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I was first in touch with Dalia Emanuelof, the mother of Dvir Emanuelof ז”ל, back in 2009. I actually heard about her from a man who was then my regular taxi driver to and from the airport. On one such trip, he said to me, “Danny, I have a story you’re not going to be believe,” and he shared with me the story—a story he had just heard from a family member of his—of Dvir Emanuelof and Dvir’s mother, Dalia. We hear the story today from Dalia’s sister, Kalanit Turgeman.
Dalia and I ended up being in touch again, a decade and a half after we first met, around a project that she’s involved with, the construction of a synagogue and beit midrash in memory of her husband, Netanel, and her son, Dvir, who was the first Israeli solder killed in Operation Cast Lead, in January 2009. (More information about the project and opportunities to support are below.)
Being in touch with her convinced me that the story of the miracle was worth telling again, so Dalia asked her sister, Kalanit (who is an English teacher) to come on the podcast. In the conversation that follows, Kalanit tells the story of her nephew Dvir, the tragedy of his falling, and the miracle of sorts that followed.
We’re marking Hanukkah this year with four podcast conversations, each related to one dimension of what the holiday is about. Here is the tentative schedule:
Today: Kalanit Turgeman is the sister of Dalia Emanuelof. Dalia’s son, Dvir, was the first Israeli solder killed in Operation Cast Lead, in January 2009. Kalanit tells the story of her nephew Dvir, the tragedy of his falling, and a miracle of sorts that followed.
Wednesday: Israel is a land of modern day Maccabees. Our younger generation showed that they are made of the very best that the Jewish people has ever produced. My colleague at Shalem College, Dr. Ido Hevroni, shares how teaching war-saturated classics like the Iliad and the Odyssey to young people who have just returned from battle is different from teaching it to anyone else. Only in Israel can these conversations unfold.
Friday: We are used to thinking about Hanukkah as being about a battle for the religious freedoms that foreign powers had sought to steal from us. But what about when we have to battle our own leaders for religious freedom? Rabbi Shaul Farber, founder and CEO of Itim, speaks about the surge of interest in Jewish expression in post-October-7 Israel, and the irony that it risks being snuffed out by our own religious authorities.
Sunday: Jews have fought bravely not only in Israel’s wars, but in armies across the world. Far too often, Jewish soldiers were buried with nothing to indicate that they were Jews. Shalom Lamm, who heads Operation Benjamin, speaks about the sacred search for those graves and the delicate work with local governments to honor these men as Jews. Contrary to what we might expect, there are such graves in Israel, too. Lamm explains how that could possibly be.
The synagogue project
Our conversation with Kalanit about the miracle of the two Dvir’s doesn’t go into much detail about the project over which Dalia and I reconnected. For those interested, here’s a bit more information; readers who might wish to assist with the project can do so here.
If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.
For our paid subscribers
The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s podcast conversation.
For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full recording of our conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.
