Leslie Windman: A Maryland chiropractor making adjustments in Israel

• Published date: 20 April 2024
• Author: ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"There were maybe 1,000 in the United States, and now I'm one of two in the entire Middle East; the other is in Dubai," Windman said

During the war, she's been using this skill – honed over 30 years of practice in Maryland – as a volunteer, easing aches and pains for soldiers serving across Israel.

Volunteering to help IDF soldiers

It started when she accompanied her only child, Rochelle, to visit Rochelle's husband, Yehonatan, at a training base at the beginning of the war.

"I always bring my equipment with me. Rochelle saw a soldier she knew and asked him if he needed an adjustment. Three hours later, we'd adjusted the entire unit. We did that a few times at different bases," she recounted.

A fellow chiropractor, Tova Goldfine, told Windman about Chayal's Angels. This group of complementary medicine and alternative therapy practitioners travels to bases treating troops for free. Windman soon became an active member.

"The soldiers need it so desperately. One time, a soldier said to me, 'I want you to see a picture of my newborn son' – a baby he hadn't met yet. Looking at that picture, the two of us started crying. I love these incredible soldiers so much; they come to us with such love and appreciation," she said. "Now my next goal is to start taking care of the wives and children of soldiers in the community."

WINDMAN HAD her first transformational Israel experience on a tour with a Reform temple around the time of Rochelle's bat mitzvah.

"On Shabbat, they took us to Hebrew Union College services, and it was so ethereal. I said to Michael, 'If Shabbat is like this every week, I'm coming to live here.' That day, I had a 'Sinai moment' in the HUC courtyard overlooking the Old City. I went home and I cried for three weeks straight. I sought out different rabbis to help me understand what happened to me. That started the journey," she said.

"I started volunteering in many different Jewish organizations, and I started to study with a Chabad rabbi in Baltimore, who helped me through that experience spiritually."

Rochelle was similarly moved. At 17, she spent half a year in Israel on an exchange program, and then expressed her desire to serve in the IDF. Her parents agreed, if she'd first finish college in the US. That she did, and nine years ago she made aliyah with the Garin Tzabar program for lone soldiers. For the next seven years, her parents visited her four times a year.

"Michael had volunteered on an army base through Sar-El right out of college, 40...