By Nena C. Benigno
THERE is a love affair in Israel that is transcending past and present-day Holocausts, terrorist attacks and all wars against what the Bible calls the “Promised Land.” And that is the affection, trust and kinship – even unto death– between the Jews and the “Filippinis” they call members of their family.
Angeline Aguirre-Torres, physical therapist and caregiver to two Jewish “Savtas” (grandmothers), had probably hugged her elderly wards many times. But the last and the tightest was on the morning of October 7 when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip, and brutally slaughtered 1,400 civilians, including babies, grandmothers and pregnant women. They also kidnapped 242 persons and held them hostages, including 30 children and two Filipino caregivers of elderly Jews.
Angeline tried to push the door shut, to no avail as Hamas gunmen broke through and stormed their home in Kibbutz Kfar Gaza. Rather than run for her life, Angeline dashed over to her 81-year-old Savta Nira and embraced her, shielding her from a rain of bullets that hit her back and thighs and pierced Nira as well.
It was all captured on the video cam of Nira’s family who watched helplessly and horrified as Savta bid them goodbye before she and Angeline perished in a last bloody embrace.
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum called Angeline a “wonderful hero,” displaying “unbelievable humanity and loyalty… unimaginable honor in the face of evil.”
Tragically, there will be no last embrace for Nick Torre, Angeline’s husband whom she had just married in Pangasinan the month before. A weeping, devastated Nick had been looking forward to reuniting with his pretty wife in 2024, to explore job prospects in Israel, and continue their honeymoon in the “Land of Milk and Honey.”
Nor will there be happy and carefree Sabbath Day (Saturday day-off) outings for Angeline’s caregiver “barkada”–her sister Anjenica and friend Aza Tamania who will deeply miss their patient, positive-minded and ever-smiling “yedida” (friend), who was much loved by the families of the elderly she cared for.
Aza and Anjenica came to the Philippines to bury Angeline in a private ceremony last November 8, and take a break before returning to Israel to resume their work as caregivers. Gladys Tamania, Aza’s mother, was concerned. What about the ongoing war that could escalate? Rockets are still flying. And what if their communities are attacked by terrorists? Would they be willing to risk their lives as human shields like Angeline?
“Of course, we will protect them, even if it will mean dying with them,” Aza and Anjenica replied without hesitation. Gladys was astonished and impressed by their conviction and courage. “My mother’s heart was pricked, squeezed to the max!” she described.
The same self-sacrifice and heroism were displayed by three more caregivers who stayed with their elderly patients till their last breath — Grace Cabrera, mother of three; Loreta Alacre, and Paul Vincent Castelvi, father of a firstborn baby he and his wife had been waiting for 10 years. For the families of caregiver hostages Jimmy Pacheco and Noralyn Babadilla, every day is still a nightmare of dread and suspense.
“Many in our country owe the Filipino people so much. It’s as painful to lose one of yours as it is to lose one of ours,” described Deputy-Mayor Hassan Nahoum emotionally.
The Israeli government will be repaying the families of the fallen “Filippini” generously. Under the “Victims of Hostile Acts” Israeli law, bereaved spouses, children and parents will receive substantial lifetime compensation from the government. The benefits will be the same for Filipinos as for Israeli citizens.
“Those Filipinos who died stayed with their patients and were murdered with them; a closer bond than that you cannot have. For me, this is a very strong message of solidarity and brotherhood,” Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss shared in a memorial service hosted by Jesus Reigns Ministries and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) on October 24. “Filipinos are part of our families in Israel and we are part of the Philippines.”
Ambassador Fluss recalls the time he heard of Israel’s recent “Holocaust.” It was terrible, a nightmare. I couldn’t sleep for several days. My heart and my mind were at home with my family, my brothers and sisters, my community.”
His home in Israel is now one of several refuge places for tens of thousands of Jewish families who fled from rocket attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists in Southern and Northern Israel.
“We are providing clothes, food, and psychological counseling. It is emotionally very difficult. My nephew was wounded in the fighting and is now in the hospital.
“Israel has a long history of persecution, of being attacked, of not being recognized,” Ambassador Fluss recounted. “But we have a strength born from our determination, resilience, unity and unyielding spirit. A strength that comes from the understanding that we have nowhere else to go. It’s either we win or we die. So, we will win.”
Meanwhile, the over 30,000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who are in Israel are not leaving, despite the threat of an all-out war with Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and arch-enemy Iran.
“I talk to my kids every day, and they keep telling me to go home,” shared caregiver Raquel Ilagan. “I’ve been here in Israel for 18 years. I used to live in Ashdod, a war zone. Rockets would fly from Gaza every 15 minutes; we had no bomb shelter and the Iron Dome hadn’t been invented yet. But there was a Divine Hand that kept me safe. If God protected me then, more so now!”
Raquel is caring for Saadya Mualem, a bedridden elderly lady in a Kibbutz in Rehovot which is also near Gaza. “My job is easy and I’m treated like a member of the family,” she shared. “Mapagmahal sila–friendly, mapagbigay, makatao, ma-respeto, lalo na sa babae. Hindi sila nananakit ng kapwa. Alam namin dahil dito kami nakatira. (They’re a loving people–friendly, giving, humane, respectful, specially of women. We know because we live here.)
“Gustong burahin ng mga kaaway ng Israel ang mga Hudyo at ang Promised Land sa mapa. Pero hindi nila mabubura ito dahil sila’y chosen people at ito’y Bayan ng Diyos!” (The enemies of Israel would like to erase the Jewish State from the map, but they won’t be able to because this is God’s country and Chosen People.”)
“I love Israel, I love the people here. Ang gaganda ng mga puso nila, ang babait nila, (They have such good hearts and theyre very kind),” shared Jackie Mabazza, 16 years working as a live-out domestic helper in Tel Aviv. “They’re not like other employers who maltreat you, order you around. When I’m walking alone at night and they see I’m being harassed or in danger, they will come over and defend me, and stop those who want to harm me.
“Where do you find a country like Israel that delivers food, water and electricity to its enemies (in Gaza)? When the Palestinians have medical needs they can’t handle, they send their sick people to Israeli hospitals where they’re treated for free. Thousands of Palestinians are allowed to work here for good pay. Ang Israel ay hindi nagsisimula ng gulo, ng war (Israel never starts the trouble or war). It’s the neighboring nations who are always provoking Israel, who start conflicts.
“Kahit bigyan pa ako ng free ticket, hindi ako aalis dito (I won’t leave). I will stand with Israel. I know they will win this war. It is destined, written in the Bible. The Lord is with Israel. And whoever blesses Israel will be blest!”
Caregiver Camille Jesalva and 77-year-old Savta Nitza Hefetz are best friends and have lived together for five years. “She taught me everything–how to speak Hebrew, do cross stitch, make bags, artistic things,” Camille enthused. “She encourages me to jog, attend parties, and enjoy. She’s perfect!”
Camille, in turn, brought health and well-being to her Savta. “She was sickly when I arrived, with headaches and other ailments. Now she’s healthy and doesn’t go to the hospital anymore. Her family told me that when I came, the house came alive and Nitza is glowing.”
Until last October 7, when a nonstop barrage of rockets, followed by rapid gunfire, rudely awakened their neighborhood in Kibbutz Nirim.
“Oh, this is just normal,” Camille initially thought. Their community was close to the Gaza Strip, and Hamas had been regularly firing rockets in their direction in the five years she had lived there. They only had 40 seconds to flee to their bomb shelters. But Israel’s famed Iron Dome defense system always intercepted the missiles.
Then they heard Arab voices outside their house. Again, this was routine. Thousands of Palestinians from Gaza regularly crossed over to work in Israel.
“In Israel, we love Arabics, we love everyone,” declared Camille, who was sociable and had interacted with the Palestinians. But this time, the voices were rough and aggressive. “They were shouting,” Camilla recalled. Then a Jewish man and a baby were shot to death in the house across from theirs. Horrified, Camilla brought Nitza to their bomb shelter.
Two groups of Hamas terrorists barged in and ransacked their house. By a miracle, they left Camille and Nitza alone, perhaps because the electricity had gone out and it was too dark inside for them to be noticed. Trembling with fear, Camille put a hand on Nitza’s mouth to keep her quiet. When they left, she called her mom in the Philippines to please send her a picture of her 7-year-old son. She wanted to take a last look at his face before they were killed.
After an hour, another Hamas gunman entered their house and found them in the bomb shelter. This time, Nitza spoke up before Camille could stop her. “Shalom Adoni,” Nitza greeted the intruder innocently. “Why are you here? Sir, please, she doesn’t know anything. She’s old so be patient with her,” Camille pleaded.
She noticed the man was looking at the items on her dresser. In a flash of inspiration, she picked up her wallet and offered him everything in it, including $370 in savings she was bringing home to the Philippines. “Money sir? Take it all. Just don’t hurt us. But please don’t take my passport and airplane ticket. I’m going home to the Philippines in two days to see my son.”
The man took her money, cellphone and cellphone charger and headed out the door. “Thank you, sir,” Camille recalled telling him, even escorting him, then politely added: “I will close the door now.”
She then collapsed beside Nitza who began to stroke and comfort her caregiver, who was shaking from head to foot. “Maybe if she didn’t stroke me, I would die from nervousness,” said Camille, who was doubly calmed by the expression on Nitza’s face. “She looked so pretty and was smiling like a baby. We lay there for two-and-a-half-hours. All the time, Nitza was caressing me… she loves me so much.”
When the Israeli soldiers finally arrived, they were amazed that the two were alive. “Someone was covering us,” Camille explained. “It was God!”
To this day, they are astounded at their miraculous deliverance from the bloodbath that happened all around them.
In Kibbutz Nirim and other nearby communities, 40 babies had been beheaded, pregnant mothers had been cut open, families were tied together, doused with kerosene and burned alive, parents were tortured and killed in front of their children and other horrors unheard of in modern civilized society.
The scene was rightly labeled a second Holocaust–coined from a Greek word, meaning “burnt sacrifice or offering.” In the Nazi Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of Jewish corpses were burned in ovens. In the Hamas rampage, there were so many bodies charred and reduced to ashes it was almost impossible to identify them.
In the first Holocaust, the Philippines was the only nation in the world that opened its doors to Jews fleeing genocide and a wave of anti-Semitism sweeping through Europe and America. In this Hamas-ignited Holocaust, Filipinos opened their hearts, embraced the Jews, and even gave their lives in the midst of a phenomenal global tide of Jewish hatred and persecution.
“We weep with you, we grieve with you, your pain is our pain, your loss, our loss,” described Aurora Comsti, writer of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) Asia as Jews and Filipinos offered flowers and lit candles before photos of Israelis and Filipinos murdered in the massacre.
“You children are our children, your mothers and brothers, our children, mothers and brothers; your God — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — is our God,” declared Nonong Malapit, a sympathizer who came all the way from Trinidad in Benguet to express his support. “The Bible we’re reading came from the Jews and Israel. Hindi ito galing sa Africa or sa Korea (This did not come from Africa or Korea). And the Bible says we’re grafted-in (to Abraham’s family tree of faith).”
The open-air rally titled “Israel, You are Not Alone,” was spontaneously launched by several Christian groups who led a motorcade down Quezon Avenue, culminating at the Quezon Memorial Circle last October 22. Participants coming from as far as Baguio and La Trinidad in Benguet waved banners, offered condolences, prayed for the safe return of the 242 hostages, and expressed outrage at the barbarism inflicted on sleeping civilians on October 7.
“I came all the way from Baguio City to denounce terrorism, anti-Semitism, and violence,” declared Gladys Tamania, the mother of caregiver Aza and a veteran professor of history at a prominent university. “We should not be biased in our thinking. We should seek the truth, see both sides (of the Israel-Palestinian conflict), and weigh the evidence from history!”
“For the Philippines to stand with Israel means a great deal to us, especially now that so many have misunderstood us,” said Rabbi Jonathan Goldschmidt, who attended the rally along with other members of the Jewish community in the Philippines. “I’ve traveled a lot, but I’ve never met such friendly people in my entire life. We want you Filipinos to have peace, blessing, and prosperity. Hopefully, mankind will move out of this darkness into a time of betterment, into light, into good things.
“The Bible says the time will come. But not before ‘Armageddon,’ the last great battle for the throne of God in Jerusalem. For Christians, this will happen before Jesus Christ returns to Jerusalem as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. For Jews, it’s the final conflict before the triumphant reign of their Messiah from the line of King David. For both, it’s when all races and nations will finally live together in peace as one family. Isaiah, Biblical prophet to both Jews and Christians describes it this way:
“Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us, a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.” (Isaiah 9:5-7)
