I got on the Internet to look for something meaningful and affordable for my family.  My searches for volunteer work in Israel yielded abundant opportunities, but the only thing I could find for youth younger than 18 was a program through the Volunteers for Israel, called Sar-El.  This is a division of the IDF, The Israeli Forces “employs” volunteers.  The first in what seemed like unbelievable luck,  (beshert) for us was that Sar-El was running a family program the second and third weeks in July, just when we would be there, and this year was accepting 14 year olds.  My youngest son, Elliott had turned 14 this past spring; Abigail at 16 would be fine.  This was only the second year of the family program, and it turned out to be perfect for us!  It was exciting to think that we would be living and working not only with Israeli soldiers, but meeting other families from all over the world who would be sharing this adventure with us.

So we applied, filled out tons of forms, had physicals, went for an interview with a wonderful and insightful Volunteer for Israel representative, and we were accepted into the Volunteers for Israel program. 

When we got there, we were told that we would be stationed on a base in the Negev desert a few kilometers from both Be’er Sheva and the Gaza strip.  Having spent my last trip mostly in the Negev desert I was thrilled to be back.  I loved the dry heat of the desert.  Others in my group were a little concerned to be in the desert in the summer, but we found out that all the rooms had air conditioning and the heat just wasn’t a problem.

We were expected to wear our army uniforms at all times we were on the base, but not allowed to wear them off the base.  We were all assigned a job, and we worked from after flag raising to lunch and then again from after lunch until about four or five o’clock.  After dinner we had special programming just for our group.  We all felt pride in wearing our uniforms, from our caps down to our army boots, and each morning someone of our group got to raise the flag along side one of the soldiers.  On our last morning there our madricha arranged to have Hatikva playing for us, and we all were in tears.

Our madricha, or our commander, leader, teacher, mother, etc. was 19 years old.  She choose to do her two years in the army as a madricha for Sar-El, which means every two or three weeks she leads a different group of volunteers in any of the 27 bases that accepts Sar-El volunteers.  The madrichot, mostly female, are responsible for up to 30 volunteers at a time.  Our group had seven parents or grandparents, as well as eight youth.   But there are other groups of young adults (starting at 17) and groups of seniors as well.  The madricha is responsible for all interaction with the army base, setting us up with uniforms, jobs, rooms, and meals, and also provides educational programming at night, arranges trips for us during the week, and because we are not permitted to stay on the base on Shabbat, she helps plan your travel arrangements for that time.  Our madricha, Sheerley did all that as well as becoming what she called our sister soldier, and our friend.

Our jobs, since we were on a transportation base included a lot of work with the trucks.  Cleaning and painting was predominant.  My group worked with chains that needed to be separated and sorted for inspection, we also had women that worked in the kitchen and many of us helped package army kits, and help load trucks.  Some of the work was physically hard, but everyone worked, as they were able to.  They took good care of us while we were working and this is when we got the chance to meet and talk with the soldiers.  While many did not speak or understand English, no one felt this got in the way of making new friends.  Most of the soldiers at our base were between 18-22, they were all excited and appreciated that we were there with them, although they couldn’t understand why we wanted to volunteer for the army, and why we didn’t make aliya.

Our group quickly became a family, the young people bonded and together they talked and met with the soldiers in the TV room or outside on the lawn.  We supported each other in work, and traded Jewish diaspora stories, and marveled together how it felt to be in a country were mostly everyone is Jewish

Once a year Sar-El has its annual thank you for its volunteers.  This year it was up north at a hot springs resort called Gamat Hader.  There were 500 Sar-El volunteers, it was amazing to see and feel the intensity and ruach there.  There were group of 200 French youth, as well as people from all over the world.  The founder of Sar-El, General Aharon Davidi, was there to welcome us in many languages.  Davidi initiated the volunteer program in 1983 to help out the soldiers who had to leave their farms to fight in Lebanon, the first 600 volunteers volunteered in the farms in the Golan Heights.  The project was a success and more and more people wanted to come and volunteer in Israel.  Soon Sar-El was founded and today hosts volunteers from over 35 countries worldwide including local Israeli volunteers.  Last year the 100,000^th volunteer arrived!  The volunteers of Sar-El save the Israeli military money each year, as well show the Israelis that we are one with them.  It is with pride that we are here.

One of the most touching experiences that we had was when Sheerley (our madricha) took us to visit with a combat unit on our base.  Sar-El does not house the volunteers with the combat units.  The unit we visited was an Elite infantry unit, the soldiers are all young, and their commander was only 22 years old.  It is academically and physically difficult to get into this unit.  All the young men in this unit were proud and courageous.  They showed us videos of their combat encounters with the Palestinians, and some propaganda videos that were confiscated at this time.  They spoke of how hard it is to go after these Palestinian terrorist that hide behind women and children, and in UN ambulances.  They said the most important thing we could do as IDF volunteers is that when we are back home again, to spread the word, that Israel is not like they show on the news, that the soldiers have values and morals and have to face them on a daily bases. The soldiers now have names and faces; they are not some foreign army fighting a battle for some unknown cause.  Their struggles are our struggles and their hurts and casualties are our losses as well.  My family has gotten back a lot more then we gave.  My children have learned that you can give more of yourself then just writing a check for tsedakah.  I hope that the soldiers that touched our lives will remember us as well, and that maybe we have provided some encouragement and they know that what they do is appreciated and they are loved.

We hope to be able to experience this program again in the future, as a family or individuals.  Everyone’s help is needed and appreciated, at any time.  It feels good and it is the right thing to do.