Firsthand Accounts of War in Israel: Amichai Shdemah
– Amichai Shdemah, Local Community Member
My name is Amichai Shdemah and this is my son. I would like to tell you about my stepmother Dietz Shdemah and Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Yesterday, Diets’s daughter Neta shared on social media that a beloved man who is 84 years old is missing and believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas and abducted to Gaza from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
My name is Amichai Shdemah and this is my son. I would like to tell you about my stepmother Dietz Shdemah and Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Yesterday, Diets’s daughter Neta shared on social media that a beloved man who is 84 years old is missing and believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas and abducted to Gaza from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
We know some details. In the morning, she was hiding in safety. Later a neighbor heard her calling for help and went outside. He realized that he couldn’t help her since there were too many terrorists and he fled back to his safe home.
At some point later, after trying to call periodically, someone picked up the phone and answered in Arabic saying, “Hamas, Hamas.”
We are helpless and sick with worry. The family has received no information or contact from any officials. They checked the hospitals and the list of the dead and they reached out to their home in the kibbutz.
The families have posted and included a picture of Dietz holding one of her great-grandchildren. Dietz loves babies and children and they love her. She was a social worker who worked with many families and her dad at 80, only four years ago.
Dietz has the gift of an enormous family and she makes personal and meaningful connections with every single member. She takes care to remember everyone’s birthday on both the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars. Making sure to call and give us love on each day of every year.
She finds and forms bonds with distant relatives welcoming everyone into a home and the family. She adopted our entire family, always making us feel part of her family.
I’ve lived here for 26 years. My three children grew up in the JCC and graduated from Lower Merion public schools. Our annual visit to Israel usually started in Kibbutz Nir Oz where we received a very warm welcome and enjoyed loved filled cooking.
Chicken soup is our kids’ favorite with matzah balls even if it’s not Passover. And it always helps to overcome jet lag when we visit our favorite places in the kibbutz. Now, as our kids have grown and all have gone to Israel on their own, Kibbutz Nir Oz has always remained a home to them and always provides them with endless love, support, advice, food and lessons.
Although we don’t have any information about her fate, the family is trying to get in touch with a third-party international organization to somehow deliver medicine that she and others discipline. It is heartbreaking to think that Dietz’s life is now in the hands of terrorists and I can’t begin to imagine what she’s going through.
Kibbutz Nir Oz where she was a founding member went through an unimaginable brutal attack. The following is from the description that was posted with a family request.
Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel and underwent a horrific massacre. In the early morning hours of October 7, 2023, dozens of terrorists attacked the kibbutz residents who fought them with their bare hands until the military arrived many hours later. Families hid in their homes and tried to stay silent while the terrorists burned their houses down on them. Dozens were murdered, suffocated by the smoke, or kidnapped to the gathering street. Dozens are still missing.
The survivors are being evacuated today for an unknown amount of time. Their vehicles were burned and many houses were destroyed to the ground. Any donation will be helpful.
According to the last available information, there are at least 30 people who were kidnapped. Among them were elderly people like Dietz and babies. There were more than 15 people murdered, among them were all families of parents and their kids.
The survivors are being evacuated today. Our family deeply appreciates the love and support they have received from our friends in both the US and Israel.
We are waiting and hoping for the return of our dear Dietz after the rebuilding of Kibbutz Nir Oz and the safety of the rest of our friends and family in Israel. Thank you.
WATCH: Amichai Shdemah
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Help provide people like Amichai with emergency relief by making a gift to the Philly Stands with Israel Fund: jewishphilly.org/emergency