“She was the first person people turned to in a crisis. She knew how to turn every setback into an opportunity,” said Shimon, brother of police Sgt. Maj. Dvorah “Debbie” Abraham, who was killed on Oct. 7 while securing the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im.
For days, her family, evacuated from their home in Moshav Talmei Yosef in the Gaza envelope, had no idea what had become of her.
Abraham left behind her mother and three siblings: Keren, 52; Shimon, 41; and David, 48. Since her death, they have devoted themselves to commemorating her. “She could have saved herself at any moment,” the family said, “but as a police officer, she thought first of others.”
The letter that revealed her dream
After her death, Shimon discovered a letter she had written in 2008 to then-Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and then-Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen, asking to join the police force after volunteering with the Civil Guard. She was told at the time there were no openings.
“I think that letter really describes who Debbie was,” Shimon said.
In it, Abraham wrote that according to media reports, the police were seeking serious and capable people for various roles across Israel. “I see myself as such a person,” she wrote, “and I decided to fulfill my childhood dream of joining the police.
“I am 25, studying criminology, volunteering with the Civil Guard, loyal to the State of Israel and want the state to be loyal to me. Please, I am sure that if you look hard enough in the drawers, you’ll find a place for me as well. I promise I will prove I was worthy of it.”
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Debbie’s mother, her two brothers and sister, together with Goldie the dog
(Photo: Herzl Yosef)
She continued: “After it was explained to me that the road will be hard, I am not ready to give up on who I am. As history shows, nothing can stand in the way of willpower, so I decided to share my story. I am willing to undergo any test and promise that if you give me the chance and recruit me, I will seize it with both hands, use it wisely, contribute my strength, intellect, and abilities — and I have them.
“I am sure the police are blessed with talented people who do their jobs faithfully. I want to join and be part of this respected organization. See this letter not only as a request, but as the demand of a citizen who wants to contribute to the security of our country and doesn’t understand why it must come at the price of endless hassle.”
Shimon later read the letter aloud during a training course at the police academy. “They cried,” he said.
A rescuer of people and animals
The letter gave her family and friends one more memory of Debbie — her courage and determination.
She was also a devoted animal lover. At the Ofakim police station, she adopted stray cats that would sit beside her. Even on her days off, she came to feed them. After her death, feeding stations for cats were set up across the Gaza envelope in her memory.
Her golden retriever, Goldie — “the greatest gift Debbie left us,” her siblings say — had been rescued by her years earlier. “Debbie found her wandering between the moshavim, abandoned. She tried to find someone to adopt her but no one wanted her,” recalled her brother David. “So she brought Goldie to our mother. Now she is very close to her.”
The last call
Debbie’s final phone call on Oct. 7 was to her sister Keren.
“She called us from Nova and said we should take care of ourselves and of Mom,” Keren recalls. “On Simchat Torah she gave me a serving set shaped like a heart, and to this day I haven’t unwrapped it from the cellophane. We hugged a lot during the holiday, and she wanted to tell me something but didn’t get the chance.
“Sometimes when I walk the dogs in the fields, I say: Debbie, if you see me, give me a sign. Once, a flock of swallows flew by and I felt it click. At our mother’s house we suddenly noticed a swallow’s nest at the entrance. So when I saw those swallows in the fields, I told myself — that swallow must be you, watching over Mom.”
Holding the line at the Nova Music Festival
Shimon recounted how Debbie, who arrived for the morning shift at the festival, managed the scene, doing everything she could to secure medical and military aid.
“She knew all the security teams in the communities and the emergency coordinators. At some point they told her there was no one to send. No ambulances. No army. Then she called my sister and told us all to get into houses and take care of Mom. She was busy trying to get help,” he said.
“Some of those who fled at 7 a.m. turned back because they were caught at ambushes on the roads and ended up at Debbie’s command post. Around 8:30, terrorists arrived who had aimed for Netivot but instead reached Nova. Together with other officers, she directed partygoers to dirt paths — saving hundreds.
“When the officers fell, Debbie shouted for everyone to run. She ran into the small bar because she knew people were hiding there defenseless. She shielded them with her body. An eyewitness said she was shot first.”
Saving lives to the last
One survivor later came to the family and said Debbie had instructed him how to dismantle a fence so he and others could escape through the bottleneck. “Then she told him to run,” the family said. “He looked for us afterward to say thank you. Those who tried to leave 10 minutes later couldn’t get through the blocked roads.”
Around her neck, Debbie wore a necklace with a pendant inscribed with a verse from Psalms: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.’
The necklace was found by a Defense Ministry photographer at the site. Through a Facebook post, he tracked down the family. They had 14 necklaces made with the same verse.
“I think the letter she wrote to join the police still resonates,” Shimon said. “Today’s police recruits are joining a force that has already suffered so many losses — but they understand the mission.”