Taking a Step Back - Sar El 101

I thought you might want to know a little about the volunteer program that has lured me to Israel. Volunteers for Israel (VFI) is a non-profit, non-political organization whose mission to American to Israel through hands-on, civilian volunteer work in hospitals, nursing homes and on Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bases.

The program began in 1982 in response to a manpower shortage caused by the first war in Lebanon. General Aharon Davidi sent emissaries to the United States and other countries to enlist volunteers to harvest crops and help maintain the economy while thousands of Israelis were serving in the army. More than 600 volunteers responded to this call for help.

Those initial volunteers were so enthusiastic about this opportunity that they asked General Davidi to continue the program after the crisis ended. Since its inception, more then 100,000 volunteers from more than 36 different countries have served. In Israel, the project is known as Sar-El (which unfortunately doesn’t create the an acronym in the transliteration of Sherut L’Israel), the National Project for Volunteers for Israel.

The Matzrap Army Base is a base within the Tel Hashomer Base, located in the greater Tel Aviv area. As I mentioned in a previous posting, this is a medical supply base where we package and re-package medical supplies for combat. We work and eat with the soldiers on the base.

Our volunteer group is twenty-one strong, representing four countries: USA, Canada, Holland, and Australia. The United States is represented by 9 states: PA, FL, VA, NJ, CA, TX, WA, NV, and OH (in no order). The age range is 42 to 83. There are 2 couples, one of which is traveling with their niece. A motley crew at best; but we do have fun!

The schedule is set:
7:10 - breakfast
7:45 – Flag raising with the other soldiers on the base
8:00 - 11:30 - Work
12:00 – Lunch
13:30 – 16:00 - Work
19:30 – Evening Activity (Mandatory!)

There is very little down time to care of the necessities: cleaning our barracks (toilets and showers) and doing wash. I figured out that if I wait long enough, the uniform will walk right over for me to get dressed in the morning….sad, but true.

Evening activities have fallen into three categories: interesting, snoozers and a combination of the two. I am proud to report that mine are “eyes wide open”.

One of my favorite speakers was an author Zipporah Porath: Letters from Jerusalem 1947-1948. Zippy, as she is known, went to Israel to study in 1946. She unintentially was caught up in the war and went on to found Young Judea. She wrote weekly letters to her parents. Many of these letters were bundled and made their way "home", through her contacts in the military and underground. After the death of her mother, whom she described as a "pack rat", she found every letter she had written in a file. With the encouragement of her family, friends and a persistent stranger (who was doing research and wanted to study her letters)who contacted her via the internet, she eventually retyped the letters into the computer and found a publisher.

She is a delightful, feisty woman at ~86 years young who is still fighting for Israel after 60 years. Zippy and I are pictured below with a signed copy of her book.

General Davidi came and spoke with us last week (busy week huh?). His topic was Extreme Islam. It can be summarized very easily: it's a very complex situation that has no easy answers. I was hoping he would speak about "aliyah" (immigrating to Israel), but the majority vote was for the former. (Pictured below as well)

Enough for this week....I stuggle with the blog every time I try post it, so I hope this all works!
I love reading your comments and getting emails, so keep them coming and I'll do my best as well.

In Tel Aviv this weekend, in search of a few more laughs.

Love to all....Shabbat Shalom
Yehudis (my hebrew name)

ps - the picks on top are titled (T to B) - PITT Still Life; KP Duty - (There is no soda fountain on the base.); Laundry Day (Where is Hank when you need him?);