Yocheved Ruttenberg is on the phone with Jewish News hours before boarding a flight to London. The founder of Sword of Iron, arguably one of social media’s most impactful volunteering hubs for Israel post October 7th, has a packed diary of visits and meetings with friends and supporters.
Harnessing the incredible groundswell of goodwill from people across the world, both Jewish and non-Jewish, desperate to demonstrate on-the-ground support for a traumatised Jewish state, she’s grown the group from zero to more than 40,000 in 15 months.
JN is inundated with offers from the estimated 67% of volunteers who’ve actively used the database to secure meaningful experiences from picking avocados, animal welfare, agriculture, BBQ’s for soldiers, trauma support and driving and delivering goods.
Yocheved Ruttenberg
A Baltimore native and recent Texan resident, 24-year old Ruttenberg is currently finalising her aliyah application to settle in Tel Aviv. It’s a huge jump for a young woman who “grew up religious in an orthodox home” and then “came away from Judaism for a very, very long time” following her parents divorce.
She took part in the rite of passage Birthright trip to Israel and “completely fell in love” with the country. Her brother moved to Israel when he was 17 and she was in high school.
“He left everything and came to serve in the army. He didn’t speak the language, he joined the IDF, and was serving for about five and a half years. He was supposed to be releasing in November to come home, move to Texas, and we were going to open a business together. And he ended up going down to the south on the seventh of October and fighting in the kibbutzim.”
Yocheved woke up on the 7th October in Texas and “was just absolutely horrified.” Then and there, she decided she had to go to Israel. “I can’t explain it. It’s not logical, but I need to be there. And I booked the flights. I called my mom, and I said, ‘Mom, this is what I want to do’. And everybody else was like, ‘You’re crazy. You’re crazy. Don’t go’. And my mom said, ‘If you don’t go to Israel, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life’.”
Flying out with 23 massive duffel bags full of supplies, she landed in Israel intending to stay for two weeks to do what she could to help.
Yocheved at Yavneh
She adds: “And then I saw this huge gap between people who wanted to help and opportunities that were accessible and available. I opened up the Facebook group, started Google translating and posting all the Israeli ‘WhatsApp’ groups I ended up in, with (volunteering) opportunities. And I just started posting in English, because I figured if opportunities were in English, people would come.”
A volunteering group that began posting about opportunities for farming and cooking for soldiers has now grown to more than 40,000 followers from across the globe.
Yocheved thinks that “people just want to find their way down to Israel. Everybody wants to be involved. And for so many people living around the world who have not served in the army and are not medically trained, I think they just want to figure out, ‘how can I help? How can I support?’ Everybody feels very helpless. So I think that people are just finding what opportunity fits with them, picking it and saying, ‘Okay, I’m going to come, I’m going to go, I’m going to see what I can do.’ And we really recommend that people just say, ‘Okay, I’m in for the ride. I’m going to book my flight’.”
Yocheved meeting Yavneh students, February 2025.
Yocheved has been supported by a loyal circle, including Sword of Iron founder member Yael Yomtov-Emmanuel who has been “with us since day one, single-handedly matching thousands of volunteers to opportutnities” and name-checks Ariel Boverman, Sarah Emerson Helfand, Tali Kaplan, Ezra Emerson, Brad Solomon, Sivan Hadari Avneri, Shmuel Fein and the rest of the team who “also work tirelessly to support the community.”
Yocheved adds: “We tell people: buckle up and get ready. You’re going to have the most meaningful and life changing experience of your life. But be ready for the unexpected, and be ready to jump in when hands are needed.”
Through a series of partnerships and collaborations, Sword of Iron gives advice on accommodation “to support volunteers from start to finish” with Yocheved able to sustain her work with support from funders from Israel and the US.
She calls the volunteers “the most amazing people I’ve ever met my entire life. Wow. Talk about taking passion and turning it into action, and stepping up and saying, ‘I’m going to do something’.”
Pic: Lisa Batashvili
Sword of Iron volunteer Lisa Batashvili tells Jewish News: “I was desperate to do something to support Israel after 7/10 and it didn’t feel right just sitting at home crying. So I booked a week trip, visited my son and daughter in law and volunteered at Revital’s Hamal, (non profit providing meals to IDF soldiers) Eran’s Angels (IDF support) and a lemon grove in Lod. It was so rewarding and I felt like I was doing good and showing these amazing Israelis that people abroad care.
She’s planning to go back this year and “will use Sword of Iron Facebook page, which was invaluable. I would just say to people who are doubting their abilities, don’t think; just book your flights and you will find so much you can do.”
Orli Summers. Pic: Courtesy
Fellow volunteer Orli Summers, a nurse and trauma informed massage therapist, made aliyah after her son was sent into Gaza. She tells JN: “There was no way I was going to leave the country whilst he was in there.” She joined Sword of Iron and “saw that they needed bodywork therapists to go to the army bases. So I started doing that. It was amazing and the beginning of everything for me.”
She’s treating soldiers every day, “met loads of other volunteers through Sword of Iron” and has made lots of international friends.
She adds: “To be a part of the story and not a helpless bystander has been the thing that’s helped me survive this whole chapter, seeing my boy going in and out of Gaza, of all the atrocities that we read about, that we hear about, everything that we live through. For me, my salvation has been to be part of the narrative somehow; to be of help and Sword of Iron has been incredible. It’s been a really big part of that.”
Pic: Sword of Iron
Andy Katz, supporting Yocheved on the ground in the UK on her visit, says: “I’ve been to Israel five times in the last year to volunteer and each time Sword of Iron has been at the centre of my planning. They provide a bridge, linking volunteers to a diverse set of needs. It’s awesome!”
Yocheved says that the Sword of Iron group has “people that have given up so much or put themselves in difficult financial positions just to come to Israel to volunteer; people have taken time off work and taken their vacation time. We have volunteers that are coming back for a third, fourth, fifth time, some that are coming for a month at a time.”
She adds that the “volunteers are all family. I love them so much. They changed my life. But volunteering didn’t start on October 7. There’s so much help that this country needs, and I think every single Jewish person and person that loves Jews should come to Israel, and on some level, should be connecting with Israel and Israelis.”
Finishing off the call to get to the airport, she adds: “As Jews, we no longer have the luxury of being silent and not doing something. Come to Israel. Get some of the Israeli spirit when you come and volunteer. Come fall in love with the country. Fall in love with the people. It’s a very special and different time to be here than usual, and Israel needs you. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in the world.”
