Throughout her military service as a combat intelligence soldier in the IDF, Jamie Pila, 24, carried a small locket containing a photograph of the father she never knew. Engraved on it were the words "Daddy's Angel." "He was always with me and gave me strength," she says, looking at his picture.
Her father, James Gartenberg, was murdered in the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center in 2001. At the time, her mother was three months pregnant with Jamie, while her older sister was just two and a half years old.
More than two decades later, Jamie would find herself facing terrorists on another day that changed history, October 7, 2023, while serving as an Israeli soldier near the Gaza border.
"The locket reminds me that I've already paid the highest price for terrorism, and that I have to be here and do my part in the fight, even if it's a small one," she says.
A pendant with a photo of her father, James, that Jamie wears around her neck
(Photo: Courtesy)
On the morning of September 11, 2001, James arrived at his office on the 86th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. It was supposed to be his final day at the company before moving to a new job, and he had come to pack up his belongings. "After that day, he was supposed to leave for good," Jamie says.
When a hijacked plane struck the tower several floors above his office and fire broke out on his floor, James tried to contact his wife, Jill. "He left her a voicemail saying he didn't know if he would make it out, and that he loved her and my sister," Jamie recalls.
James Gartenberg
(Photo: Courtesy)
When Jill realized the scale of the disaster, she broke down in the street. "Nobody understood what had happened to her, but she already knew he wasn't going to get out."
As she grieved for her husband, strangers approached her, and she began telling them through tears about the baby she was carrying. "My mom ended up telling people the two most opposite things in the same conversation, the greatest joy and the greatest pain," Jamie says.
‘My parents thought I'd change my mind’
Although she never met her biological father, Jamie feels a deep connection to him. "Everyone tells me I'm exactly like him, both in personality and facial features. Sometimes people look at me and say, 'Wow, you are your father.' Over the years, I've gotten to know who he was. He was a good person, someone who always cared about others and who really loved New York."
(Photo: Courtesy)
Two years after her husband's death, Jill remarried a man named Jay, and the family settled in New Jersey. Jamie gained a father who raised her, along with a brother and sister from his previous marriage. "He's my dad in every sense," she emphasizes.
Her childhood was comfortable and peaceful, far removed from the life she would eventually choose. "We had a quiet life. I had everything. After high school, everyone went off to college on their own path. I played a lot of sports, mainly snowboarding and ice hockey. In high school, I moved to a boarding school where I trained in snowboarding."
Jamie was preparing to begin college when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted her plans. "When classes moved to Zoom, I realized that wasn't really for me, so I decided to wait a year until we could go back to studying in person," she says.
While looking for something meaningful to do during the break, she learned through her mother about a program run by Masa Israel Journey, which brings young Jewish adults from around the world to Israel.
She decided to go. "I felt like I'd arrived somewhere I didn't know anyone, but people welcomed me with open arms. I just felt at home."
The connection surprised her. "Everywhere I'd traveled before, I thought it was the most beautiful place in the world. But Israel was the first place in my life where I actually wanted to learn about its history. I felt that I had to be part of it."
Jamie at the 9/11 memorial in Jerusalem honoring the victims of the World Trade Center attacks
(Photo: Courtesy)
One particularly emotional moment came when she visited the September 11 memorial in Jerusalem, the only memorial outside the United States that bears the names of all those killed in the attacks.
Standing at the site overlooking the city, she found her father's name engraved in Jerusalem stone. "I was standing at a lookout over all of Jerusalem, and I saw my dad's name carved into the stone," she recalls. "I'm on the other side of the world, standing in front of my father's name, with this incredibly beautiful view behind it and silence all around."
By the summer of 2021, Jamie had made up her mind. She would return to Israel on her own and enlist in the IDF as a lone soldier, the Israeli designation for service members without immediate family support in the country.
"My parents thought I'd get over the idea, that I wasn't serious," she says. "I told them that this time was different."
"They tried to convince me there were lots of ways to support Israel. That I could volunteer and do things for the country, and that I didn't have to enlist. But I knew I had to serve in the IDF."
In May 2022, Jamie enlisted at Michve Alon, an IDF training base that helps new recruits, including immigrants, prepare for military service. She subsequently began training as a combat intelligence collection soldier.
"I researched all the units, and that was exactly where I wanted to go," she recalls. "At first they told me my Hebrew wasn't good enough, but I promised I'd learn. There was nothing that could stop me."
After completing her demanding training, she was assigned to Battalion 727, serving along Israel's border with Egypt. Six months later, on October 7, 2023, she was sent into the fighting near Gaza.
‘I just hoped I would stay alive’
"On October 6, we went out on a nighttime operation and got back at 6:30 in the morning," Jamie recalls. "We were planning to shower and go to sleep. But as soon as we returned, the sirens started."
By midday, her unit had been called to the Gaza border communities, where Hamas terrorists had launched an unprecedented attack. "As we got closer to Gaza, there was this strange silence, the kind that tells you something terrible has happened."
Jamie during her service as an IDF combat intelligence collection soldier
(Photo: Courtesy)
Jamie decided not to tell her family what was unfolding. "I thought to myself, if I text my mom that I love her, it'll sound like a goodbye message, and that could scare her. So I decided not to write to anyone, and I just hoped I would stay alive."
Her team of female combat soldiers reached the area near the Sufa military outpost, close to the Gaza border. "It was a shock," she recalls. "People were bleeding, screaming for help."
The unit split into smaller groups. Some soldiers helped locate people using a drone, while Jamie joined a team accompanying an officer who was evacuating the wounded.
The soldiers were instructed to treat everyone they encountered with suspicion. "They told us to suspect everyone. 'Even when you think it's a soldier, it could be a terrorist.'"
The situation was especially frightening because of how exposed the small group was. "There were only four of us, four female combat soldiers, with wounded soldiers behind us that we had to protect."
Then she heard gunfire. "I heard shots behind me. In the United States, when there's gunfire, you learn to run. But in that situation, I told myself, 'If I get up, I'm dead. I just have to stay where I am.'"
Despite the courage and composure she displayed that day, Jamie does not dwell on the danger she faced. "I don't think about the fact that I risked my life," she says. "I think about how I could have done more."
Her father's memory remained with her throughout her service, connecting the tragedy that had shaped her life before she was born with the violence she encountered as a soldier.
Jamie completed her military service in January 2025 and was discharged from the IDF. Today, she lives in Herzliya with her partner, who also served as a combat intelligence soldier, and is beginning her studies in Israel. Her parents and siblings remain in the United States.
Sometimes, she wonders what James would have thought of the path she chose. "I sometimes wonder what my dad would think if he heard that he had a daughter who was a combat soldier in the IDF," she says. "He was never in Israel, but everyone, his friends and my family, is incredibly proud."
Despite the distance from her family in New Jersey, and despite missing the sports that were such a big part of her life in the United States, Jamie is certain about where she belongs. "I hate the heat. Snowboarding was my whole life. But every time I leave here, I'm just waiting to come back."
For a young woman whose life began in the shadow of September 11 and whose military service brought her face to face with the horrors of October 7, the decision to stay in Israel is deeply personal. "I came here, enlisted and fought terrorism," she says. "And now I just can't bring myself to leave."