The baby shower in Modi’in for wives of IDF reservists, Nov. 24, 2024. Photo courtesy of Kira Kletsky.

 

JNS

Forty wives of IDF reserve soldiers gathered in Modi’in, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, recently for a collective baby shower entitled “Our Jewish Revenge.” Meira Cowland, who organized the event, is expecting her first child. Her husband has been on the battlefield for many months.

“The first challenge is loneliness. Being pregnant and not having your husband around really amplifies it,” Cowland told JNS.

“You are not feeling well, you are throwing up. It’s hard for you to cook or take care of your home. What should be a totally crazy experience together, you simply go through alone,” she said.

Cowland felt compelled to share her story on social media, prompting online followers to offer to throw her a baby shower.

“To me, it felt a bit weird having a party during a war, but somebody randomly wrote to me that if I felt that way, lots of other women must feel the same and struggle,” she said.

Pretty quickly, people reached out asking her how they could help throw the collective baby shower. In response, Cowland asked followers to nominate pregnant women whose husbands were at war.

“At the same time, we had big and small companies and individuals reaching out. Event planner [Yehudit Kosowsky of] Yehudit Designs offered to take on the project pro bono, and we also received hundreds of gifts,” she said.

Each of the 40 women attending the Nov. 24 event was presented with a duffle bag, replete with essentials for the hospital stay when giving birth. A trauma therapist participated, teaching them how to cope with being alone and to minimize any stress to their baby. A doula, massage therapists and an expert on the rights of reservists’ wives also attended.

“We had letters sent from the husbands, we also paid for soups to be delivered after the women have their babies,” Cowland said.

300 Nominations

The event also helped the women offset some of the expenses that come with pregnancy.

“When I first started looking for the things that I would need to buy, I realized that I was up against such a crazy expense. It sent me into a panic,” Cowland said.

“We ask ourselves how we could reduce the costs for these women. We’ve had a few donors who reached out and offered to assist women who are financially struggling,” she added.

While 40 women were selected to take part in the event, Cowland said she received between 300 and 400 nominations.

Matana Bracha Horowitz, 26, moved to Jerusalem from California eight years ago and got married three months before Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. She is expecting her first child.

“It takes a toll on you when you are constantly scared and nervous, it messes with you completely. When my husband was in Gaza, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t do anything although I had to. I didn’t have friends with husbands on active duty,” Horowitz told JNS.

Valued Connections

Her husband, being religious, was drafted into the military at an older age and was in regular service when Hamas invaded. He did not return home for another four months.

Horowitz told JNS that beyond the material gifts she received at the event, the true value came in the form of the connections she made.

“I have a feeling that these girls and I are friends for life. We are each other’s support system. Our men have their units and their comrades; we don’t. Not all army wives live near each other and not everyone wants to get together,” she said.

“The people I met there understand,” she continued. “No one gets us like we get each other.”