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In 2018, Miriam Peretz was awarded the Israel Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Israeli Society.
Her story of faith, resilience and hope in the face of losing two sons in the IDF, as well as her husband,
has captured the hearts of Israelis of all backgrounds. At the award ceremony on Israel’s 70th Yom
HaAtzmaut, she addressed the people of Israel on national television. In the words of one journalist,

“her speech formulated for many what it means to be an Israeli”, and within a few weeks it was
announced that her speech would be incorporated into the educational curriculum at Israeli schools.

Rabbi Aron White had the privilege to speak with Miriam Peretz in her home in Givat Ze’ev to learn

about her life, her story and her hopes for the future.

You are known today as Miriam Peretz, a presidential to value every little thing. I had one pen – so I knew how to take
candidate and the winner of the Israel Prize. But your life good care of it!
story begins as Miriam Ochayon, in Casablanca, Morocco. One of the most important aspects of my home was that my father
What do you remember from your childhood home, and what cooked and took care of the children, and my mother would go
aspects of your upbringing stay with you to this day? out and work!
I am so glad that you asked! People so often focus on the last few In 1964, you made Aliyah from Morocco to Israel. What was
years, and forget that I, like every other person, have roots. My your experience of making Aliyah like?
roots are in Morocco, even though my dreams have always been
in Eretz Yisrael. We moved to a ma’abarah, an immigrant transit camp, located
in Be’er Sheva. This was the sixties, when much of Israel was
My parents were simple Jews from the Atlas Mountains in developed, but in the ma’abarah we didn’t have a refrigerator or
Morocco. They could not read or write, but maintained a pure central gas!
faith that had been passed down through generations. My mother
did not know how to pray from a siddur, but she knew how to One of the greatest challenges we faced when we made Aliyah was
pray from her heart. Every morning, my mother would stand by the language barrier. I was a ten-year-old girl and struggled to
the mezuzah and pray for twenty minutes. I learned something learn Hebrew, but my parents found it even harder, and so I had
from her that Rav Kook writes a lot about: the importance of to become their spokesperson and advocate. We would go to the
focusing on the klal (community). My mother would pray for social services with my parents, and as a little girl I would be the
the whole world, for Am Yisrael, and only then for herself. To this one telling the government official “we don’t have a blanket, we
day, I have my time every day when I stand by the mezuzah and need this or that.” Even once we left the ma’abarah and moved to
remind G-d of the prayer of my mother. I feel very grateful that the city, there would often be a line outside my house, as I would
write letters for people who didn’t know how to write themselves.
I grew up in a home that was filled with such an emotional type
of faith, rather than a more rational faith. If I only had rational A second challenge was getting used to the Israeli mentality. In
explanations for G-d, I don’t know if it would have sufficed for Morocco, we grew up with a tremendous sense of respect for
what I went through later. My parents taught me a simple, pure parents and teachers. In Israel, I went to school and heard a child
faith; my father taught me that everything is bid d’Allah, “in the shouting at his mother – I was shocked! It wasn’t easy getting
hands of Hashem.” Their faith was planted deeply in my heart. used to the sabra mentality.
From the mountains, my parents The third challenge for our family was making a living. My father
moved to Casablanca, where I worked as a street cleaner and my mother would bake bread
lived with my parents, grandfa- for other people in the camp. She set up an oven in our house,
ther and four siblings. Our house and I remember that on Fridays people would line up in front
had one room: we had no tables, of our house beginning at 4 a.m. My mother would bake bread
no chairs, no cupboards. We had all day, standing next to the fire – and this was in Be’er Sheva in
mattresses, which we used for the desert! But she never complained. She was happy that she
sitting, eating, and sleeping – could help others, and that they would give her a little bit of food
everything! We had no running which helped us out.
water, but would fill up a barrel But you know what? We were the happiest people in the world.
which we called the baño, in There are people who sink and drown in the challenges that they
order to wash ourselves once a face, but we were so happy to be in Eretz Yisrael! We got by, even
week. We were incredibly poor, with the cultural and financial challenges, and being in Israel
but this poverty taught me how made everything worth it.

(PHOTO ON LEFT PAGE: SHIMSHON SELIGSON)
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