JERUSALEM, Israel – War can bring out the worst in people, but it can also reveal the best. One Israeli and his fiancée are going the distance to encourage soldiers on the front lines, delivering fresh pizza across the country.
Gedalya Cohnen owns Bardak Pizza and Tipsey Café in Jerusalem.
He told CBN News, “I’m here making pizza and driving it to wherever I need to drive to make our soldiers happy.”
Cohnen added, “Whether it’s up north, down south, the Dead Sea, we’ve been to every corner of the country. I’m doing it because if you want to come with me right now on a journey of 7 or 8 hours, and if you see these smiles that I’m going to see tonight, I got to see them every day last week, you’d want to do it every day, too!”
Cohnen stayed busy making pizza for the soldiers, even during our interview.
We asked, “So, they really appreciate it?”
He replied, “They really appreciate it. We show up, I walk in with ten pies to one room – it’s all gone within like two, three minutes. They’re all in shock. They really appreciate it.”
Cohnen initiated the project while he was serving in the reserves after the October 7th, 2023, war began. Since the Iran war started in February, they’re traveling the country.
We asked what originally gave him the idea to make the deliveries.
He responded, “Originally, I was in the reserves, after October 7th. I was in for a few months, and every time I’d come home and come back to work, I’d end up going back to base with 10 or 15. or 25 (pizzas), just for my unit. And I’d see how much people in the area and on the base appreciate it. So, once I finished my reserves, we started doing it for other units, too.”
Each day, he comes in early and makes the extra pizzas. Initially, he had a driver to pick up the pizzas. Now, he and his fiancée do it themselves.
“I usually get here around nine,” he explained, and if we’re just going to Gaza, we’re home by 10:00 or 11:00 (p.m.). And when we go out to Lebanon, we don’t get home till 1:00 or 2:00 (a.m.). If you see the smiles, you understand why it’s still working.”
The soldiers are surprised and happy with the treat.
Cohnen observed, “The best places that I’ve gone are the places of the soldiers that haven’t been home in a few weeks. There are some bases where the soldiers get to come home every week or two, and then there are some bases where, for the past 5 or 6 weeks, the soldiers have been on base. And so the second I got to them, they were just the happiest because no one goes to them. They don’t get anything. And the second they saw these pies, they were all in heaven.”
And these are no common pizzas.
“We have some crazy pizzas here,” Cohnen said, and pointed to one of his favorites, what they call the Makor Baruch (the source of Blessing). “It’s Alfredo sauce, Silan, walnuts, and basil.”
They even make iced coffees to send along. “The more people we get to help, the more soldiers we can make happy,” he stated. “And there are hundreds of thousands of them around the country right now.”
Cohnen makes pizzas for soldiers even if he doesn’t get financial help, but the more donations he receives, the more pizza he can deliver.
“We’ve got some more,” he told us, as he carried a stack of pizzas in boxes out to his car.
It’s acts of kindness from people such as Cohen during the tough times that give Israelis the reputation for resilience, even under existential threats.
