26 | JANUARY 11 • 2024 J
N

O

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.

