She was a 6-year-old girl in Ukraine when she was moved to an orphanage with her brother, following the abuse they suffered from their father. Fifteen years later, she decided to immigrate to Israel without knowing a word of Hebrew, enlist in the army - and become a fighter who defends the border. 

What made her do all this? We sat down for a conversation with Leah, the most optimistic fighter in the IDF, who put us in proportion

When talking to Corporal Leah Kravitz, it is hard to believe that she has been speaking Hebrew for a total of a year and a half.

She was born in Ukraine, and from the age of six she lived with her two younger brothers in a Jewish boarding school in the city of Odessa, to which he was transferred by a neighbor, who witnessed the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father.

"In the boarding school you have to fight for everything," recalls Corporal Kravitz. "Nothing is yours. You share a room, clothes, belongings."

"You can't miss something you did not know you had lost," she says picturesquely, "and I really did not realize it was wrong, until I came up here and learned that it is possible otherwise."

She came to Israel, she recalls, almost by mistake: "At the orphanage we were taught a little about Jewish holidays and customs, but if five years ago you would have asked me if I had imagined I would immigrate to Israel and enlist in the army - I would have laughed in your face."

The idea, she surprises me, came when she was 17 and accidentally found in the library in the orphanage a book about the illegal immigrant ship "Exodus". "I read about the journey these people made, how much they struggled to get to the country, sometimes to death - I could almost see before my eyes their wars, and feel the heroism, and I realized I could not stand aside. I must be a part of it."

So, without any authority figure or role model who did it before her, Corporal Kravitz packed a suitcase, said goodbye to the brothers, language and life she knew - and boarded a plane to Israel.

"It's hard to understand how different Israel is from Ukraine," she explains, her eyes filled with tears, "everyone here is nice, everything is clean, everyone wants to help. I once bought coffee in uniform, and the seller told me it was free for me. I burst into tears. It's a little gesture that makes you feel so at home.'

At first, she did not even think of enlisting in the army. She came up without a plan, and only one goal in mind: "to help where help is needed. To have another pair of hands where they are missing."

She signed up for a Hebrew lessons she found online, started learning Hebrew and moved to a hostel she heard about by chance. Meanwhile, she read about combat service in the IDF, and realized - this is her opportunity.

She enlisted in the Alon unit, and there, with the help of her personal IDF rep, with whom she is still in contact, she managed to get the assignment she had dreamed of: for the Karkal infantry combat Regiment.

"To tell you that everything is easy?", She smiles, "Absolutely not. But it's an inexplicable feeling, a real mission, not as a cliché. At first I had fears - how will they accept me, if I manage, but they disappeared as soon as I enlisted. What do I need? I have a bathroom with a few other girls, and I have my own room. This is the first time in my life that this has happened. I have a bed, a closet, a shelf. It may sound simple, but for me it's so much. "

The members of the battalion, she adds, are also pitched in to help her with everything she needs. "The people here know me very well, they know what I want to say even before I say it. In our beret march, when we arrived at the end-of-track ceremony, all the families came to support and only mine did not come. It was a difficult moment, I felt alone, but I looked sideways and realized that this was my real family."

Life without her brothers, who remained in Ukraine, she says, is very difficult and the longing does not stop, "But I knew it was something I had to do, and that it was also an example for them - that you can do anything you dream of. I want them to immigrate too. I encourage my sister to be a combat fighter like me. This is the best thing I have done for myself, I get up every morning and say thank you for what I have."