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November 7, 2008
From fighter to teacher
Israeli veteran talks about wartime experiences.
RHONDA SPIVAK
Rabbi Uriel Malka, a veteran of the Second Lebanon War, is the new principal of Winnipeg's Ohr Hatorah Day School, a small Orthodox school with about 60 students.
The 30-year-old Malka, who fought hand-to-hand combat in the homes of Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, said, "It is a miracle that I am alive, as there were times in the war when I was shot at directly by Hezbollah fighters. I met them face to face. I could see their eyes."
"I lost 12 of my friends from my [paratroopers] unit, who were killed in a rocket attack in Kfar Giladi [near Kiryat Shemona in northern Israel on Aug. 6, 2006]. I was not in Kfar Giladi with them because I was already in Lebanon. We did not find out that those in our unit had died right away. Our commander had us take out the batteries in our equipment so we could not hear the names of those who died, so we wouldn't realize they were from our unit. Four days later, our commander called us together in the [deserted] home of a Hezbollah terrorist and told us what had happened. He told us we had to be strong. It was very difficult."
Malka said that, on the very first day he was in Lebanon, fighting in the village of Rabat Talatin, he got a taste of just how hard things were going to be.
"Hezbollah terrorists were shooting at us in one direction and, as we pursued them from that direction, another group of Hezbollah came from the other direction. There were 60 of us from my unit in a Hezbollah home. Hezbollah had the opportunity to shoot three missiles at us in the house. Had they hit the house, all of us would have died. The first two missiles just missed the house. The third one hit the roof. We were all lucky to get out alive," he said.
Malka said that, when he got called to go to war, he was scheduled to go on shlichut (to become an Israeli emissary) with his family to teach in Denver. "My ticket was booked and our suitcases were already packed. The Jewish Agency later told me that if I had explained the situation to the army, I would not have had to serve in the war, but I knew I couldn't go to Denver and leave my friends. We are like brothers in my unit. I couldn't have left them to fight alone, so I cancelled my ticket and we got to Denver later than planned. I left for Denver two days after the war ended."
Malka spent the last two years teaching in Denver, which has a Jewish community of approximately 80,000. He was the head of an Orthodox school there, with an enrolment of 120 students.
Malka has a bachelor of education degree from Beit Midrash for teachers of Judaic studies in Rechovot. He is a graduate of the Yeshivot Hesder program, which combines Talmud study and military service within a religious Zionist framework. In addition to being principal of Ohr Hatorah, Malka will also teach classes there.
In reflecting on his experiences in the war, Malka said, "We had lots of problems with not getting enough supplies sent to us. We would take over a Hezbollah home and we wouldn't have enough to eat, so we were eating rice and potatoes and items from the homes of Hezbollah. We underestimated how well Hezbollah was prepared for us. They had better electronic and communications equipment than we realized, they knew the terrain and they had built extensive escape routes, which made it hard to find them.
"In Lebanon, my unit fought at night, because we had special equipment that gave us good night vision, which gave us an advantage over Hezbollah, but then it turned out we did not have enough of this special equipment, and this advantage was eliminated. We then fought also in the day. A lot of things went wrong. I don't like to talk about it," he said.
Malka's wife, Ortal, who teaches preschool at Ohr Hatorah, said that when her husband was called up to Lebanon, she was very worried. "I was four months pregnant and it was a very stressful time.
"I hope that he [Malka] will speak about his experiences in the war during Remembrance Day and Yom Ha'atzmaut to members of the community here. He did this when we were in Denver," she said.
The Malkas and their five children are from the settlement of Karnei Shomron, located in western Samaria, east of Kfar Saba. Established in 1977, the settlement is made up of about 450 families.
Rhonda Spivak is a freelance writer who divides her time between Israel and Winnipeg.
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