How a New Jersey woman is providing the IDF with essential gear

2,500 ballistic glasses, 2,000 bulletproof vests, and countless other gear have been shipped to soldiers.

By Troy O. Fritzhand, The Algemeiner

Like most Israelis and Jews living in the diaspora, Adi Vaxman turned on the news on Oct. 7 to complete shock and horror. The scenes of Hamas terrorists rampaging across southern Israel — where they murdered 1,200 people and took 240 more as hostages — immediately seared itself into the Jewish psyche.

Vaxman, though, jumped into action to help her people, succeeding in the most remarkable ways with her nonprofit Operation Israel.

“I was traumatized and upset, but within 10 days [after Oct. 7] we had the nonprofit registered and everything was operating,” she told The Algemeiner from her home in New Jersey.

Operation Israel, which has raised more than $7.25 million since the war started, has been shipping essential gear to Israel’s soldiers fighting Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah to the north by the Lebanese border, and Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank.

Vaxman, a business operations consultant, said new ideas for the organization started immediately out of necessity.

“I had family members drafted to the army, but people reported to duty drafted or not,” she explained. In her case, helping to fulfill the desperate needs of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the early days of the war, woefully unprepared for the immediate call up of over 350,000 reservists to duty, was the top priority.

Operation Israel set up an online intake form where units could request exactly what they needed. “In the beginning, it was ceramic vests and ceramic plates, then different types of gear,” Vaxman said. “We were researching what to buy, where to buy it — can it be bought in Israel?”

Today, the organization is focused on more specialized gear such as “drones, special communication equipment, medical supplies, tactical protective gear, tents, heaters, and other items.

The resultant work has led Operation Israel to now be partners with specific units dealing with drone training and anti-terrorism — and the success the nonprofit is bringing the units is evident in the daily antidotes that come from the field. “The drones are saving lives, being flown into tunnels before soldiers … If something is blown up it is the drone, not a soldier or dog,” Vaxman said. She told one story from last week when 14 soldiers were saved after being stuck in frigid temperatures, keeping themselves warm with the blankets provided by Operation Israel.

Other stories Vaxman’s team has received are of soldiers whose lives were saved by the ballistic goggles they have been providing. “These are the stories that make it all worth it,” she said.

Currently, the organization has dozens of volunteers both in the US and Israel working around the clock to fulfill the needs of Israel’s frontline fighters. To date, they have shipped more than $7 million worth of gear — more than 66,000 pounds combined — to over 900 units, comprising more than 10,000 soldiers. This included 2,500 ballistic glasses, 2,000 bulletproof vests, 2,000 tactical sunglasses, 1,000 rescue blankets, and countless other gear.

The requests are not simple, and they come in daily. For example, some drones can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000, meaning sourcing the right gear is critical.

“I wish we didn’t have to do the work, but I am proud to,” Vaxman said. “God gave me a gift in my abilities to do so.”

One effect of the Israel-Hamas war that she did not expect was how it would impact her and her family, specifically as it pertains to long-term planning and where they would live. On Jan. 1, Vaxman was walking in the American Dream Mall in New Jersey with her husband, 16-year-old daughter, 12-year-old son, and her daughter’s friend. Proud of their heritage, her daughter was wearing an IDF jacket, leading hostile pro-Hamas agitators to approach her family and yell profanities.

“We started hearing all from behind us: Free Palestine, f—k Israel, f—k you bi—h, f—k you wh—e,” all directed at her daughter, Vaxman said. “My husband got between them and us, telling them to leave her alone, saying she is just a child.” However, the agitators continued the antisemitic harassment, cursing and threw her phone to the ground.

Vaxman, who was raised by Holocaust survivors, said the incident shook her daughter, who has been struggling since. “They were going at her in a vile, horrible way,” Vaxman said. The family submitted the video to the nonprofit watchdog group StopAntisemitism, which is active on social media, where the clip went viral. The watchdog found the main assailant, who claimed to be Palestinian in the video, although it turned out she was Hispanic.

“Until the attack it hadn’t crossed my mind to live anywhere else,” Vaxman said. “But the rise of antisemitism and the way it has become acceptable, I don’t know if we are going to be here.”

Antisemitism has skyrocketed to historic levels worldwide, including in the US, since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.

At the same time, Vaxman’s kids have shown a deeper appreciation for their Jewish heritage, no doubt in part due to their mother, who said she was committed to working on behalf of the Jewish people and Israel, providing IDF soldiers with all their needs as they come in.

“I am never going to stop advocating for the Jewish people and Israel,” she said.

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