Tami Zilbershein, who made Aliyah from New Jersey when she was 18, lived with her husband in Netzarim for 9 years, until the Sharon-Olmert government demolished the 22 Jewish towns of Gaza in the 2005 Disengagement program, and forcibly removed their Jewish residents.
Can't see video? click here for interview with Tami Zilbershein
"The shadow of the Disengagement hovered over us for at least a year," she recalls. "It was in the newspapers and all the media. Netzarim was a very special place, and all the things that were special in Netzarim became more intense in the last year. It was really a paradise for children and a wonderful community in every aspect."
As the Disengagement got closer, people came to the community and prayers were held. "It was like one long Yom Kippur," she says. "Basically we continued to live our lives hoping it won't happen. Faith, emunah, has an effect on reality. And with that faith we are continuing."
The smiling Zilbershein says the thoughts of Netzarim are always with her. "The actual part when the woman soldier took me out of the home, and she cried and I cried and we kissed the ground, the children and I... And we said that we know that Abraham was here and Isaac was here, we know that this was promised to us, and we know that we will return. I believe that when we return we will return with the backing of the entire nation."
"The entire nation will realize that we came back to Israel to be a light upon the nations and to fulfill all of the prophecies that we grew up upon," according to Tami. "The entire nation of Israel has to come back to themselves, back to their traditions and back to their land."