Traveling to Israel

Traveling is one of life’s greatest adventures. Traveling to Israel is far beyond any other great travel adventure while volunteering when in Israel is the greatest of all. I have visited Israel on six wonderful occasions but the times spent volunteering for Sar-El were the most memorable. Full disclosure – the accommodations are not on par with the Ritz-Carlton and the food in the mess hall (chadar ochel) may be, on a good day, one -star, but the experience is priceless.

 

You fly to Israel on a Sunday (a work day in Israel) and are met at Ben Gurion Airport by a representative from Sar-El and young, good looking IDF soldiers assigned to be your shomrim (to watch over you). You can feel the buzz of excitement among all the potential volunteers as you are loaded on an army bus and taken to your non-combat IDF base. For security reasons, it’s a secret and mystery until you arrive.

 

You are then escorted to your lovely living quarters, men in one barracks and women in another and given your work uniform. There is time to unpack, settle in, and be given information about rules, regulations and the work you will be doing. Then off to work for the rest of the afternoon. The work is in supply warehouses, doing menial work that would normally be done by the soldiers or a paid civilian employee. Work could be sorting and packing sockets or replacing outdated medication from medic backpacks as we did on our two different bases. While none of that sounds exciting, the best part is being with people from all over the world who LOVE ISRAEL, and together you feel you are playing an important role helping Israel, the country you love.

 

We met so many memorable people! One was a young 35-year-old woman from South Africa.  While she wasn’t Jewish or believed in any religion, she said her life’s purpose was to serve the Jewish people. Another was one of the warehouse managers. She was from Hawaii, had retired from the U.S.Army, came to Israel to volunteer for Sar-El, converted to Judaism and lived in Jerusalem. The base was near Tel Aviv so her commute each day was quite long.  When asked why she didn’t live closer, she said, “How can you live in Israel and not live in Jerusalem!” Such amazing people!  Many of the volunteers had volunteered twenty times or more.

 

The day begins with flag-raising, singing Hatikvah, breakfast, and off to work until lunch. There is a rest break after lunch which is the big meal of the day, then a few more hours of work in the afternoon and time to rest before dinner. Every evening our young IDF leaders had a program teaching us about Israel and the IDF. One night the commander of the base spoke to us, telling us how much we meant to the IDF, to Israel and to him. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.  

 

Volunteering like this may push some of us beyond our comfort zone but it is the best way to feel like you are experiencing Israel from the inside out rather than the outside looking in. The people you meet and the feeling of accomplishment are worth more than words can ever express.

 

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Gail Greenfield is a native of Jacksonville, being part of the Safer family. Her grandfather, Benjamin Safer, was the spiritual leader of the synagogue that is now the Jacksonville Jewish Center, was a mohel and kosher butcher, coming to Jacksonville in 1902. Gail is a retired RN, on the Regional Board of Hadassah, and facilitates two Jewish spirituality/meditation groups at the Beaches/Nocatee. She attributes her strong Zionistic feelings to her grandfather’s love of Israel.

 

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