I have not known 97-year-old Eliezer “Eli” Krumbein for a long time.
But it’s been long enough to become a friend and at times to seek his wise counsel.
Born in America on the Fourth of July, Krumbein, who lives on the North Shore, has also lived long enough to see his progeny spread throughout Israel. His daughter, the middle of his three children, moved there in 1979.
And Krumbein learned three Israeli grandchildren were recalled to military service last week as soldiers in the latest Middle East crisis: the Israeli-Hamas War.
“My children now tell me they all know someone dead and buried since this war began,” he said. “I was in synagogue on Saturday morning when I was told: ‘It’s bad news today.’”
“The terror had begun,” he said.
The “bad news” that erupted on Oct. 7 was of course the sudden slaughter of hundreds of civilians in Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists, devolving into a conflagration in the primarily Palestinian populated city of Gaza.
“The news hit on the Sabbath and the end of a Jewish holiday,” Krumbein said. “And I had to wait until night time in Israel to call my daughter because I knew she would not answer the phone on the Sabbath,” he said. “She then told me about the horror of what was happening; a catastrophe in every detail.
“It’s not easy to think of here in America, but there is a national service in Israel where everyone is required to serve in the military,” he said. “Families can be in full uniform and required to carry weapons. There are always border incursions, especially on the border of Gaza, where you are living in a war zone all the time.”
‘Holding it all in’
The youngest of Krumbein’s 11 Israeli granddaughters, who is 24 and an Israeli Army officer, was called back on reserve to her military post near the border of Lebanon, which is the home of the Hezbollah terrorists.
“Since then, my granddaughter has attended the funeral of two female soldiers she saw killed in a ditch along the Gaza border. Then went back to work like all combat soldiers, mourning, burying their dead, heading back to war.”
Coincidentally, it was this granddaughter who visited Krumbein this summer, “decompressing after serving four years in the army and backpacking through South and Central America,” he said.
“She talked about her travels, but rarely the army. It’s tough. She’s a young woman. Life is hard when life is on hold. But she rarely talked about the army due to confidentiality issues. Holding it all in.”
Krumbein has a second granddaughter also called back on duty as a trauma counselor in the Israeli army on the Gaza border and a grandson called back into the Navy. The grandson and his wife are expecting a baby.
Then there are his three Israeli great-grandchildren whom he describes as “the little ones who live in Tel Aviv having trouble sleeping in their shelters at night because they hear the bombs.”
“From my daughter in Israel come grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said. “And I have hundreds of cousins living in Israel. My oldest surviving first cousin, who lives in Jerusalem, is older than I.”
Krumbein, whose father was from Ukraine and mother from Romania, did not come to Chicago until heading to the University of Chicago’s graduate school. He did not visit Israel until 1969.
“Then I visited as a tourist, seeing my family grow, spending time with my daughter who lived here.”
Ironically, Krumbein’s Israeli daughter was at Highland Park’s last year’s Fourth of July parade, which turned into a massacre. She was visiting her father for his 96th birthday celebration last year.
Seven people were killed and 48 others wounded by bullets and shrapnel by a lone gunman that day.
“When my family heard the popping sounds, they ran,” he said. “It was terrifying. I still don’t know how we were able to have our annual family barbecue that day, but we did.”
‘You wake up at night worrying’
Krumbein still talks daily via phone or What’s App with his Israeli family members.
“So many stories from the little ones, but now schools by and large are not in session, mostly remote learning now. Life is tough. Post offices closed. Stores closed. A country very much under siege. People feel it in a thousand different ways.
“How do you live a normal life in a country always at war?” he asked. “It’s not easy to defend a country so narrow and with exposed borders and daily incursions. The Israelis are not magicians. They see themselves in a life and death situation.
“And it’s hard to talk about mundane things when you wake up at night worrying,” he added.
“Israelis feel they cannot afford to lose the war or they will be pushed into the sea and annihilated,” he said.
“The Hamas terrorists are very clear they wish to destroy the ‘Jewish Entity’ … not just “Israel,” added Krumbein, who is a psychologist.
“Peace just has to succeed.”
Sneedlings …
Saturday birthdays: Pam Zekman, ageless and priceless; Catherine Deneuve, 80; Jeff Goldblum, 71; Christopher Lloyd, 85; Derek Jacobi, 85 … Sunday birthdays: Actor Ryan Reynolds, 47; Weird Al Yankovic, 64; Ang Lee, 69.
