OCTOBER 19 • 2023 | 39
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M.I.A, I don’t know if he’s 
dead or kidnapped. My 
family is sheltering in place. 
My sister, with her year-old 
baby, moved in with my 
parents because her husband 
got called in to serve. The 
angst is very high.” 
Leaving a wife and two 
kids under the age of 3 to go 
halfway around the world to 
war as Levy has is something 
no one would do lightly. 
Levy has had people tell 
him he’s courageous for 
dropping everything and 
doing so. But he believes 
courage has nothing to do 
with it. 
“This has everything 
to do with duty. This has 
everything to do with 
understanding you’re 
the last line of defense, 
understanding if you’re not 
going to be there, nobody 
else will be there. That 
there’s a finite amount of 
people that can do what you 
do,” Levy said. “This is an 
existential threat, and it’s 
going to be something that 
changes the landscape of the 
Middle East.” 

CALLED TO SERVE
In mid-September, Hannan 
and Lisa Lis were standing 
under the chuppah at their 
son Mataan’s beautiful sunset 
wedding in Israel. The future 
seemed bright and promising. 
Just over three weeks later, 
Mataan was called up for 
reserve duty for war. 
Mataan, born and raised 
in Michigan, moved to Israel 
after college to serve in the 
IDF and has been there ever 
since. He was a full-time 
Lone Soldier in the IDF from 
2015-2018 and has been a 
reservist since 2019.
As a reservist in the special 
ops unit, Mataan goes in for 
training and active duty for 
about 30 days a year. While 
that’s part of his life and he 
trains all the time, he’s never 
been called in during war — 
until now. 
Mataan, though, knew this 
was always part of what he 
trained for. 
“On Saturday morning, 
as soon as we woke up and 
realized the extent of what 
happened, we kind of knew 
he was going to be called,” 

Hannan said of his son. 
“It’s very stressful, 
very hard, and we worry 
tremendously about him. 
We do touch base with him. 
I’m lucky because my son 
has the ability to at least text 
us or connect with us when 
he’s not on a mission. I’m 
also fortunate to be able to 
connect with other people he 
serves with, so I can always 

find out how he’s doing. 
Some parents don’t have that 
privilege.”

‘MY HEAD IS ALREADY 
THERE’
Chaim Leiberman is in the 
process of trying to go back 
to Israel to help, but in a 
different sense than Levy or 
Lis. 
Leiberman was active in 
the IDF from 2000-2003 and 
was in the reserve until 2005, 
the year he and his wife, 
Brooke, moved to Michigan. 
Lieberman was in the IDF’s 
Armored Corps, spending 
time in tanks as a gunner and 
commanding in one form or 
another. Leiberman though, 
having lived in Michigan 
since 2005 and working as 
a certified registered nurse 
anesthetist (CRNA) in 
that time, physically hasn’t 
touched a tank in over 18 
years. 
“So, the thing is for me, 
if I go back to Israel, it 
doesn’t make any sense for 
me to go and be in a tank or 

LEFT: Yael and Mataan Lis 
and Lisa and Hannan Lis at 
their wedding.

Shimon G. 
Levy

continued on page 40

