No regrets

Milwaukee-born Rachel Adams was 17 when she decided that she wanted to join the IDF.

By RUTH EGLASH
Rachel Adams 521 (photo credit: courtesy)
Rachel Adams 521
(photo credit: courtesy)
Milwaukee-born Rachel Adams was 17 when she decided that she wanted to join the IDF.
“I was sitting watching a Yom Ha’atzmaut ceremony with my parents in my synagogue in Milwaukee and I realized then that I just had to do it,” recalls Adams, who was finally drafted six years later. “I knew I would not join a combat unit, but I knew I had to do something for Israel.”
Although her parents pushed her to go to college and she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Hebrew, political science and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the desire to join the IDF never left her.
“When I came here, I had to decide if I still really wanted to do it,” says Adams, who made aliya in December 2009. “I knew it would be hard at my age having an 18-year-old as my commander and telling me what to do.”
Less than a year after moving here, however, she presented herself at the army’s recruitment office.
“They were a little surprised to see a 23-year-old woman,” she admits, “but I did not show up empty-handed. I had already spoken to people in the army and secured an offer from the IDF Spokesman’s Office that I could join it when I was done with basic training.”
Despite the initial promises, Adams was told that there was no place for her in the spokesman’s office and that she would be sent to another unit.
“It was very stressful being at the absorption base for hours and arguing with the officers there,” she says. “I told them that I have a degree and that I can really contribute to the army. I told them that I am not 18 or just out of high school and that I do not want to waste my time making coffee in an office somewhere.
“It did cross my mind at that point that this might have been a mistake, that perhaps doing the army was not the right thing for me or that I might be wasting my time,” admits Adams, who was eventually sent to serve in the International Relations Unit, Ground Forces. “But I’m happy now and I have no regrets.”