“I feel so bad taking all this blood, Imma [Mom],” said Yonah Brief, the wounded Duvdevan medic who was receiving a transfusion. “I just want to give it back.”
Several months after the October 7 massacre hero’s death on November 25, 2024, Yonah’s wishes became a reality: The Brief family set up a national Duvdevan blood drive that collected 480 gallons of blood in the first year.
Yonah, from Modi’in, spent 417 days in the ICU. After being hit by 13 bullets, 11 bouts of pneumonia, two amputations, and catastrophic liver and kidney failure, his impact lives on.
Yonah is one of 35 soldiers from the Modi’in community laid to rest since the October 7 massacre. Today, their memories adorn the paths all over Modi’in’s public landscape thanks to the support and involvement of Rochester’s Jewish community.
The initiative was facilitated by the Modi’in-Rochester Partnership, also known as Partnership2Gether (P2G), which celebrated its 23rd year in August.
A singular goal: To work together and create communal depth
After the October 7 massacre, P2G collaborated with Mayor Haim Bibas and the Modi’in Municipality to create misholim, a series of paths and public markers bearing the names and stories of Modi’in’s and Rochester’s fallen.
Featuring a QR code linking the soldier’s story, the placement of paths are deliberate.
Eden Zimri, who served as a commander in the Artillery Corps’ drone unit, was killed on October 7. She is commemorated on the IDF Nahal Oz outpost’s path, which runs between her home and the community pool, where she once swam.
Eitan Auster, a commando squad leader in the Egoz special unit, is commemorated on the path to the synagogue.
The path commemorating Brief, who was active in Bnei Akiva, leads to the local youth group’s center.
Families are approached on their own timeline and allowed to grieve before any public honor is offered. The proposal was extraordinary for David and Hazel Brief, Yonah’s parents.
“Many other bereaved families have to struggle against their city or town to even name a bench in their son’s name,” they said in a statement.
The paths have become a part of daily life in the community. Today, families of the fallen sing, dance, and celebrate around their loved ones.
Some families feel closer to their loved ones by the path than by other conventional places, Avni said. For example, on Remembrance Day, Eitan Auster’s mother chose to honor her son by the path rather than going to Mount Herzl Military Cemetery.
The initiative also honored the greater Rochester community in Upstate New York. Yonatan Dean Chaim, an oleh (new immigrant) and convert who moved from Rochester to Ramat Gan to serve in the IDF, was killed during Operation Swords of Iron, the Israel-Hamas War. In response to a request in Summer 2025, P2G facilitated the construction of a path in his memory.
For Zigi Avni, a member and chairman of the partnership, misholim demonstrates exactly how P2G is unique among the other 44 Israeli-American city partnerships.
The program’s projects emphasize in-person relationships over online alternatives, and both communities engage with efforts to connect, he said. The initiative now boasts at least five different programs, he added.
According to Dr. Hila Hadas, CEO of mental-health organization Enosh and co-founder of P2G, the goal “is to create depth in each community and work together.”
The Journey for Identity, where youth from both communities come together to learn and reflect on their unique Jewish identity through a three-week summer trip to Rochester, Poland, and Israel, directly encapsulates this vision.
Zoe Linnett, 18, from Modi’in recalls the culture shock of experiencing Rochester’s community. She said the trip “sparked an ember... that Israel fanned into a flame” after touring Israel and the October 7 massacre sites.
Long conversations about identity brought the cohort closer to each other and to Jewish pride, Linnett said.
Hadas said: “We aren’t trying to make anyone more religious or make aliyah.”
The question that continues to permeate every conversation until today, she said, is: “What does it mean to be a Jew in today’s world for me?”
Sixty percent of US adults hold an unfavorable view of Israel, according to a Pew Research study conducted in March after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.
Nevertheless, even when once unquestionable support and fundraising falter, the partnership remains steadfast in answering this question, Hadas said.
P2G’s involvement with misholim and the Federation of Rochester’s $350,000 donation recognized an ever-evolving need.
“A few years ago,” before October 7, “just donating money was enough,” Avni said. “It’s not the same anymore.” Now we need “the spirit, the ideas, the partnership.” Money “is not everything.”
Martin Zand, a professor and the target of a pro-Palestinian poster on Rochester University’s campus, said he actively defends and empathizes with his brothers and sisters in Israel. That comes from “recognizing that we are fighting different battles – one a physical battle, and the other an equally existential battle.”
Despite the different traumas and lived experiences, through efforts to understand and accommodate each other, Israeli and Diaspora communities continue to prove how we are indeed our brothers’ keepers, he said.