Over the course of the week of February 4, Yoseph Haddad, an Israeli Christian Arab and a strong defender of Israel, visited four area yeshiva high schools to share his incredible story about his experiences fighting in the IDF and to call out the falsities of anti-Israeli groups of the BDS movement. Stopping at The Frisch School, Kushner, Ma’ayanot and SAR, Haddad addressed students and also discussed his road to recovery following being injured by a Hezbollah missile that cut off his leg and wounded his face. Now a social activist and the co-founder and CEO of Vouch For Each Other, Haddad advocates for and within Israel, bridging divides in Israeli society between Jews and Arabs.

Born in Haifa before moving to Nazareth with his family, Haddad grew up instilled with a strong sense of pride and passion for his country. As a Christian Arab, Haddad was not obligated to be drafted into the IDF when he turned 18 but decided to volunteer, specifically because of one incident that occurred in his hometown that compelled him to want to further serve his country.

“In 2013, a female suicide bomber came into a restaurant in Haifa,” Haddad shared in his presentation at Ma’ayanot. “They [destroyed] the restaurant, killing 17 innocent people. Four of those people were Israeli Arabs. On that day I understood that it doesn’t matter if you’re an Arab, Christian or Jew; for a suicide bomber, if you’re Israeli, you’re a target. If you’re an Israeli, they want you dead. At that day if I was 100 percent sure about wanting to join the army, now I was 300 percent sure.”

Following his acceptance to the Golani Brigade, Haddad fought in the Second Lebanon War, where he lost friends and three commanders. Four days before the ceasefire, a cornet missile was shot at him and his fellow soldiers, hitting a wall and severely injured him. His comrades carried him to safety and thus his long but eventually successful road to recovery began.

“Four days [after I was injured] and I finally woke up, the first thing I said was, ‘Where’s my mom?’” Haddad shared. “It was the longest second of my life when I then had to look down and check if my leg was still there. The doctors had managed to reattach it with a lot of different metal things. At that moment I knew that the battle of my life had begun.”

Despite being told by his doctor that he would never be able to walk properly again, Haddad now walks upright with his head high. His recovery has been miraculous; he is even able to play soccer, which is his favorite sport. Now 33, Haddad has created Vouch For Each Other, a not-for-profit organization, to realize his goal of improved relations between Jews and Arabs. The organization has sent him on speaking tours abroad to defend the State of Israel. He has appeared at Harvard and Texas universities, among others. Yeshiva high school students will soon be making their way to college campuses, and Haddad wants to be sure they know that the truth is on their side.

“Vouch For Each Other was created nine months ago, and the most amazing thing is that it was established by all sectors of Israeli society,” Haddad shared with The Jewish Link. “We are Christians, Jews, Muslims, all working around the same goal of working to fix the problems in Israeli society. We want to make things better.”

As for what Haddad hopes the students will take from his presentations, he explained that it would be the strength to be able to pick themselves up when things get rough. For him it was that strong-willed passion and desire that mattered most when he was at his lowest point following his injury.

“The most important thing I hope the kids will take from me is that if you want something, you can achieve it,” Haddad said. “I literally was at rock bottom. People kept saying that I wouldn’t be able to walk like I’m walking today and I proved them wrong. I was able to prove them wrong because I knew what I wanted to achieve. When these kids hear this story, I want them to know that if something bad happens, just like how I was able to pull myself back up, so can they. They just need to believe in it.”

If you would like to learn more about Vouch For Each Other, you can visit Haddad’s website at https://b-azz.org/, or follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/YosHaddad/.

By Adam Samuel

Adam Samuel is a journalist from Teaneck. He blogs at adamssoapbox.com.