NOVEMBER 23 • 2023 | 25

In that way, Shira set up 
more than 100 Lone Soldiers 
with host families. She 
matched her parents with a 
certain Lone Soldier called 
Menachem Brown who 
visited his host family one 
Shabbat. He immediately 
caught Shira’s eye. 
“I already had his phone 
number, so I made a move,” 
Shira said. She called him 
after Shabbat and asked him 
out. They married in 2018, 
four days after Menachem 
finished his service. 
According to the Lone 
Soldier Center, about 50% 
of Lone Soldiers in the IDF 
grew up in Israel, but their 
families are unable to care 
for them or disapprove 
of them joining the army. 
Menachem had grown up 
in Har Nof and fell into that 
category. 
When they married, Shira 
knew her husband was a 
reservist; he trained once a 
year, and there was a chance 
he might be called up to 
serve again one day. That 
knowledge didn’t make the 
reality any easier. When 
Menachem was called up, he 
trained for two days and was 
then sent to the breached 
fence on the border of Gaza 
for guard duty.
Menachem is part of 
Givati, a combat unit, and, 
according to Shira, seems 
quite content to be reunited 
with his old unit, despite the 
terrible circumstances. 
“It seems like a bittersweet 
reunion. Menachem is with 
his friends and doing just 
fine,” Shira said. “Whenever 
we speak, I hear music 
playing in the background. 
Just yesterday, he said, ‘I’ll 
call you back, I’m busy’ and 
I heard someone say, ‘Please 
pass the steak!’ He was busy 

because he was enjoying a 
barbecue!”
Shira considers herself 
fortunate; she hears from 
her husband once a day. 
Some soldiers are in Gaza 
with no access to their 
phones and they haven’t 
spoken to their terrified 
“Shero” wives in weeks. 
Twice since the war broke 
out, Menachem was allowed 
to come home for 24 hours 
at a time, which Shira said 
was incredible. 
“It’s like a roller coaster,” 
Shira described. “There’s 
all this fun prep before, 
cooking and baking with 
the kids, we’re so hyped 
up. Then he’s home and it’s 
heaven! Nothing else in the 
world matters. We just want 
to breathe him in. Then 
when he leaves, it’s a huge 
crash; it’s so painful.”
Shira’s moshav has been a 
huge support. The Sheroes 
have free group therapy 
once a week. Dinners. 
Invitations for Shabbat 
meals. Shira’s backup 
plan for if things become 
unbearable has been to 
camp by her parents, who 
live in Beit Shemesh, almost 
two hours away, but so far 
she hasn’t needed it. 
She feels uplifted by the 
support of her moshav 
and is eager to get more 
love and support to all the 
overlooked hard-working 
wives who sacrifice so much 
and are juggling so many 
responsibilities single-
handedly while holding 
down the home front so 
that their men can go out 
worry-free to rid the world 
of Hamas. 

For more information, to donate or 

support these Sheroes, check out 

shirabrown.com/sheroes. 

