Although still mandatory, evening activities were actually interesting and fun this year. The evening with the soldiers gave me a better understanding of mandatory service. Orin, 22 and Sachar, 19 are both Givatti soldiers.



Sachar was injured in combat and is now in communications. Young men have a 3-year commitment and young women have a 2-year commitment. Officer training requires an additional year for both. (A year of community service is an option before the army, and those who chose a religious exemption can also do community service.)

Military salary is based on the level of risk. Monthly salaries are 700 NIS for combat soldiers, 500 NIS for non-combat soldiers and 400 NIS in communications. When not in combat, soldiers return home on the weekends.

Founded in 1948, the IDF is supported by 50% of the country’s taxes. Money is always a concern; although they carry automatic weapons, they only use single shots to conserve ammunition.

Both of these soldiers agreed that the Operation in Gaza was so successful due to military intelligence. The ongoing activity in Gaza poses some philosophical issues is as much as Hamas honors the sanctity of death and Israel honors the sanctity of life.

As well spoken and confident as these young men are, the reality is that they are still kids. We proved this with lollipops at the end of their presentation!



Other much “lighter” programs included an Israeli geography game.



I was very surprised that my knowledge of the country was on the mark or more literally on the map! I had traveled almost of the country last year and remembered many landmarks.Look at Mr Bill!

One evening was dedicated to a discussion of the value of a life. What would anyone of us give for a package of instant soup? For a copy of the soldier’s Tanakh? For a colored picture of the new members of the Kinessett?



We talked about the exchange of soldiers. Two soldiers: Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were captured in the Lebanon War in 2006. In good faith, their release was negotiated for the exchange of Samir Kuntar (who murdered a family), 4 other terrorists and 199 bodies of other Lebanese fighters. The bodies of these two Israelis were unceremoniously dropped off the back of a truck in coffins.

The #1 question now is what to do about Gilad Shalit, a soldier in captivity in Gaza for almost 1000 days. Shalit was kidnapped in Israel in a cross border raid on one of the crossings from the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants. Since June 2006 he has been held hostage by Hamas. To quote our madrichot: "In Israel every teenager is a soldier, we can all be Gilad, our mothers can all be Aviva Shalit."



The Jeopardy game was very competitive; the best part was Daphne’s score keeping. She was happy giving teams smiley faces when they didn’t score points.



Dr Asher Tall, a pulmonary physician and father of one of our madricha, Shachar, spoke with us about his own military experience in the late 60’s and 70’s. This was the first time that he had spoken in public about this chapter in his life. During the Yom Kippur War, Asher joined many other volunteers to fight in the war. Although his wife knew that he was going to fight, he did not tell his mother at that time.

The story is compelling and my abbreviated version may not do it justice. During the war, there was a tragic battle at a place that was called the Chinese farm, so named for the identification on the irrigation equipment in Chinese writing. The unit decided to cross the canal and marched into an Egyptian ambush and hundreds of soldiers died. In the aftermath of the incident, there was question if one of the paratroopers had “done his job” or hid in a ditch. For years they searched for “Menasher”, who was the mis-identified Asher Tall. Since the early 1980’s there have been queries about the incident and the events were finally clarified when Asher was identified as the missing soldier called Menasher. The soldier who may have been brought up on charges was cleared. A book has been written and it sounded very interesting. Unfortunately it’s only published in Hebrew.



Needless to say communications have significantly improved in the IDF over the past 35 years. Volunteers and reservist make up the larger part of the military in war time.

Dr Asher Tall currently is practicing at Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva. He has cared for children with cystic fibrosis for much of his career and recently changed direction into sleep apnea studies. He has collaborated with physicians at CHOP – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Small world.

The finale to the evening programs was receiving our certificates.



It might seem like a grand finale, however,
The adventure continues…