate in 2021 from Ben-Gurion University, which established the Dr. Ruth Westheimer Scholarship in Psychology in her honor.