President Reuven Rivlin met on Thursday with a delegation of some 30 mothers of lone soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces from North America, which is visiting as part of the Momentum program, which creates a support network for the mothers, in collaboration with Nefesh B’Nefesh and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.
The President was excited to meet the mothers and thanked them for the fact that, despite the difficulties, they sent their sons and daughters to defend Israel and its borders, saying "Your children are not really lone soldiers, because they are with us. My home is always open to them and every holiday [my late wife] Nechama and I always hosted lone soldiers at our table." Citing the prophet Isaiah, he added, "We say, ‘On your walls, Jerusalem, I have stationed guards’. Your children are the guards, and not just of Jerusalem."