Little Sister Gila

Gila Levy was born in 1925 to a completely assimilated Jewish family in France. She had a twin brother and two sisters. The father, who came from Turkey, did not deny his Jewish origins, but refused any religious expression. He was, however, open to all, of whatever race, color or religion. The mother was from the Alsace region of France. Gila’s admiration and love for her father were limitless. In the years (1940 – 1945) of war and persecution the family moved to a village in the south of France. The village took in Jewish refugees, including those from Alsace, and members of the resistance movements. From there her father returned to Paris in order to continue his work as a doctor. There he was arrested and taken to Auschwitz, whence he did not return. This tragic experience marked the family for always.

In the village which took them in, Gila received her first copy of the Bible, and discovered within the existence of “Someone” who not only created such a beautiful world, but continues to govern it. Furthermore, she discovered in the New Testament the accomplishment of all the Scriptures: Jesus who comes to accomplish the Father’s will. This encounter so filled her life with a new light that she did not try to deepen her knowledge of Judaism. She was baptized in Paris in 1950, at the age of 24. She lived together with her other Jewish friends (among them Miriam who would also become a Little Sister) among the Dominican nuns in Soisy sur Seine in order to pursue her study of Christianity. There she met the founder of the Little Sisters of Jesus, and considered the possibility of joining that order. Over the next few years she visited Israel, worked in a Galilee kibbutz, and received spiritual direction from Father Bruno Hussar (also Jewish, a Dominican priest and the founder of Neve Shalom). She then decided to follow Jesus, to let him lead her unconditionally. And in truth, by joining the order she left everything and everyone behind, and that at the most difficult of moments after the war.

Gila’s formation in religious life took place in France and Spain (in Malaga, which she always remembered and which had a special place in her heart). Afterwards, in the 1960s, she came to two communities of the Little Sisters in Israel, Jerusalem and Nazareth. In the 70s a Tel Aviv community opened, in a workers’ neighborhood in the south of Tel Aviv, where each of us lived for shorter or longer periods.

We owe Gila a great deal, she who knew how to form friendships with the poorest, with the less educated, with those who experienced difficult lives. She wanted to be poor as Jesus was, and for others she demanded respect and justice. When she lived in Haifa, Gila rejoiced in her good relations both in the Jewish world and in the Arab-Christian world. Later Gila was asked to live in Be'er Sheva and then in Jerusalem, and finally to move to a different stage in her life in a Jewish retirement home, a place here many come without choosing it. Gila’s cheerful and life-filled presence were a source of liveliness and friendship there too, with the forming of new relationships.

I will let Gila speak: “For me, as for the others, age is present. Strength diminishes, everything is more difficult, we become slower in all aspects, it’s the time to “let go”’ even of what we took for granted. If I suffer from the violence around us between Palestinians and Israelis, I have become conscious of that within me that I though long gone…. As we draw closer to the Lord, he seems to move further and further away, as do our certitudes. Perhaps that is the real faith: to not see, not understand, not be sure of anything. The national anthem of Israel is “Hatikva”, the hope - I hope to meet Him for whom I left everything. My daily prayer is: “Jesus, come glorify the Father within me and save all mankind”.

Gila’s discreet and hidden life helped her to live in this world as one who does not make noise, poor among the poor. Like the grain of wheat that falls to earth and dies to bear fruit, like the figure of the little mustard seed that grows: this is the great mystery of the Kingdom, the power of God with unpredictable consequences, brought into action by the smallest gesture, by that which is often hidden and unnoticed by many: the gift of a single life.