Rony Ben-Zvi Elimelech is about to complete her doctorate in the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. She is also a mother of two boys, ages 6 years and 16 months, and chief executive officer of Wisemama, which supports women who are combining parenthood and academic studies.

While Rony was working on her master’s degree with a toddler at home, she relied on a friend who had completed an advanced degree with children. “She helped me through challenges unique to student mothers, and I couldn’t have done it without her,” she said. “That’s why I started Wisemama.” The mentoring project she founded with three other women in 2020 is now active in five universities. More than 350 women have participated.

Needless to say, the events of October 7 and the ensuing war with Hamas only added to the stress students with children face. Only a few days after October 7, Rony received calls and emails from women with infants and young children whose spouses were called up for IDF service.

“One woman from the Technion was very anxious. She was worried about her husband; she was alone with her kids and didn’t know how she could go on with her Ph.D. research,” Rony explained.

Rony set up a Zoom meeting with the Technion’s Professor Ayelet Fishman, dean of students, and Professor Uri Peskin, dean of the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Graduate School. “They told us, ‘Don’t even worry about such things. Right now, all you need to do is hug your children hard.’ It was heartwarming to know someone cares, and someone see us, especially during all this chaos.”

Rony also experienced her own challenges after October 7. “At the beginning of October, I was still on maternity leave, recovering from a difficult childbirth. I expected to get called up to serve, and when I wasn’t, I was actually offended.

“But I got over it. I decided protecting our children from psychological damage that would probably occur from this war is also a national mission. So, as much as I could, I helped take care of the kids of friends whose husbands were recruited.”

Just as Rony returned to her research in the lab, she was called up for reserve duty in the air force. She has the type of position she could have turned down. “I already committed to return to my research, so I consulted my Ph.D. supervisor, who immediately said, ‘Now is not the time to say no to reserve duty.’ In the end, I completed 43 days of reserve duty, juggling duties in the lab with managing Wisemama, working as a guide in the Alpha project, and taking care of my family.” Alpha is a program for high school students who are integrated into Technion labs, doing research as part of their school finals.

Rony has a bachelor’s in biology from the Technion and a master’s in neurobiology from the University of Haifa. “After my second degree I came back to the Technion. The Technion supports us and has our back. If I need something, I know I’ll have it.”

For her Ph.D., she researches mechanisms of retinal degeneration. She is studying the effect of amyloid beta, a group of highly toxic short proteins found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Perhaps, one day, her research will help lead to new treatments.

For now, Rony gets through one day at a time, assuring her 6-year-old son that Israel will win. A popular song runs through her head. She paraphrases, “Now the teacher is a fighter, and the banker is a commander. Every Israeli has a superpower; every Israeli has a soldier inside him – ready to come out and save the world.”