How I Spent My Summer Vacation - by Melissa Kurtz

My husband, Rich, and I met in Israel 23 years ago.  We just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary.  Our middle son, Zachary, just graduated high school this spring; Rich and I encouraged him to try out for the Weisman Institute summer science program.  He wasn't too eager because he was scared to go to Israel, but he applied, and in the beginning of May found out that he was accepted!  Always in the back of my mind I knew that if he did get accepted we would go with him to Israel, and now I had to quickly get the rest of the family passports, plane tickets, and an itinerary that we could afford for the month of July.  We arranged it that Rich and our oldest son, Matt would meet us there, both of them having to work.  When Rich and I were in Israel, we were on a year program that included 6 months of Ulpan, 6 months of work or volunteer in our prospected fields, and wonderful teyulim through out the country.  I did not want to bring back my family as tourist and stay in five star hotels, I wanted them to see the Israel that I remembered, meet Israelis and do something for the country that would make a difference and mean something to them.

I got on the Internet to look for something meaningful and affordable for my family.  My searches for volunteer work in Israel were abundant, but the only thing I could find for youth younger than 18 was a program through Volunteers for Israel®, working with the Sar-El organization in Israel.  The first in what seemed like unbelievable luck ( besert) 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 they were accepting 14 year oldsif accompanied by a parent or an adult.  My youngest son, Elliott had turned 14 the 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 that 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 program.

When we got there, we were told that we would be stationed on a base which is 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 work fatigues at all times while we were on the base, but not allowed to wear them off.  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 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 can't 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 (by choice) 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, 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 where 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, Aharon Davidi, was there to welcome us in many languages.   Sar-El was founded in 1982, and today hosts volunteers from over 35 countries worldwide including local Israeli volunteers.  Last year the 100,000th volunteer arrived!  The volunteers on the Sar-El program lighten the load for Israelis, 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 took us to visit with a combat unit on our base.  Sar-El does not house the volunteers with the combat units, nor do we carry use or train with weapons.  The unit we visited was an Elite infantry unit, the soldiers are all young, and their commander was 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 terrorists that hide behind women and children, and in UN trucks.  They said the most important thing we could do as Sar-EL 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 basis. 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 Israelis 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.