Does an army really "march on its stomach" as either Napoleon or Frederick the Great (or someone else) is said to have famously declared?
Shlomi Ohaion has decided that for soldiers with Jewish mothers - those now sleepless women of valor who personify the proverbial "eat, eat, later we'll talk" phrase - it does.
Yes, the IDF provides adequate sustenance, but Shlomi provides Israeli soul food. And caring. There are many Israelis and tourists doing barbecues and expending other blessed efforts for IDF soldiers, providing encouragement as well as nutrition, but Shlomi has been feeding 250-400 soldiers every single day since the beginning of the Swords of Iron War in Gaza!
Shlomi, a former IDF soldier wounded in the Lebanon War, put his life on hold since the war began and rises at 5 a.m. to buy the freshest ingredients for his food truck, now based at the ill-fated Nova dance party location.
Rumor is that he sold his car to fund this independent project which feeds IDF soldiers the foods they love as they go on their way in and out of Gaza.
And I? My parents run the Chabad House in Columbus, Ohio, and as soon as the war started, our entire community came together to send helmets, ceramic vests and other equipment for soldiers. My Chabad Sunday School children wrote the most heartwarming letters to our soldiers and then I came to Israel to see what I could do.
I met Shlomi in November when he was feeding soldiers all by himself at the entrance to Kibbutz Be'eri, one of the places that suffered most on October 7th. I asked him if he needed help and have since made four trips to Israel to do so.
My friend, videographer Shlomit Erdynast who works for the Regavim grassroots NGO (dedicated to the protection of Israel's national lands and resources), but who also freelances, decided that the world should be told - and that it could influence viewers to do other things to help our country at this challenging time. So here it is:
As you can see, I am humbly doing a small part, but Shlomi is the real hero!
And by the way, Israel's Channel 14 felt Israelis should also know about Shlomi's project of love and broadcast the story below. Although the words are in Hebrew, the visuals do the real talking.