ACTION FIGURES Linda Sadacka is best known these days as the founder and leader of Moms on a Mitzvah a low-profile yet immensely active group with a reputation for getting things done. Remember the campaign to petition the FDA to allow use of an experimental drug for Raphael Elisha? That was Linda and the Moms. Remember #BringBackOurBoys the online campaign pressuring governments to recover Eyal Yifrach Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel? That was also the Moms. And we’re not even touching on the hundreds of cases of medical issues family issues and community projects the Moms deal with every day

I n a different century I could easily imagine Linda Sadacka as a suffragette on the order of Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins: a well-bred well-dressed fiery crusader for a cause who’s also a devoted wife and mother. In her long swishy skirt and stylish top Linda’s a combination of old fashioned and cutting edge a Flatbush shaatra who rubs elbows with senators and celebrities. (shaatra: the Syrian equivalent of balabusta par excellence.)

Linda now in her early forties is best known these days as the founder and leader of Moms on a Mitzvah a low-profile yet immensely active group with a reputation for getting things done. Remember the campaign to petition the FDA to allow use of an experimental drug for Raphael Elisha? That was Linda and the Moms. Remember #BringBackOurBoys the online campaign pressuring governments to recover Eyal Yifrach Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel? That was also the Moms. When the store Forever 21 began selling swastika-shaped costume jewelry the Moms launched the media blitz that forced the store to withdraw them. And we’re not even touching on the hundreds of cases of medical issues family issues and community projects the Moms deal with every day.

The typical frum housewife isn’t a political activist but Linda isn’t typical. Her political activism started even before she became religious on the heels of a tragedy that changed her life forever.

The Making of an Activist

I meet Linda Sadacka née Argalgi in her home a comfortable spacious house whose décor reflects Linda’s taste for statement-making and the colorful accent. Linda has a dramatic look with her raven-colored wig and startlingly bright-blue eyes. Both dynamic and determined she’s able to switch into fun bubbly mode becoming the friend you love to schmooze with over coffee and cake.

Linda describes growing up as “the lone pita bread amid the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches” of her mixed partly Jewish neighborhood in Montreal. Her Lebanese father and Egyptian mother spoke Arabic and French at home and were traditional if not fully observant; they sent Linda and her three siblings to a Talmud Torah and then Herzliah High School. (“It was the kind of school where they teach the girls Gemara. I was top of the class!” she says with a laugh.)

Linda’s brother had a friend David Friedberg who had become a ben bayis in their home. David’s older brother Jason (Yehoshua) had gone to Eretz Yisrael as a lone soldier and in 1993 the terrible news came that he had gone missing while hitching a ride. Days went by with no word from Jason.