I asked some of my fellow volunteers why they had come to Israel during such a dangerous time. The answers I got, especially from non-Jews, both surprised and comforted me. A Christian volunteer from Detroit wanted Israel to know that it did not stand alone. A middle-aged Australian had been sponsored by her church in Sydney to help people of the Holy Land under an attack. Two Romanian girls didn\u2019t speak a word of Hebrew or English, but answered me in Italian: \u201cAiuto<\/i>\u201d (\u201cHelp\u201d).<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a very good life. I had a chance to travel all over the world. But, until now, I\u2019ve been traveling horizontally,\u201d a Parisian Jew of Algerian descent told me. \u201cNow, it\u2019s time to travel vertically,\u201d she said, raising her eyes to the sky. \u201cThis land is sacred. I feel it here like nowhere else. And now it\u2019s in peril.\u201d<\/p>\n
In spite of rockets being fired into Israel from Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen, the volunteers felt more protected in Israel than they did back home. Many felt relieved that, finally, there was no need to conceal one\u2019s true feelings or to hide one\u2019s Jewishness.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel safe in the US anymore,\u201d said a New York lawyer who had been attacked from behind in the streets of Manhattan, his yarmulke yanked off his head.<\/p>\n
A German woman from Munich was on her 10th visit to Israel. \u201cI\u2019m not Jewish, and I can\u2019t explain it,\u201d she said. \u201cAll I know is that I love people here. Love their warmth. Chaos? Yes! They talk loud, they are emotional, but I don\u2019t mind that. I plan to spend half a year here once I retire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Initially, I wasn\u2019t sure how we, civilians, could help the IDF fight Hamas in Gaza, but my first day at the medical military base near Tel Aviv made it clear. Hundreds of different medications and medical devices that had come from warehouses across the country had to be sorted out, their expiration dates checked. Those who accuse Israel of racism should see these medicines, each labeled in four languages: Hebrew, Arabic, English and Russian. (Thanks to Soviet antisemitism and, lately, to Putin\u2019s war on Ukraine, 15% of Israel\u2019s population comes from Russia.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the military base, I saw clearly what is best in Israel: its people. The IDF mirrors the diversity and inclusiveness of a society that, in its short history, has accepted refugees from more than 100 countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Without Moshe, for example, we would have had no idea how to sort the truckloads of medications arriving every day. Having come to Israel from Bukhara (in Central Asia) as a child, Moshe kibitzed in three languages, instructing us by means of his hands while talking on his cellphone. From his easy smile, I would never have guessed that his wife had recently died of cancer, that his two sons were fighting in Gaza and that, every day after his work with us, he went to a synagogue to pray. One morning, Moshe directed us to place boxes in long rows on the floor, in an unusual configuration. The next morning, a group of children with autism and down syndrome came to finish the sorting, also helping their people\u2019s army.<\/p>\n Paul, a mathematician who came from France, was in charge of the military base\u2019s math department. Ruth, who had made aliyah from the Netherlands as a teenager, was serving as one of the madrichot<\/i> (female soldiers tasked with organizing and looking after Sar-El\u2019s volunteers); after the army, she hoped to become a specialist in Japanese culture.<\/p>\n
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