Meet Laurence.
She was born in Paris, France, to Sephardic parents. She was raised as a traditional Jew. She moved to Los Angeles at 26, and to Israel at 37. She credits making Aliyah – immigrating to Israel - as the best decision she’s made in her life.
“I believe my life is here. I think I will die here, hopefully after a long life. I love this country. My love for this land runs deep, but my love for the IDF is even deeper. I never realized just how much love I held for this country until the war began.”
As a French Jew, Laurence encountered a lot of antisemitism. “I never felt French. You were a Jew first, French second. I decided to leave because I didn’t want to live in a country where I didn’t feel welcome.” Her earliest encounter with antisemitism that she can recall was when she was seven years old, when a classmate told her “Laurence, I don’t like Jews but I love you.” She couldn’t understand what it meant, but her father understood that the child was only repeating what was being spoken about at home. Her parents sat her down and explained what antisemitism was.
Laurence never resonated with the French mentality, and having been surrounded by American influence since childhood, she decided to move to the United States. “I moved there and I loved it. I had the best eight years of my life.” After some time, she felt that she had seen and accomplished all that she came for, and that it was time for her next adventure.
“I had that ‘click.’ I knew right then that I was ready to move to Israel. That’s how I work. It’s either 100% or not at all. I got my paperwork in order. I told my mama that I was making Aliyah. I let my boss know. And then I moved to Israel.”
Laurence has experienced all facets of life in Israel – the good and the bad.
“For some reason, I only remember the good things. Of course I have experienced all of the bad like everyone else. I got run over by a motorcycle, I was traumatized in a terrorist attack. I still feel that this is my country.” She has received physical therapy and psychological trauma counseling to help her overcome what she had been through. “I stopped sleeping completely. I was completely freaked out. Thank G-d they have a trauma center, and I started speaking to a psychiatrist. It took me a while to get over it, but eventually I felt that I finally came through it.”
And then October 7th happened. “I will remember that day for the rest of my life.”
She spent Friday night, October 6th, with her father in Holon. He had a friend visiting and he was taking her to the airport at 3AM (October 7th). Laurence didn’t sleep well, knowing that he would be on the roads and wanted to call and check on him. She had siren alerts set for his neighbourhood, and when they started to go off, she worried that he would be asleep and not hear them or not be able to make it to his shelter in time. She began calling him, but he didn’t answer – sending her into a panic. He eventually answered, confirming that he heard the sirens and that he was going to his shelter.
Sirens began sounding in Tel Aviv and the surrounding area. “I started to have a panic attack. I called my neighbour who keeps Shabbat. She didn’t immediately answer, but called me back after 15 minutes to check if I was ok. We turned on the TV. We couldn’t understand what we were seeing.”
The first images that she saw are now forever imprinted on Laurence’s memory. “I’m still seeing it now. It was when the white truck arrived in Sderot. A young boy was filming from inside his home and you could hear his mother. You could see the terrorists getting out of their truck. The news then cut to the images and videos from the Nova festival. I couldn’t understand what I was watching. It took us hours to understand.”
There were so many sirens on October 7th. Laurence stayed with her friend and neighbour that day. The stress of the day caused her trauma from the terrorist attack that she survived to resurface. “I was frozen for a week. As soon as it got dark, I couldn’t breathe.”
Once she was able to pick herself up, Laurence began volunteering nonstop from November 2023 until today. “My goal was to help someone everyday. I went to support the evacuated children from the north and south in the hotels. I organized events and parties for them. I supported their families. I travelled to army bases and barbequed and made pizza for soldiers that were coming out of Gaza. I harvested produce on farms. Everything went by in a blur. I tried to help as much as I could. Every day I was going somewhere to help, and to talk, or to do whatever was needed. At one point my name started to go around and soldiers would call me to help them when they needed something.”
Laurence then began volunteering with injured soldiers and security personnel at Sheba Medical Center. “Every week I go to see the injured soldiers at Sheba. I collected money from my friends so that we could buy them new shirts for when they are doing physiotherapy. I would sit and talk to the soldiers; I’d join them on bike rides. We became good friends.” Laurence also helped recovering soldiers and security personnel almost daily by improving morale and helping with their therapy. She would tend to their scars, help them dress, play games with them, and generally help with their therapy. The soldiers and their recovery teams have become family to Laurence. “As a volunteer at Sheba I’m always looking for ways to help wounded soldiers, but the truth is that their strength and resilience ends up helping me more than I could ever help them. I feel much better when I’m with them.”
She also acts as a support for the families of the soldiers. “I meet with the parents, speak with the doctors alongside them, research on their behalf, and stay with the soldiers at night so their families can rest. I do my best to help everyone however I can.”
"If anyone has taught me something in this world, it’s them. You go there and see them—some missing an arm or a leg, having endured so much suffering. Yet, they never lost their smiles. Their resilience is incredible. I would thank them for everything they’ve done for us, and they’d simply shrug it off as if it were nothing. I’ve met truly beautiful people. If this war has given me anything, it’s the chance to meet people I might never have crossed paths with otherwise."
Laurence would use her own money to help in whatever way she could, even if during this time she was unemployed. “It was my time to give back. Israel has done so much for me, and this is what I could do in return.”
However, despite staying busy and exhausting herself, Laurence was having trouble sleeping. Her body would react to the sirens and the iron dome ‘booms’. “It’s involuntary. It’s not my brain, but my body that jumps.” She is living with PTSD, but despite it taking a physical, emotional, and psychological toll, she keeps on giving of herself wherever she is needed.
She found her voice as a proud Jew, and would take to defending Israel online, especially on LinkedIn, in her native French to make sure that the world knew the truth of what was happening in Israel.
Laurence’s experiences with volunteering have forever shaped her. “I am still volunteering, and I will volunteer for as long as my help is needed.”
Of all of the organizations that Laurence lent her time and her heart to, one has captured her spirit more than the rest, and that is IDF Widows and Orphans. “I will volunteer with them for the rest of my life.”
She was introduced to the IDF Widows and Orphans organization by chance. She was watching the news and a journalist was interviewing an employee of the organization. Laurence stopped in her tracks and started watching. A widow was talking to camera. Immediately it hit her that this is where she wanted to help. “My eyes were opened, literally.” She found the employee, Michael, on LinkedIn and sent him a connection request with a note. “I told him that I was really excited about what he was doing and that I would love to volunteer for them if they needed me.”
Laurence and Michael connected, and almost immediately Laurence found her place as a volunteer. “I started translating everything into French for them. Even though it’s an organization that is funded by the government, it is not enough. They help the widows and orphans until the end of their lives. They need money, and they fundraise in the US and Canada, and in France. If you’re not communicating properly in French, then you’re not going to get anything. I translated their website, all of their documents, anything they needed.”
IDF Widows and orphans also provides support for widows and orphans of all security personnel.
The war that followed the October 7th massacre has fundamentally changed all of us. It has connected the Jewish nation in unprecedented ways. “I have connected with people that I would have never met otherwise, and that’s beautiful. I have also learned that I want to do something more meaningful with my life. I want to find a job that can pay the bills but also provide meaning so that when I wake up in the morning, I can feel that I helped my country.”
“I want to have a voice, but I don’t know how to express myself meaningfully. It’s not my strength. My strength is more in acts, and I keep my word. If I tell you that I will help you, I will help you.”
Of course, like us all, this period comes at a price, beyond the lives lost and soldiers fallen or injured. The emotional toll it has taken has been immense. Laurence felt her symptoms that followed the terror attack returning. “I knew I needed help. I returned to my therapist at the trauma center. I feel better now. I guess my trauma is still stored inside and things will still trigger me. It has become part of my DNA, my cells. I have layers of trauma, but I know that everything will be okay.”
Laurence has found her place in life. She has found a family in the people of Israel, and brothers in each soldier. She has turned her survival experience into a way to help pay it forward and to help others recover, and she has no intention of stopping.
"I know I am here for a reason. It wasn’t just to help everyone—that’s simply the human thing to do. I want to use my skills for something meaningful, something I can be proud of, and in a way that contributes to my country."
Donations to IDF Women and Orphans can be made at https://www.idfwo.org/en/
Donations to Sheba Medical Center can be made at https://eng.sheba.co.il/
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