On one of the final mornings of an 11-day healing retreat, an Israeli soldier approached one of the facilitators with news.
Since the war began, he had not been able to sleep through the night. He woke regularly and needed both assistance and medication. But that morning, he told the facilitator something had changed.
“Last night, for the first time since the war began, I slept a full six hours,” he said. “And I had a dream. Not a nightmare.”
One night of sleep cannot erase what he experienced on October 7 or during the combat that followed. Nor can one retreat complete the long and complicated work of healing from trauma. But that night mattered.
It happened at Ramah Darom, more than 6,000 miles from Israel, surrounded by the mountains of North Georgia.
From August 16-27, 2026, approximately 100 reserve soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion came to Ramah Darom for a Bshvil Hamachar retreat.
Ramah Darom’s role was to provide the physical and relational container around it: a secluded natural environment, comfortable lodging, nourishing meals, gathering spaces, privacy, and careful attention to participants’ diverse Jewish needs.
Ramah Darom also opened philanthropic doors for Bshvil Hamachar and became a fundraising partner for this initiative. The Gene and Ruth Sacks Philanthropic Fund, The Dupree, many members of the Southeastern Jewish community, and Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta helped transform diaspora care from an abstract source of funding into a personal encounter.
As one participant shared, “This retreat gave us something very special. It gave us a chance to step away from everything for a moment, to breathe, to connect with one another, and simply feel understood without having to explain every feeling or experience.”