A Testimonial from Nancy Bell
edited by Hadas Baldwin

Volunteers For Israel, known as Sar El, was formed in 1982 through the initiative of General A. Davidi. 650 volunteers came to Israel in order to save the Golan Heights agricultural crop. The usual manpower was busy at war in Lebanon. Since its founding in 1982, Sar-El has grown from a handful of U.S. volunteers into a large international volunteer organization of some 8,000 volunteers annually. Since 1982, over 90,000 participants have come to Israel to show their solidarity by volunteering their time and labor. Their contributions to the labor needs of the IDF help reduce the demand for reservists and thereby ease the social and economic impact of reservists having to leave their families, jobs and businesses.

I happened upon Volunteers for Israel during one of my many internet searches last summer. Since September 2000 when Oslo quickly began unraveling and Yasser Arafat and his people decided that killing Jews was preferable to making peace with them, I have traveled to Israel on two solidarity missions, one with Federation and one with American Jewish Committee. Although I enjoyed both trips very much and had access to top Israeli government officials, my interest and desire to help Israel at this very critical time in Jewish history was not abated. However, this time I was looking for a hands-on opportunity and was not interested in doing a lot of sight-seeing. Although I had never considered working on an army-base and secretly longed for a week at the King David Hotel with a room overlooking the walls of the Old City, I signed up to be a Volunteers for Israel participant. Not able to convince any of my friends to take the plunge with me, I left for Israel by myself on October 21st.

I stress in my speaking that I went alone, because I was very nervous about doing so. Yet, as my husband pointed out to me on the way to the airport, I would not really be alone because I would be with like-minded people who had made a similar commitment to work for the State of Israel.

I was greeted at Ben Gurion airport by a Sar El representative, Pam Lazarus and was escorted to my army base near Ramle which is between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (and is not the same as Ramallah as many volunteers feared). The base on which I volunteered is the central communications equipment facility for the IDF. All field equipment is repaired and refurbished at this base. Sar El volunteers repaired and assembled communications equipment. Although technical and manual, much of the work can be learned quite quickly . With a few hours of training, we were able to begin our work.

Working side by side with Israeli soldiers, we assembled antennae for tanks and radio backpacks used by soldiers in combat in places like Jenin; we refurbished radios for tanks and jeeps; and we repaired the helmet headsets worn by tank crewmen. I worked with a group of lively and enthusiastic volunteers refurbishing headset antennae.

On my last day of work a group of volunteers from my base joined groups of volunteers from other bases to work on checking and packaging the gas masks that will be distributed by Israel if Iraq and the United States go to war. The picture of hundreds of volunteers and soldiers in an airplane hangar working with these gas masks is one that I will never forget.

Although the work is not glamorous, it was extremely gratifying. It was at once humbling and liberating to perform such simple work that was for such an important cause. The antennae that I refurbished are part of headsets used by soldiers in combat when they are communicating with each other at distances of several kilometers.

But what I would most like to share with you was the feelings evoked by wearing the IDF uniform. It is difficult and almost embarrassing to confess how thrilling it was for me. The sense of pride and purpose that I had wearing the uniform of the State of Israel's army is something that I long to recapture. Even though I am a Diaspora Jew, I had the privilege of serving the State of Israel.

Wearing the uniform, lining up for flag raising every morning with the soldiers, eating with them every day in the dining hall, walking around the base and reading all the hebrew signs, talking to my fellow volunteers about what it means to come to Israel at this time and what it means to be Jewish -- these are all memories that will be with me forever.

But even as I began to feel that the Israeli army experience was personally challenging and expansive and an antidote to feeling middle-aged and a bit bored, I found out what the volunteers bring to the Israeli soldiers and the IDF. The work performed by Sar El volunteers saves the IDF millions of shekels a year and frees up reservists for more skilled work. The IDF has come to rely on the Sar El volunteers for essential work.

Now more than ever, volunteering with Sar El is critically important. The morale is often low on non-combat bases where many of the soldiers come from families that are struggling economically. Not only does your volunteering alleviate the burden on reservists, but it helps lift the spirits of the soldiers on the bases where you serve. Many young Israelis have no idea that they are important to world Jewry. We had the opportunity to speak with many soldiers, often over lunch and dinner, about how much we appreciate their service.

This is not an experience for everyone, but for those of you who like to get your hands dirty and are looking for a bit of adventure and novelty, Sar El is a rewarding and potentially transforming experience in which you see Israel from the inside.

Nancy Bell