Hila (37), a high-tech entrepreneur, is married to Ariel (37), VP at Harry Zahav. They live in Leshem and are the parents of five children: Shoham (12.5), Lavi (10.5), Stav (8.5), Bari (4.5) and Lotem (a year and a half).
"On October 7, Simchat Torah was in our synagogue. When the horror stories began to be heard from the envelope, Ariel came home to get his cell phone, packed a bag in 20 minutes and left in our seven-seat car."
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"After that, I couldn't travel with the children for three weeks," Hila Koren, a mother of five, describes what happened with rather graceful cynicism.
The new reality of life for Koren, treasurer, since the events of October does not arouse laughter or ridiculousness, but nevertheless, in a conversation with her, it seemed that she was suffering from a severe "sickness" of optimism.
"It's important to say, there's a heroic woman here. She had a thousand and one reasons why she would break, and she didn't," says Ariel, the proud husband. "When the guys in the company let me go home, she insisted and said, 'I'm not ready, I'm not taking anyone's turn because we have five kids.'"
The reality of war life in recent times has brought with it quite a few difficulties, but for the treasurer's family, Shabbat is the greatest difficulty of all.
The man was suspended from reserve duty (illustration), photo: Moshe Shai
"At first, the general operation of the house fell only on me and it made it very difficult, but over time I realized that the biggest difficulty really comes on Shabbat," says Koren, treasurer. "Shabbat is our family time, and suddenly you feel endless loneliness."
The reservist who had to deal with housekeeping, and even continued to work, quickly realized that her responsibilities were twofold.
"I have to be strong for the kids, for me and for Ariel. If we break at the back of the neck, then the men break at the front," she says. "So I let go, I let go of what we planned and wanted to do, I let go of the standards from a family and marital standpoint, but I realized that I can't reduce what I'm going through because it only weakens."
Helpful advice
"Understand that there's your world and there's its world, and that's okay. Even if the things I deal with are considered smaller, in the end I have a family and I also need ventilation for my emotions. It is important to do escapist actions. I, for example, started documenting my children's routine activities, and at the end of each week we sent Ariel a 'A Week in the Life' video."
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