Someone to hug: Four-legged canine friends provide comfort

(JNS) - A week before he was killed in a terrorist attack at the Allenby Crossing with Jordan in September 2025, IDF Sgt. Oran Hershko, 20, was traveling in Greece with his father. He created an AI image of a golden retriever puppy sitting in his room and wrote to his family, "Is it too much to ask for a golden?"

A few months after his death, a dog named Goldie, of the exact breed and color he loved, arrived at the family home in Tel Mond in central Israel. "It was like a kind of legacy he left," says his mother, Michal.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, thousands of bereaved families have been added to the...