After two months as a counselor in the Aish Aspire program for young women wishing to learn more about Judaism and Israel, 28-year-old Chaya Lock was offered a full-time position at the Jerusalem-based Jewish educational organization.
“I wasn’t so enthusiastic,” Lock admits. “Israelis shout a lot – and I’m British, so I am not used to that. And I don’t speak Hebrew well. The idea was a bit terrifying. But I decided to give it a go.”
Not long after she made the decision to remain at Aish rather than return home to Manchester, the Hamas attacks would plunge Israel into a much more terrifying situation.
“October 7 happened, and I was holding down the fort at Aish, trying to keep everyone calm,” says Lock, the oldest of five siblings in a religious family.
Because Shmini Atzeret-Simchat Torah is observed for two days outside of Israel, plus the time difference, she wasn’t able to apprise her parents of her safety until well after the holiday.
“My mom told me she had three possible scenarios in her head: I was dead; fine and safe in Aish; or doing something crazy like helping a woman give birth in a bomb shelter,” Lock recalls.
“She asked me what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to stay, but I would come back if she wanted me to. My mother is amazing; she said, ‘No, when God says it’s your time... it doesn’t make a difference if you’re in Israel or China.’ She was just surprised I hadn’t enlisted in the IDF yet.”
She says she is “forever grateful” for her parents’ support. Still, she recites the Shema every morning and night “with the mindset that if anything were to happen, I’m prepared to meet my Creator.”
Lock previously worked in palliative care in a Jewish nursing home and in two hospitals in Manchester. She also volunteered in the Jewish burial society and multi-faith chaplaincy units.
She’d applied for the temporary counselor position at Aish Aspire as a much-needed break from her intense job, never imagining she’d permanently be working and living at the Aish World Center campus in Jerusalem.
Following the October 7 attacks, Lock volunteered to cook for soldiers and inquired about enlisting in the IDF Medical Corps, but she had aged out of that possibility.
The following October, she enrolled in the only English-speaking training program for Magen David Adom. This 60-hour first-aid course is run by Israel Experience, a subsidiary of the Jewish Agency. It’s followed by six weeks of active volunteering at MDA stations across the country. Joining experienced Israeli ambulance teams, the volunteers respond to medical emergency calls and assist with traffic accidents and security incidents.
Lock formally made aliyah in November 2024 and has continued volunteering twice a week with MDA. She improved her Hebrew through a course at Ulpan La-Inyan.
“MDA pushes you to learn Hebrew, and they’re right – you have to be able to communicate in an emergency situation. My Hebrew is far from perfect, but I can safely and quickly assess an emergency situation and provide care and support.”
She is still in contact with her teachers, Batya Hoffman and Tzippy Winter, when she needs to be talked through a hard call or ask a quick medical question anytime of day or night.
Challenging experiences
Coming from her English-speaking bubble at Aish, Lock’s experiences responding to emergency calls gave her a new understanding.
“I really didn’t know life in Israel till I got on an ambulance with MDA. They showed me Israel from a whole different perspective of medical and legal protocols. It was a huge turning point of me feeling Israeli,” she says.
Sometimes she’s encountered uncomfortable or unsafe situations. One time, while working on a shift with an Arab driver and Jewish bat sherut (National Service volunteer), they were called to rush a sick newborn to the hospital. The parents had waited a long time before summoning help, because they were not in the country legally.
“I sat in the back with the bat sherut and we did everything we could to keep that child alive until we handed them over to the hospital team. They were waiting for the baby, as we’d called ahead of time, but the police were also waiting for them,” she recalls.
“After the handover, the bat sherut and I were extremely emotional, trying to juggle our feelings. We’d helped save a tiny new life, a Palestinian baby who is not a legal citizen and is now under police custody! Who will this child become? Do we want to know? Does this child have family members who hurt ours?”
Another time, at the scene of a three-car accident, she noticed that she was the oldest first responder among all the firefighters, police, and medical teams. “This country is being run by kids, but it works! As Golda Meir once said, ‘If you give young people responsibilities, they will surprise you with how much they can handle.’”
In addition to working at Aish and volunteering with MDA, Lock was recruited by a nonprofit organization, Lev Zion, to set up a night program for English-speaking girls at risk in Jerusalem.
“In England, I had worked as a crisis manager for teens at risk, and the organization heard about me,” she explains. The center has now been up and running for a year, with the nightly operations supervised by a hired staff.
Lock has a brother living in Israel and says she would be happy if her whole family were to move here, too.
“I don’t think England is the safest place,” she says, noting that at the hospitals where she worked, Jewish employees had a WhatsApp group on which they shared antisemitic incidents they encountered on the job and advised one another which hospital staff or wards to avoid. One time, she tended a patient with a swastika tattoo.
Here in Israel, this energetic people person feels free to be a proud Jew and accepts with calm faith whatever may happen as she casts her lot with God and the Jewish nation.
“This country is nuts,” she jokes, “but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m a human being, and I just try to be as human as possible to everyone I meet.”■
CHAYA LOCK, 28
FROM MANCHESTER TO JERUSALEM, 2023