Great-great-grandmother lights up Independence Day show

Cheerful Renee Abitbul, 92, honored at annual torch-lighting ceremony for her 18 years of volunteer work in Jerusalem hospital; urges others to follow her example

A 92-year-old great-great-grandmother's smile shone some light on subdued Independence Day celebrations Tuesday evening as she was honored for her 18 years of volunteer service at a Jerusalem hospital.

Renee Abitbul cheerfully lit a torch along with Yasmin Mazawi, 18, at the annual torch-lighting ceremony that kicked off Independence Day celebrations.

Though usually broadcast live from Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, this year it was prerecorded as the country watched from home amid a curfew to prevent gatherings due to the spread of the coronavirus.

The event, honoring 12 outstanding individuals for their contribution to the country, was this year focused on saluting medical staff fighting the virus. Abitbul and Mazawi were representing hospital volunteers and volunteer medics, young and old.

The elder volunteer has 41 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

As she lit the torch, Abitbul declared, "We immigrated from Morocco with 10 children out of a great love for Israel, because I am a Zionist. I light this torch in honor of Shaare Zedek Hospital, where I am a volunteer, and in honor of all the volunteers. I love to help, it is a great commandment [from God] to [reach] the World to Come.

"Go and volunteer, and you will always be happy like I am. May God give all the sick people strength and health," she said.

"I am very proud, I feel like I am in a dream," Abitbul told the Ynet news site after the ceremony was broadcast. "The whole world is moved that I lit a torch. It is a tremendous honor."

She said her phone has not stopped ringing.

"Even people who I don't know are calling to say they were very moved. They are calling me Israel's grandmother."

Last year Abitbul received an award from the Knesset for her volunteer work and the year before that an honor from the health minister.

Abitbul explained that she has been forced to pause her volunteer work at the hospital during the coronavirus outbreak, which has been particularly lethal among the elderly.

"I very much miss volunteering at the hospital," she said.

Abitbul, together with her husband and their children, immigrated to Israel in 1968 from Fez in Morocco. The family settled in the Kiryat Menahem neighborhood of Jerusalem.

After her husband died in 2002 she began volunteering at Shaare Zedek. Reaching the hospital for her weekly visits requires taking two buses and the light rail.

Abitbul told Channel 12 that her family had gathered around her to watch the broadcast together.

In addition to Abitbul and Mazawi, the torch lighters honored this year were: Israeli comic Tzipi Shavit; singer Idan Raichel; Druze IDF commander Hisham Ibrahim; Eli Ben Shem, who runs the Yad L'Banim organization for the families of fallen soldiers; Prof. Galia Rahav, who was representing Israel's doctors; educator and social activist Adi Altshuler; Uri Cohen, a founder of the "Masa Yisraeli" educational program; the head of the Yedidim nonprofit, which offers roadside assistance, Israel Almasi; "Birthright for Moms" founder Lori Palatnik; and nurses Ahmad Balauna and Yael Viluzhni-Azulay, who were representing all nurses.

Knesset Speaker Benny Gantz also lit a torch.

Last year, another great-great-grandmother, 93-year-old Maria Nahmias, stole the show when she was honored for her work fostering dozens of Jewish and Arab children over a period of decades.

Independence Day, usually marked with lavish fireworks, barbecues, street parties and air shows, will see most of its festivities canceled to avoid a fresh outbreak of the coronavirus, which has killed over 200 and infected more than 15,000 in the country.