Raz Elkayam was thousands of miles from home on October 7, 2023, accompanying his grandmother on her first trip abroad in Rome, when the messages began flooding in: His hometown of Sderot in southern Israel and communities in the Gaza envelope were under attack. His family was in hiding. Hamas terrorists were roaming the streets. Without hesitation, Elkayam dropped everything, booked the first flight back to Israel, and reported for reserve duty.

A full-time student at Tel Aviv University, 27-year-old Elkayam put his academic career on hold to serve as an officer and commander in the Oded Reserve Infantry Brigade. He spent the next three months stationed on the volatile northern border, under heavy Hezbollah shelling.

A month into his service, in the midst of the chaos, Elkayam learned that his close friend Ori Danino had been kidnapped by Hamas. Danino was later confirmed to have been murdered in captivity along with five other hostages. The news was devastating, but Elkayam says Danino’s memory remains a driving force that helps him stay focused and motivated even through the most difficult stretches of service.

Even with the personal losses and demands of military duty, Elkayam has remained committed to his studies. Enrolled in a dual-degree program in biomedical engineering and biology, he has faced immense pressure to maintain his academic performance.

“I missed three-quarters of my first semester,” he told The Times of Israel. Still, with the support of faculty and classmates, he managed to catch up — no small feat considering he has repeatedly been called back to the reserves and has amassed some 350 days of service since October 7.

“I feel like the university provides for and supports [reservists] a lot,” he said, praising his school’s flexibility and willingness to accommodate academic needs.

Alongside flexibility on the part of universities and workplaces across Israel, as reservists continue to form a core manpower base for the ongoing war, new grassroots efforts within the IDF’s ranks themselves are allowing reservists the chance to keep themselves going in the army — and keep up on the home front.

Hamas’s October 7 onslaught was the bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, with some 1,200 people butchered  in southern Israel and 251 abducted to the Gaza Strip. Following the invasion, Israel declared war on Hamas with the stated goals of rescuing the hostages and ousting the terror group from power. To that end, the IDF mobilized 300,000 reservists — many of whom reported for duty with overwhelming enthusiasm, some even volunteering before receiving official call-up orders.

In early May, as the ongoing conflict in Gaza entered its 20th month, the military once again summoned tens of thousands of reservists after announcing an expanded offensive against Hamas. Just three weeks later, the IDF

© The Times of Israel