26 | OCTOBER 26 • 2023 J
N

A

nna Rubin Mizrachi 
has an American 
passport, but has 
decided to stay in Israel, even 
with emergency evacuations 
underway to bring U.S. 
citizens back. 
 The Farmington Hills 
native made aliyah in 
December 2018, inspired 
by her education at Frankel 
Jewish Academy, Jewish 

student involvement at 
Michigan State University, 
work at Israel’s Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs and her 
family’s affinity for Israel. 
“My mom is very 
connected to the Jewish 
community and to Israel. 
She had been here; she had 
lived in Israel a year after the 
1973 Yom Kippur War, so my 
whole life she talked about 

Israel being our home,” she 
says. 
Since moving to Israel, 
Rubin Mizrachi’s been busy 
building a life and career 
there, immersing herself in 
Israeli culture and expanding 
on the Hebrew she learned 
at school. Last month, she 
married her now-husband, 
Kobe Mizrachi, an Israeli 
from Rehovot who she met 

during her time working for 
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs in Los Angeles. 
The world is so different 
now, she says, than just last 
month, when 50 guests flew 
in from the United States and 
Japan to join their wedding 
celebration. Their family 
and friends, many first-time 
visitors to Israel, toured the 
north, south and Jerusalem. 
“They really got to experience 
the Israel that I know and I 
love, that we all know and 
love,” she says. 
Her aunt, uncle and mother 
 
were the last family members 
to leave. They left a week 
later on Friday. “And then 
Saturday morning, our world 
changed,” she says. 
Rubin Mizrachi was at 
home in bed Oct. 7 when she 
heard the booming of rockets 
over Tel Aviv. It was early, she 
recalls. She got a text from 
her husband’s family group 
chat asking if they were OK, 
and woke her husband. They 
got dressed and went into 
the stairwell, which serves as 
their bomb shelter, then went 
back to bed when the sirens 
stopped. 
“We were on our phones, 
and we just started seeing 
videos of Hamas terrorists in 
Israeli communities,” she says. 
They didn’t believe it at 
first; they stayed glued to 
the news over the weekend 
in shock and horror, amid 
flurries of texts, WhatsApp 
messages and Facebook group 
messages. 
By Monday, the posts had 
shifted to collecting food and 
donations for soldiers. “I saw 
a post of someone I know — 
his friends had opened a food 
truck and there were soldiers 
coming through, so a bunch 

OUR COMMUNITY

Farmington Hills native chooses to stay in Israel 
and volunteer.

‘Everyone Has 
 Come Together’

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

LEFT: Anna Rubin Mizrachi 
volunteers at a food truck 
near an army base.