By Mitch Kora and Miriam Bell…
One Community Chronicle correspondent Mitch Kora wanted to write about the experiences of wives of IDF reservists while on her visit to Israel.
Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection and it seemed appropriate to include the story this week as Israel is united in wanting a better year ahead, she says.
Here’s her story:
A new term has emerged in modern Hebrew: “Miluima”. It is a blend of “Miluim” (reservist duty) and “Ima” (mother), and Israel has no shortage of women who qualify.
Between Oct 2023 and April 2024, the IDF redrafted over 300,000 Israelis from reserve status. By late 2025, that number has reportedly surpassed 450,000, according to The Times of Israel. The vast majority of them are men, and most are under 30.
In Israel, military service is mandatory for most citizens from 18 years. Most complete their service and move on with their lives: study, build careers, and start families.
However, the fine print explains that although discharged from active duty, soldiers who have completed their three year compulsory service remain enlisted military personnel.
This status remains until personnel reach age 40 to 49 years depending upon previous roles, making them eligible for call up by way of a Tzav 8 or Order 8 arrives – a compulsory return to service
The maximum call back used to be 25 days within any 12 month period, but that has slowly crept up to 136, and some serve much longer.
It has left many reservists’ wives at home alone, often with small children.
Sarah* and her husband Noah* opened a small restaurant in the northern town of Tzfat (Sefed) in late 2022.
They invested in renovations, a commercial kitchen and marketing. With two children (2 and 5) their business model was based around both parents working at the restaurant.
But in November 2023, Noah was called up and left within days. He didn’t come home for almost a month.
“This came right after Covid,” Sarah says. “Salary compensation for when Noah was away was zero because of the eligibility rules for self-employed reservists”.
Although the restaurant was not reliant on a tourist market and had started to gain local support, it was not possible to continue without Noah and had to close.
Sarah has taken a full-time administration job to bring in some more money, and says she has been living like a single parent for months.
“But that isn’t the worst part. We know he is in a combat environment and it can be days without a message – not knowing is hard”.
Her friends have similar frustrations and worries, she says. “And when it comes to their jobs, some of them have gone due to their reserve service, even if that’s not allowed.”
Minimum compensation paid by the Israeli government for reserve duty increased significantly in January 2025, and is now NIS 229.82 (about NZ $117.00) per day. The amount increases based on reservists’ earnings.
Employers are obligated to continue paying salaries or wages and will be retrospectively compensated by the National Insurance Institute while the employee is drafted, according to leading law firm Barnea.
However, that process is often delayed, alongside the required assessments for self-employed earnings.
Chana* is 29 with four young children, so when her husband was called up for a lengthy deployment she and the kids relocated to Rosh Pina to be close to her mother.
She fears for her husband’s career as a civil engineer which he loves. “It’s not just the money, careers are often ruined also because reservists can’t compete with colleagues who don’t serve.”
Chana also had to leave her part time job and their much-loved apartment in Tel Aviv. But “I just want my husband home”, she says – while admitting she is not clear about where that will be.
Early efforts to support families like those of Sarah and Chana were patchy. The Reservists’ Wives Forum was one of the first groups, but its reach did not extend to Northern towns like Sarah’s.
More recently, new organisations have stepped up. HaOgen (The Anchor), which is funded through public donations, now reaches over 800 towns in Israel and services over 30,000 families.
But – still many Miluima feel alone.
Sarah is frustrated about the course of war in general. “We sat back for three weeks after Oct 7 and since then we seem to keep going in and out [Gaza] and in and out,” she says.
“It’s not that we don’t care about the hostages, we do, but it puts all of us at risk at the same time we have soldiers dying and are being destroyed by the media.”
Chana does not understand how it all happened in the first place. “How did we not see it coming?” she says.
“People don’t get it, if we stop we will die. If Gaza stops, all this stops. People do understand that they took us from the street in our pyjamas, took us over to Gaza and are still holding us hostage don’t they?”
*Not their real name. We have agreed to change their name to protect their identity.
Read the introduction to Mitch Kora’s “Six Stories, Six Weeks” on the One Community Chronicle HERE, and read the first of Kora’s stories HERE.
