The Real Impossibles
Balancing service, studies, and family responsibilities, Bar-Ilan reservists embodied that rarest of qualities: excellence on all fronts.
Winning on Purpose
They fought tank battles in the morning and logged into class via Zoom in the afternoon. They sent in assignments from bases near Lebanon, and timed their brief leaves to overlap with exams. They rushed home for the birth of their firstborn child—then rushed back to their units at the front. For many of the more than 3,000 Bar-Ilan students called into the reserves since October 7th, the battle wasn’t only in Gaza, in Judea and Samaria, or in Lebanon. They also fought to secure academic gains, and to serve as loving spouses and even new parents. And thanks to their heroic determination—and some help from their university—their efforts consistently led to overwhelming victory. Here are three of their stories.
Ofir Aharoni, 25, dual B.Sc. in mathematics and economics
Having served more than 215 days since the outbreak of war, Ofir jokes that often she felt “like I’m combining a degree with my reserve duty, and not the other way around.” As an officer in a combat tank battalion, finding time to study for tests was especially challenging. “While soldiers next to me squeezed in a few hours of sleep, I stayed up to grade metrics and prove claims about linear replications,” she says. While she admits that studies took second place to simply staying alive, she also explains that they were “something that connected me, if only a little, to ‘normal’ life outside the war. And I’m grateful for those moments, as I needed them a great deal.” After missing so much time in class, as well as experiencing the trauma of combat, Ofir is open about her need for academic and emotional support. “On the administrative side, deadlines were pushed back and there were alternative grade assessments. I’m still making up for missed assignments, but the faculty has been nothing but supportive. I even received psychological help, through subsidized meetings with a campus psychologist,” she explains. “I can honestly say that Bar-Ilan is the best university [for] reservists… I feel like the university has my back.”
Amit Baruch, 26, LL.B. in law and B.A. in economics
“Last year, I returned from reserve duty during the second half of the semester,” says Baruch, who served more than 240 days since October 7th. “Alongside the desire to decompress and digest what I’d experienced, there was the realization that my studies wouldn’t wait for me to catch up.” To keep from falling further behind, Amit—whose choice of a dual degree means twice the number of courses—came to campus just 12 hours after his release, where, apart from a few days’ processing session with his unit, he worked intensively for months to keep from compromising his degree. During his second stint of duty, this time on the border with Lebanon, Amit found himself studying and submitting papers in the early morning at his post. He also tried to arrange his leaves for test times so as to earn credit for all his courses. “The transition from extreme operational situations to the campus environment within just days was a challenge that I’m still dealing with,” admits Amit. He’s also quick to note that “Bar-Ilan provides us with tools to address with the situation. My lecturers were also flexible and invested their time in me. It’s thanks to them that I made it through the year,” he concludes.
Amitai and Aviad Assaf, B.Sc. in electrical engineering
Triplets Amitai and Aviad Assaf—their brother, Ohad, is a student at Ariel University—both spent months in Gaza in their respective combat units. On October 7th, Amitai’s wife was in her ninth month of pregnancy. “We were dropped off at the base on a Saturday afternoon and began preparing the tanks for fighting. Within a few hours, we were engaging terrorists. That Monday morning, an enemy drone dropped an anti-tank rocket on our tank, missing us by centimeters at most,” he recalls. “Exactly one month after the war began, my wife went into labor and I went straight to the delivery room. I stayed home for two weeks, then resumed command of my platoon.” After his discharge in early February, Amitai explains that he threw himself into his studies, trying to make up for all the weeks he’d missed since the beginning of the academic year. “I want to give a special mention to the faculty, who were extremely dedicated and helped all of us reservists catch up.” To date, Amitai has completed two more combat tours in Gaza, and despite “the marathons of studying that follow,” is still proudly in the race.
