The Dutch Couple Who Chose Israel |
Since October 7th, countless stories have appeared about non-Jews who picked up their lives to support Israel. Douglas Murray is, of course, the best-known example. In his book “On Democrats and Death Cults,” he recounts how he came to Israel immediately after the massacre and stayed there for about six months.
And then, of course, there were the “viral cowboys” from Montana and Arkansas who boarded a plane on November 6th, 2023, motivated by their religious beliefs and solidarity with Israel. They harvested and worked in the fields in the south, and even spent Shabbat in the Efrat community, in the Etzion Bloc (the West Bank).
It is not new that there are millions of non-Jews who live in Israel, love Israel, visit Israel, and come to support Israel—for whatever reasons. But recently, while at Pantry Packers (a food distribution center project in Jerusalem), I met a couple who stood out because of their love for Israel and their desire to be here.
Bert and Janny (pronounced as Yanny) Op den Brouw are from Krimpen aan de Lek, a Dutch village south of Rotterdam. Before his pension, Bert worked at an electronic image processing company, but loved to sing in his free time. In 1999, his daughter-in-law invited him to join a choir that was going to give concerts in Israel—the Sharei Tzedek Choir. Bert didn’t want to go without Janny, who, because of medical issues, had not wanted to travel abroad for 30 years. Bert was able to convince her, and they flew to Israel with the choir to bless the people with their songs and music.
The trip was a logistical disaster. In just 10 days, they encountered dozens of technical problems and were even robbed. Janny did indeed have a medical problem that came to light during their trip, and in their own words, “everything went wrong.” But as soon as they returned to the Netherlands, Janny said to her husband, “My legs are in the Netherlands but my heart is in Israel…. I want to go back!”
In the years that followed, they returned to Israel six more times with three different choirs, singing about their love for Israel. They became involved with Christians for Israel, and in 2009, they met Dr. Elisheva Ronen, a Jewish woman from the Netherlands then living in Ashdod. Janny, who was a physician assistant, was eager to help Dr. Ronen in her practice.
They had hoped to move to Israel permanently, but soon realized that this was........