Day 582 - Her son was killed by Hamas. Why she still believes in coexistence

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

News

4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Elana Kaminka, peace activist and bereaved mother.

On October 7, 2023, Elana's firstborn son, Lt. Yannai Kaminka, 20, a commander in the Home Front Command, was killed battling against Hamas at the Zikim IDF training base. His efforts and those of his fellow officers there saved the lives of almost 100 recruits, as charted in a recently released IDF probe into the failures on and leading up to October 7.

In a frank and open discussion about what it means to choose a path of peace after losing her first child to terrorists bent on destroying her nation, Kaminka speaks with The Times of Israel just after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down in refusing to hold a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 disasters.

Kaminka made aliya from California as a lone soldier at age 18 and later married Eyal with whom she had four children. Prior to October 7, she was already active in groups committed to fostering empathetic, respectful and nuanced dialogue. After losing her son, she redoubled her efforts to promote engagement between Israeli Jews and Palestinians -- and to protest the Netanyahu government, which she holds accountable for her son's death.

She is an active member of Tag Meir and the Parents Circle Families Forum and speaks tirelessly about the need to counter extremism and develop empathy and compassion among all levels of Israeli society.

While advocating for a future of dignity and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike in the Land of Israel, she is also a mother of three additional children, including her son who was conscripted to a paramedics unit a mere six weeks following his older brother's death.

And so this week, we ask Elana Kaminka, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel's What Matters now, a weekly podcast diving into one topic affecting Israel and the Jewish world right now.
0:09.8	I'm your host, Deputy Editor Amanda Barshall Dan, today with Ilana Kaminka, whose son Yanai was killed on October 7, 2023, while defending the idea of Zikim base.
0:22.6	Ilana, thank you so much for joining me today.
0:24.7	Thank you for having me.
0:25.8	We are here for a rare, open discussion about why a bereaved family would continue on the path
0:34.1	of peace and coexistence, even after the killing of their own son, on one of the
0:40.7	biggest slaughtering of the Jewish people to date. So we are going to talk about all of that
0:45.7	in an open, respectful way when we're back.
0:54.0	Tolkien's trilogy was a perfect book to send to a POW.
0:59.7	Very well-defined good and evil.
1:02.8	And it was a great escape from the physical environment that we were in.
1:07.7	It's November 16, 1973, and we're at the military section of the Lode airport.
1:12.6	A red and white, DC-6 passenger plane lands, and out of it comes a stream of young men.
1:18.6	Ten men known collectively as Shvuyi Milchamitatasha, the POWs of the War of Attrition.
1:25.6	All of them had been held, most of the time together,
1:29.0	in an Egyptian prison for more than three and a half years. So it was very much a kibbutz.
1:35.4	I want to draw your attention to a small, tattered bag, Menachem Eny is holding. That brown knapsack
1:41.2	actually held a treasure, a manuscript that would make these men in their
1:45.4	unlikely story momentarily famous. It was the fruit of their communal work during the years in
1:50.9	which they were held in one of Egypt's most notorious dungeons. The Hebrew translation of the
1:57.2	Hobbit. Check out the Israel Story episode, The Hebrew Hobbit.
2:02.7	Find Israel Story wherever you get your podcasts.
	...

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