NYC dad, former paratrooper flies to Israel to help fight

 

New York mom of two Molly Mandel always knew that her husband, a reservist in the Israeli army, could be asked to return to the family’s ancestral home during a time of need.

But that didn’t make it any less shocking when the phone rang Sunday morning — just a single day after Hamas launched a savage attack on the Jewish state that’s already left about a thousand dead on both sides.

A former active-duty paratrooper and navigator, Zach, 28, could have said no when his old unit called.

The couple has two young children — a 2-year-old daughter and a 3-month-old newborn — and have been living in Manhattan’s Upper East Side since they moved back to the United States from Israel in May 2022.

“He could just say, “I’m in America,’ and they’d say, ‘OK, no problem,’” Molly told The Post on Tuesday.

“But we looked at each other, and he was like, ‘I’ve got to get over there,’” she said. “And I was like, ‘You have to get over there. You have to go home.’”

And it is home for the couple, both of whom were born in New York but lived in Israel for vast stretches of their lives.

Zach’s family had moved to the country from Riverdale, New York, when he was just 15 years old. He studied at a yeshiva for a year, then joined the Israeli army as a volunteer.

Molly — a native of Great Neck, Long Island — first met him in the summer of 2016 when she was an NYU student volunteering as an EMT overseas.

They became inseparable, and eventually lived together in Israel for about six years, she said. The sweethearts married in May 2019.

The couple moved back and forth between New York and Israel during the COVID pandemic before settling in Manhattan when their son was born.

Although, they planned to go back to Israel — eventually.

“Eventually” came sooner than either of them thought when Hamas gunmen roared across the heavily fortified Israeli border early Saturday morning, butchering and kidnapping civilians as they went.

Despite the danger — and the deep sense of dread that hits anyone watching a soldier head to war — Molly knew Zach had little choice. His morals and values would not let him stay safe in the United States while his brothers-in-arms fought.

“It wasn’t something you have to think about,” she said. “We feel deeply connected to Israel … and for Jews across the world, if we don’t have Israel, we can’t survive. We feel such a strong duty and obligation for our people … I knew it wasn’t a choice.”

Her husband flew out of JFK Airport Monday night, arriving in Israel early Tuesday.

“It wasn’t something you have to think about,” she said. “We feel deeply connected to Israel … and for Jews across the world, if we don’t have Israel, we can’t survive. We feel such a strong duty and obligation for our people … I knew it wasn’t a choice.”

Her husband flew out of JFK Airport Monday night, arriving in Israel early Tuesday.