Beit Halochem brings wounded veterans to London for respite and recuperation

A 35-strong delegation of veterans and staff members from Beit Halochem returned to London for the second successive year for a week of outdoor activities, connection and recuperation. 

The number of disabled veterans at Beit Halochem has grown significantly since 7th October 2023, from 51,000 to more than 72,000, with the charity providing physical rehabilitation and support for devastating, often invisible injuries like PTSD, where the psychological wounds are every bit as debilitating as physical ones.

The veterans trip, from 14th to 20 October, saw the delegation split into smaller groups and welcomed at various donor houses in the community, with some hosted at Great Portland’s Street Central Synagogue by Rabbi and Rebbetzin Lerer.

Across the week, the group enjoyed a theatre trip, a Premier League Football Game (Brighton v Crystal Palace), sight-seeing across Shoreditch, Camden Market, Covent Garden, Oxford Street, Carnaby Street, the London Eye, the Tower of London and a trip down the Thames via Uber River boat.

Veteran Shay, 43, was injured in 2003 at just 19 years old. Having served for 12 months, he was positioned in a tank unit of four at Beit Hanoun, just north of the Gaza strip, when a bomb was detonated to the left side of their tank.

He said: “I realised I had hit my head but didn’t realise how bad it was – shrapnel had got through my helmet but my unit bandaged my head and managed to get us out of there, even though we were still under fire.”

Once at the hospital, having deteriorated badly on the journey there, Shay was declared clinically dead, and his family were advised to say their goodbyes due to the seriousness of his head injury and risk involved with operating.

A major 14-hour surgery followed, removing shrapnel and part of Shay’s brain, the doctor informing his family to be prepared for at least 90% of Shay’s memory to be gone, with the likelihood of him remaining in a coma indefinitely.

Miraculously, Shay woke up a few days later. “I remember everything – being in the tank, the bomb. But nothing after that about why I am in the hospital. I remember where I live, my sisters, my childhood. It was just my short-term memory that was missing.”

Just five days post-surgery, Shay was discharged but still faced a long road to recovery. Seven years of rehab, plus another four years with a specialist head trauma centre, he says that his memory is back in full and his secret to beating the unfavourable odds: “Because I am 100% optimistic.”

He credits Beit Halochem for a lot of his recovery. Of the organisation’s centre at Tel Aviv: “Everything is next level. I go to the specialist gym. Swim in the Olympic-sized pool. Meet my friends. It gave me everything I needed during the first year after my injury. I always loved basketball but because my skull was so delicate, I couldn’t risk playing. But at Beit Halochem I had the opportunity to play wheelchair basketball. It was hard at first, but I learned fast and it made me really happy to be able to play again.”

Talking of the delegation he was travelling with, Shay said: “One thing is the same for us: the injury is always ‘next to you.’ At Beit Halochem I see guys with injuries from as far back as the Yom Kippur war. Maybe that will be me – I take my kids to educate them and let them see people in wheelchairs, blind, no legs, and see what they are still capable of.

Thirty-six year old veteran Jonny was wounded physically and mentally through missiles launched in Gaza in February 2024.

He said: “As Israelis, we’ve been taught to save our country. I saw some really bad things, broken bodies and carrying my colleague who sadly lost his life. It is the most intimate moment that can ever happen to you.”

Beit Halochem, he adds, “is more than the therapy or activities. It gives you a place where we are all brothers, all equal. We don’t know their story, but we know ‘this guy has done something big.”

With state-of-the-art rehabilitation centres in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Beer Sheva, Beit Halochem continues rebuilding the lives of veterans and their families, with Beit Halochem UK raising over £54 million since it was established in 2012.

The charity recently opened its fifth Centre in Ashdod, which has already been recognised as the national PTSD Centre in Israel.