הפעילות שלנו בHER היא פעילות קהילתית חברתית שעוזרת ותומכת בנשים ‏מהקהילה הבינלאומית בארץ שהן עולות חדשות או עולות ותיקות שנמצאות במצבי מצוקה מבחינה נפשית וחברתית לאחר השביעי באוקטובר. אני, סיון הדרי אבנרי, אמריקאית - ישראלית, מייסדת קבוצת HER , נולדתי בניו יורק וגרתי שם עד גיל 36 ולאחר מכן עליתי לארץ בלי המשפחה הגרעינית שלי שנשארה בארה״ב, ללא מעגל חברתי בארץ על מנת להגשים את החלום הציוני שלי ולחיות בארץ ישראל. כשגרתי בניו יורק פעלתי במשך שנים רבות למען מטרות נעלות בארץ, התנדבתי בהרבה מאד אירגונים שעזרו ואספו תרומות לצ״הל, ילדים ישראלים חולי סרטן, משפחות מעוטות יכולות ועזרתי לאסוף מיליוני דולרים לתמיכה לקהילות רבות ומגוונות. כשהגעתי לארץ כעולה הרגשתי פתאום תחושת בדידות, למרות שאני דוברת עברית, תמיד הרגשתי חצויה בין שתי עולמות, שתי מדינות ותרבויות וכשהשביעי באוקטובר קרה הייתה תחשוה בקרב הקהילה הבין לאומית בארץ של חוסר אונים וקושי נפשי גדול מאד בקרב הנשים בקהילה ולכן הקמתי בעזרת מתנדבות נוספות את HER Israel. ‏כדי לתת מענה לנשים הללו שהיו צריכות בעיקר תמיכה נפשית וחברתית בעקבות המלחמה. התלבטתי מאד ‏לגבי הגשת מועמדות ולכן אם תרצו לי אני מצורפת מכתב שכתבתי לכם גם באנגלית.

A Confession - From Sivan Hadari Avneri

I’ve decided I would like to start off my application with a confession; and that is that I was not going to apply for this grant at all. A good friend of mine sent me your link over 6 weeks ago and said, “Sivan, you are doing so much to help the community, you should apply. You never know.” I thought about it for a few days and I took a look at your website and saw all the other phenomenal projects that these absolutely incredible, mind-blowing women were working on, and I thought to myself, “Eh, our project isn’t as important as all those other ones. We’re not working with wounded soldiers, female victims of rape, families of hostages, evacuees from the north. We’re only working with female Olim or Olot, as you call it. We’re only working with these women, these Zionists, who left their lives behind and made Aliya on their own, no family, no friends from college, who live in isolation, alone in their apartments, who don’t speak the language and are scared and emotionally traumatized since October 7th, whom have never been in a war, never heard a siren in their lives, never had to run to a shelter, and they have to do it all alone. Eh..Our work isn’t as worthy and important as those other causes..” I thought. I let weeks go by without applying, having all this self doubt, comparing us and our project and the community to other communities and just 30 minutes ago, it hit me. No, that’s just not true. Every single woman counts. Every single woman suffering counts. Every single woman who needs help counts, and who am I to decide if she is more worthy than another woman? This entire “competition” is not about which woman is “more worthy,” it’s just about women helping women, and that’s what we are doing.

So I am applying. I am submitting our project HER Israel. And maybe we won’t have the criteria to get this grant, or even get recognized for our work, I obviously have no idea but one thing I now know for sure is that the work we do is as important as any kind of work that helps women, especially women in Israel that need all the help they can get after October 7th. My work with HER is my whole life. When we host a support zoom call and we have 45 participants after we announced it only 60 minutes before, I see these women crying, sharing their fears, confusion, disappointment, anxiety. When I see that the support we give them helps them remember why they made Aliya and why they came to this country, when I get messages that thank me for the work we do, I know that it’s all worth it.

I know that hearing about every single IDF soldier crushes us and every hostage taken shatters us and I know that when I see Hersh’s mother speaking English at his funeral, and I know that Hersh and his family share the same dream as we do, the Olim and Olot, the lovers of Israel, who left the countries we came from, left our families behind because we want to be here, we chose to be here, we chose to be Israelis in Israel, no matter what the price is, I know that when even though we weren’t born here, and even when those antisemites tell us to “go back to where we came from”, it’s not London, or New York, or Australia, or France. It’s here in Israel. This is where we came from. And we’re not leaving. Not now, not before October 7th, and not ever.

Thank you,
Sivan Hadari
HER Israel - HER Tel Aviv - HER Jerusalem