Note: New pictures posted in “Israel: Snapshots in Time (Weeks 2 & 3)” and a new album, “Israel: Three Weeks with Sar El.” I only have internet access from Thursday evening to Saturday evening until the end of June, in case you’re e-mailing me!
It’s Tuesday evening and I’m sitting in the little courtyard between dorm rooms on an IDF base near Tel Aviv. Around me either sitting in the courtyard, getting ready for bed, relaxing in their rooms or talking on the pay phone are thirty-odd other volunteers from around the world. The demographic is fairly scattered, although concentrated in the above-50 range for ages. There are about ten of us under 50 and I am the youngest, I believe. People are from all over: Canada, South Africa, Australia, Ireland, France and the US covers most of the world. There are four ex-military, including me: a US Marine who served for four years a few decades ago, plus two Canadian military men. There might be a Navy guy too. About a third or more are repeat volunteers with Sar El, some having participated over five times!
You’re probably thinking: uh, IDF?! Did you switch teams? What’s going on?!
Well, Sar El is a program that was started originally as a volunteer organization with no affiliation with the IDF. With a 60% cut in the country’s budget, though, it was eventually transferred into the purview of the IDF and now there are Israeli soldiers whose primary duty it is to organize, lead and care for Sar El volunteers. As a volunteer, I could have been sent to any base in Israel to do any number of jobs to help out the IDF with basic work. Where I have been “stationed” (which Sar El leadership asks us not to disclose rather than general locale) is near Tel Aviv and is the medical center of the IDF insofar as supplies are concerned. I’ve worked two and a half days now in a small factory, packing and unpacking medical kits, sorting medical supplies and helping maintain Israel’s stocks of warehoused medical supplies. It’s a fascinating system and getting to see Israel from inside a base is really a neat experience. This base is one where soldiers don’t live full time; instead, they are people who have families to support or other reasons for needing to go home at night.
There are so many ways this experience has already surprised me! First, I’m exhausted every night, which makes me realize how much I’ve missed being a part of an organized mission of some sort. Second, Israeli military methods are 180 degrees from what I experienced in the US, and that’s just what I’m seeing as a volunteer. For example, focus on uniform, marching and ceremonies (such as flag-raising in the mornings) is very low. There are formations and marching movements, but they are fairly loosely done. The Israeli flag flies overnight and touches the ground when it’s lowered, without a blink of an eye. I have seen no marching whatsoever. Uniform wear is not nearly so strict beyond a few basic rules (tuck shirts in, etc). There don’t seem to be regulations regarding hair, whereas in the US you can’t dye your hair unnatural colors and both women and men have specific rules on how their hair must be worn while in uniform. But although at first look all of this supposed laxity disappointed me, I’m starting to realize that it’
Another surprise for me was when the commander of the medical factories, where we work, came to give us a “big picture” talk. She told us that her pride was using people that had many problems, ranging from difficult home lives to disabilities of all kinds, to accomplish a mission. In Israel, she said, everyone serves in the military, and that provides manpower as well as a way to instill a bit of national pride and sense of contribution in every citizen. There’s a socialization perk as well: there are soldiers with mental disabilities here, in uniform, contributing alongside everyone else. The commander explained how this ensures that the fear or discomfort people may feel about the mentally disabled can be curbed.
Finally, the sense of what we’re doing – packing medical supplies in both wartime and peacetime kits – is driven home every time we hear about a conflict on the borders, at each mention of future problems or war. One of our madrichot – the people assigned to lead the Sar El volunteers – left us after the first two days, because her boyfriend, a medic assigned to the paratrooper unit, experienced the death of a comrade in his arms, despite his efforts. It was his commander, killed in a training exercise. The medic is twenty, his commander was twenty-two.
I’ll be volunteering with Sar El for three weeks, until the end of June. I’ll have Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning off each week. I have the option of staying in Bet Oded, a free soldier’s hostel in Jaffa, or doing whatever else I want. This weekend I plan to check out Bet Oded and a part of Tel Aviv I haven’t seen before. During the week I stay on base in a small dormitory room with four other women. We are not allowed to leave base until the weekends. A bus will take us, for free, from base to the center of Tel Aviv. We eat meals during the week at the chow hall, which has catered food that ranges from decent to very good. Meals are kosher: dairy meals for breakfast and dinner, meat for lunch. We have shared bathrooms and showers, AC in the rooms, a small “club” room with a tv, coffee and books, and a laundry room. We are each issued one old uniform to wear for work, given a Sar El hat to keep, and a laminated ID to get up to 10% off at various hotels and restaurants.
This volunteer experience costs $90 USD. It’s way more than worth every penny. And I feel pretty good about what I’m doing, too. Some folks I was chatting with before starting this experience argued that I was supporting the conflicts and bad political maneuvering of military troops, by volunteering here. After pondering this for a full day, I realized that for me, this experience is about helping soldiers. Every citizen serves, for the most part, in the IDF. Particularly with this base and the work I’m doing here, I feel like I’m supporting soldiers, who are in turn being an integral part of their country.
--Z
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