Uniting through the IDF: The volunteers who ‘contribute’ themselves

Chapter after chapter, one gets the clear message that Werner really loves the Sar-El organization, loves the work and loves being able to contribute to Israel in this way.

By RIVKAH LAMBERT ADLER
IDF SOLDIERS attend a Tel Aviv event last year. The Sar-El program’s army volunteers tend to be both older and from foreign countries (photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
IDF SOLDIERS attend a Tel Aviv event last year. The Sar-El program’s army volunteers tend to be both older and from foreign countries
(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
Mark Werner is a retired attorney, living in Raleigh, North Carolina. During 18 of the past 18 years, he has devoted a few weeks to volunteering on military bases around Israel with Sar-El. A Passion for Israel: Adventures of a Sar-El Volunteer is his newest book, detailing his volunteer experiences from 2006 through 2019.
Each year gets its own chapter, and the reader is treated to very full descriptions of the good and bad of each base, the soldiers who are assigned to work with them and the personality quirks of the more colorful of Werner’s co-volunteers.
He writes often about the madrichim and madrichot – the soldiers who assign the volunteers their tasks and supervise their work. Some are beloved by the Sar-El volunteers. Others not so much.
Sometimes the stories he shares are astonishingly touching. This story from 2007 is a highlight.
At the end of a special Sar-El program in Jerusalem, attended by 1,500 people affiliated with the program, there were awards given to outstanding volunteers and to madrichim whose army service was coming to an end. For most of the soldiers, their parents were in attendance to see their children receive their service award.
Larissa, one of the award recipients, came to Israel from Russia to serve in the army as a lone soldier. As she was called up to receive her award, she was, “handed a cell phone so she could speak to her mother in Russia whom she had not seen in two years.
“I can’t hear her,” she said.
“The awards officer responded: ‘Then turn around.’
“Larissa’s mother walked out of the darkness of the back of the stage. Everyone in the audience could hear Larissa shriek as she rushed to her mother and hugged her, not letting her go… There was not a dry eye in the audience, especially among the madrichot.”
Werner paints the relationships between the volunteers and the soldiers warmly.
“The camaraderie of living together with the soldiers is hard to describe… The soldiers worked with us during the day and at night generally seemed to appreciate having us around for reasons of our friendliness and to break the monotony of their routine. This included the Druze who mixed freely with everyone else and, like the rest of the soldiers, went out of their way to be friendly towards us.”
Chapter after chapter, one gets the clear message that Werner really loves the Sar-El organization, loves the work and loves being able to contribute to Israel in this way. Based on this speech given by a soldier to the Sar-El volunteers on the Shomera Base in 2009, it appears that the affection is mutual.
“We know that you pay your way to come here to work on army bases and we appreciate how hard you work. All of the soldiers here know about you Sar-El volunteers. And you have helped to change our thinking… Through Sar-El we have learned there are people from many countries, not just the United States, who are friends of Israel and that makes us feel great. My bunkmate here cannot speak a word of English, but he wants me to say to you: ‘Thank you. We love you.’”
Sar-El was created in 1983 by General Aharon Davidi and has brought over 150,000 volunteers from 35 different countries to contribute their time to Israel.
A Passion for Israel: Adventures of a Sar-El Volunteer is 466 pages of detailed descriptions of the joys and challenges of being an American Jew who travels halfway across the world to don an olive green uniform and sweat (or freeze) while doing physically demanding, but not particularly intellectually challenging, volunteer work on an Israeli army base 10,000 kilometers from home.
Those who have volunteered for Sar-El themselves will certainly devour the meticulously documented descriptions, reliving their own days in green. Those who have affection for army culture will revel in the many army stories Werner retells. And those who simply love Israel will be moved by the devotion of one man who serves his adopted country faithfully, year after year.
The writer is editor of Ten from the Nations: Torah Awakening among Non-Jews as well as a writer, book reviewer, blogger and adult educator specializing in Jewish content.
A PASSION FOR ISRAEL
By Mark Werner
Gefen
466 pages; $28.89