JTA — The late singer-songwriter Meir Ariel had a hit song that Israelis tend to invoke at times of crisis: “Avarnu et Par’o, Na’avor Gam et Zeh” — “We Survived Pharoah, We’ll Survive This Too.”

It was heard during the COVID pandemic, during the street protests over the government’s planned judicial overhaul, after the trauma of October 7, and yet again earlier this month, when Israel attacked Iran and Iran responded with a hail of missiles.

It suggests a society that is not only used to crisis, but also resigned and resilient. It’s the moral to a story Israelis often tell about themselves, but is it true? And when the triggers begin to multiply — fear for the missing hostages, the scramble to safe rooms and bomb shelters, deep internal rifts over the government and its top leader — how much can Israelis take?

Prof. Bruria Wiesel Adini studies that question as the head of the Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Medicine at Tel Aviv University’s School of Public Health. She and her colleagues at TAU and Tel-Hai College have tracked the resilience of Jewish Israelis since the COVID lockdown, with regular questionnaires put to the same people.

Their most recent survey (Hebrew) was conducted June 12 and 13, the first and second days of Israel’s strikes on Iran. Like previous studies, the latest results show that when crises strike, Jewish Israelis score high in personal resilience and morale, adjusting to whatever seems to be thrown at them.

On the other hand, researchers continue to find declines in resilience, hope and, crucially, trust in the government at the national level.

“That is very concerning because if we want to survive here, we need that cohesion — you know, like the slogan in Israel: ‘Beyachad nenatze’ach, together, we will win,’” Adini said in an interview shortly after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire. “But if we’re not together, then what does that say about our capacity to actually cope with all of these different adversities and all the crises that we still may need to face?”

Adini’s team recommends that the government do more to build this societal cohesion by communicating its goals transparently and putting partisanship aside. In times of normalcy (a relative term in Israel), the team supports programs that encourage community engagement, volunteerism and social support networks.

Adini, 69, has a PhD in health systems management. She specializes in emergency preparedness and healthcare system responses to mass casualty events and disasters. In our conversation, we spoke about what makes Israelis resilient and the deep divides that could shred the country’s social fabric.

Our interview was edited for length and clarity.

I wanted to talk to you when Israel launched its attacks on Iran, which opened by my count a fourth front in this current war, if you count Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Tehran. There’s a question I hear American Jews ask about the flood of bad and anxious news, which is, “How much can we take?” How much can Israelis take?

How much can we take? Whatever we need to. Whatever we need to face.

I’m a second-generation Holocaust survivor. Both my parents were in Auschwitz; they lost all their family. They were in camps, but they survived. They rebuilt their family. And I’m the example of that. So people have the ability to adjust their life to whatever life actually puts in their midst.

There are people who........

© The Times of Israel