McGill professor remaining in Israel amid war with Hamas

McGill University professor Yael Halevi-Wise has been in Jerusalem for the last two weeks, as she started her sabbatical leave to do archival research on an Israeli novelist. 

Amid the war, she says she isn’t planning on leaving.

“Like the medieval Jewish poet Yehuda Halevi said, ‘My body’s in the west, but my heart is in the east,’” the Associate Professor in English and Jewish Studies said.

Among the several reasons Halevi-Wise isn’t quick to leave the country is the fact that two of her four children live in Israel and her 20-year-old son was just drafted to the military.

“I have no communication with him right now,” she said. “I’m very grateful to be here at this time near him.”

Israel has drafted a record 300,000 reservists in its response to a multi-front Hamas attack from Gaza over the weekend.

“It’s hard for everyone but it’s harder for those of us that have our sons in uniforms, and daughters,” she said.

Born in Israel, Halevi-Wise says she has always known conflict, doing army service herself, with some of her earliest memories being war. 

“I remember going down somewhere and then there were these tiny, tiny windows and we had to sit there and so I think it was like a bunker,” she said. “And I also remember blackening windows.”

Saturday’s attack by Hamas killed 1,300 Israelis and at least 150 hostages were taken into Gaza. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes.

“The cousins of my husband’s colleague, two of them are still missing, we think they are kidnapped,” she said. “The son of the cousin of my friend Emmanuelle, kidnapped.”

Since the weekend, the city has braced for rockets.

“When there were sirens, my husband and I sat in the staircase,” she said. 

On Sunday, she ventured out and noticed much had changed.

“Everything is suddenly closed and quiet and there’s only one pharmacy open and one little place to eat, it felt so horrible and I started crying.”

Still, Halevi-Wise says she has no desire to flee and return to Montreal.

“I’d rather be here with my people and work to bring supplies to do whatever needs to be done at a time of war,” she said.

“It’s up to me and to all of us to preserve this gift that is the state of Israel and to preserve Judaism.”

For now, she’s continuing the work she can get done independently. But she cannot access the archives she needs to further her research, so that portion is on hold. She still plans to stay in Israel until at least July when her sabbatical ends. It’s uncertain what the situation will be like then.

“And when I retire, I will return here,” she said. “I return here whenever I can.”