26 | JANUARY 11 • 2024 J
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ne night in early
December 2023, Yaffa
Magier, a Lone Soldier
from Southfield, stepped off a
bus at her army base and saw
a red cloth lined with rocks on
the desert ground. Momentarily
confused, she then caught a
glimpse of her boyfriend holding
flowers and a ring. As her fellow
soldiers began to cheer, Jonah

Peterson dropped to one knee
and proposed.
Both Jonah and Yaffa grew
up in Southfield and attended
Farber Hebrew Day School
(Jonah was three grades above
Yaffa). They were good friends
while growing up. They start-
ed dating in 2018, but with
Jonah in Israel and Yaffa still in
high school, the two found the

long-distance relationship too
challenging and broke up.

JONAH’S IDF JOURNEY
“In 2018, I went to Yeshivah
Neve Tzion, outside Jerusalem,
and fell in love with Israel. I felt
like I was at home. I’
d never felt
this way before,
” Jonah said.
“When I saw soldiers in the
street, I wanted to do the same
thing.
”
He enlisted in the IDF in
March 2019. After training, he
drafted into a combat intelli-
gence unit. He also successfully
completed a commander’s
course and was a commander of
new enrollees in basic training
for eight months.
“Those were the best eight
months of my life,
” Jonah said. “I
learned so much about myself. I
learned how to be a leader.
”
His service officially ended
December 2021, after which
he worked for the Ministry of
Finance in the security wing.
That summer, he went back
to Michigan to be a Tamarack
camp counselor. (“My mom
went to Tamarack; my grandma
went; it’s a family thing!”) At
the end of the summer, Jonah
returned to Israel and was
recruited into Magav, a national
border patrol unit.
When the war broke out on
Oct. 7, Jonah’s unit was among
the first to be deployed.
“I woke up on Shabbat at
7 a.m.; by 7:15, I was out the
door and on my way to the
south,
” Jonah said.
For the next two months, his
unit went house to house and
were the first to see the horror
that Hamas had inflicted. They
were tasked with finding and
arresting terrorists who were
hiding in the different yishuvim
(neighborhoods).
When asked how he han-
dled seeing so many disturb-
ing scenes, Jonah answered,
“It wasn’t easy, but I had my

brothers with me. We all saw
it together; we all dealt with it
together, and we knew we just
had to keep moving forward in
order to protect our great nation.
Knowing that we had important
work to do, and it needed to get
done was my motivator.
”

YAFFA’S IDF JOURNEY
In 2019, Yaffa attended
Midreshet Tehilla in Jerusalem.
COVID broke out mid-year, and
she felt like she’
d missed out on
some of that trademark Israel
experience.
“I went back to Michigan,
already knowing I wanted to
live in Israel,
” Yaffa said. She
returned in 2021, worked as a
madricha at Bar-Ilan University,
and officially made aliyah in
2022.
“I decided that if I was a citi-
zen of the country, then I should
also serve, be part of the culture
and give back,
” Yaffa explained.
She drafted into the IDF in
May 2023 and joined the same
combat intelligence unit Jonah
had been in just a few years
before. She also became a sharp-
shooter.
“We deal with intelligence in
the fields, navigations, under-
standing and knowing our sur-
roundings. We’re the eyes for the
other units,
” Yaffa said. “It’s been
an adventure!”
When the war broke out, she
was still in training, which was
accelerated. Yaffa finishes her
training in less than one month,
then her unit will be sent to the
Syrian border for the remainder
of their service.

THE LOVE STORY
Two years after they’
d broken
up, Yaffa and Jonah were in the
same country. The time was
ripe, and they reconnected.
“I knew how much I’
d missed
Yaffa and how much she means
to me. We dated for another two
years and I quickly realized Yaffa

A Detroit-Israel
Love Story

OUR COMMUNITY

Two Lone Soldiers from Southfi
eld
come together in Israel during war.

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

She said yes!
Yaffa and Jonah
at the surprise
proposal on
her base.