JANUARY 4 • 2024 | 29
J
N
ERETZ
O
n the first day of
Chanukah, hours
before Shabbat, IDF
spokesperson and Detroit
native Maj. Doron Spielman
boarded a Hummer and headed
for the northern
Gaza Strip. Just
before leaving base
to visit soldiers
who were clear-
ing territory in
Jabalya, someone
handed him a cha-
nukiah and some candles for
the soldiers.
Surrounded by soldiers who
blocked the wind with their
bodies and stood at the ready
with their guns, they lit the cha-
nukiah. As they sang the bless-
ings, the group took active fire
and eliminated terrorists hiding
in a bombed-out structure from
300 meters away. Rockets fired
from Hamas shot overhead and
headed toward Tel Aviv.
“
At that point, Chanukah
took on a whole new meaning
for me,
” said Spielman, who
is one of just four English-
speaking media relations pro-
fessionals in the IDF with clear-
ance to speak on camera with
broadcast news outlets.
“We have been lighting these
candles for 2,000 years, and we
will prevail over this as well. On
these dark days of war, when I
need solace, my mind will go
back to that moment lighting
those candles in Gaza with
those soldiers.
”
After over two months,
Spielman said wartime Israel
has fallen into a surreal
“rhythm,
” a cadence set during
the early hours of Shabbat
morning, which marked the
start of the war.
In the first days following the
Oct. 7 massacre, Spielman was
one of the IDF spokespeople
who bore immediate witness to
the destruction of communi-
ties in the Gaza envelope.
He said during the first
weeks of the war, he was per-
meated by the smell of death,
escorting journalists to the
decimated communities along
the Gaza envelope.
“We count the days of the
war based on Shabbat,
” said
Spielman, who is shomer
Shabbat, but nowadays the war
has forced him to drive and
work on Saturdays. “Those
first days and weeks, we were
on survival mode. Our whole
rhythm in Israel right now is
based on the war.
“The first two weeks were
the hardest weeks of my life,
”
recalled Spielman, who grew up
at Adat Shalom Synagogue and
owes his love of Israel to intern-
ing at the Jewish Federation
of Detroit and spending 10
months in Israel shortly after
graduating from the University
of Michigan through Project
OTZMA. “It was so important
bringing journalists there to
bear witness, but the smell of
death stayed with me mentally
and physically for days.
”
Instead of going home to
his wife and six children, ages
20 to 7, during those days he
rented an apartment and stayed
there alone. He could not bear
to bring that smell back to his
Metro Detroit native is one of only a few IDF
spokespeople speaking on broadcast news.
Framing the War for
a World Audience
continued on page 30
Maj. Doron
Spielman
spokespeople speaking on broadcast news.
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Escorting the press
on the ground
Doron Spielman
on the job in Gaza
Lighting the
Chanukah candles
in Gaza