DECEMBER 22 • 2022 | 13

DETROITERS ALWAYS 
HELP EACH OTHER
When Yoni Nadel was an IDF paratrooper, 
there was no support available for parents 
in Detroit. Even support for the Lone 
Soldiers was more limited than it is today. 
Back then, it was the Detroiters in Israel 
who helped Yoni. Ariella remembers how 
a bunch of Detroiters, all Yeshivat Akiva 
graduates who’d made aliyah, rented a car, 
picked him at 5 a.m., bought him break-
fast and drove him to Tel Aviv where he’d 
begin his service. 
“The Detroit kids always have each 
other’s backs,” Ariella said. “Of this gener-
ation, Gabe Faber and Jacob Korman were 
the first from Detroit to join the IDF. They 
collected helpful trinkets during their 
service, ropes, tape, whatever, in a box, 
passing it to the next Detroit soldier who 
enlisted. It went from soldier to soldier. 

They helped each other like family, these 
Detroit soldiers.”
Even just eight years ago, technology was 
a little different; most people hadn’t heard 
of WhatsApp or Zoom yet. Ariella’s hus-
band, Mark, flew to Israel for Yoni’s tekes 
(ceremony), but Ariella was in Detroit and 
struggled to figure out how to watch it. 
“I remember Sheryl Korelitz and I try-
ing to get the technology to work. It was 
so frustrating,” Ariella said. “Now, with 
WhatsApp, you can watch it live.”

PASSING IT ON
Fern saw how valuable Ariella had been. 
When the next Detroiter enlisted, Fern 
and Ariella immediately reached out to his 
mom. 
“We’re going to prepare you for what 
it means to be a mom of a Lone Soldier,” 
Fern told her. 

During training, the soldiers only have a 
certain amount of time to call their parents 
abroad and who wants to waste those pre-
cious minutes with translations?
“We’ll call it Army Ulpan,” Fern 
declared, borrowing the term for a pro-
gram that runs an intensive study of the 
Hebrew language, and the Army Ulpan 
WhatsApp chat was duly created. Every 
day, Fern posted an army word or term, 
explained what it meant and in what con-
text it’s used. 
“
As more Detroiters joined the army, 
their moms joined our chat and it evolved 
into a support group,” Fern said. 
True to its name, the log of words for 
beginners was shared with each new army 
mom. 
“There are certain milestones that no 
one except another army parent would 

Susie Kresch with 
her son David

ABOVE: Yossi Nadel with brothers Cobi and Yoni. The 
encouaging poster includes a February 2021 Jewish 
News cover featuring Yossi.

TOP: Tank driver Kip Glickman in 2018.

continued on page 14

