Wartime Diaries
Just a moment to decide what’s most important
90 Seconds
During the 12 days of June 2025’s war-within-a-war, Israelis had 90 seconds to enter their bomb shelters from the moment the sirens began blaring. Here, in exactly 90 seconds, is a taste of what those 90 seconds felt like.
Act TranscriptMitch Ginsburg: So when the sirens go off and you have 90 seconds to get to the shelter, what’s the first thing that you grab?
Interviewee 1: The first thing I grab when the siren goes off is my kid.
Interviewee 2: My kid.
Interviewee 3: The nearest grandkid.
Interviewee 4: My phone.
Interviewee 5: My phone.
Interviewee 6: My iPhone.
Interviewee 7: My baby.
Interviewee 8: My kids.
Interviewee 9: First of all, our dog. And after that our son.
Interviewee 10: I grab my sleeping bag and a mattress.
Interviewee 11: My Blistex, the lip balm.
Interviewee 12: My sweatshirt that says, “do a mitzvah. It’s cool.”
Interviewee 13: Pretzels.
Interviewee 14: Pretzels?
Interviewee 15: An iPad to watch TV.
Interviewee 16: My money and my passports.
Interviewee 13: And cars.
Interviewee 14: And cars.
Interviewee 17: Tuna fish for the next seven years.
Interviewee 18: My hat as my kisui rosh, and to make sure I’m appropriately dressed.
Interviewee 16: I used to sleep just underwear, and now I’m… I have to sleep like with clothes.
Interviewee 19: I do not go down to the shelter. There are too many people down there, and I just don’t want to relate to them.
Interviewee 20: I’ll make sure, like, the gas is turned off, the oven’s off.
Interviewee 19: I’ll make sure all the windows are closed.
Interviewee 21: Check that my apartment is locked.
Interviewee 22: And then I pee.
Interviewee 19: And I turn on the news and I wait.
Interviewee 23: I sleep on the mamad so it’s… I’m staying at my bed and sleeping.
Interviewee 24: My first thought is, maybe I need to run the fast as I can.
Interviewee 25: Oh, my God, not again. Where is my pants?
Interviewee 26: Please God, make sure that it’s not my shelter this time.
Interviewee 27: Goddamn it, I am so over this.
Interviewee 28: OK. How can we get there fast enough so we know we have a spot and then we’re not gonna be stranded outside?
Interviewee 29: So I usually think about all the pain in the asses that are going to be with us in the miklat and bring their stupid dogs that can’t see… he’s already half dead, leave him outside. Thank you. That’s it.
Credits
The end song is Od Chozer HaNigun (“The Melody Returns”) by Chava Alberstein.
