special moment

Are We Crazy?

Americans volunteer their only vacation time
to help out on an Israeli army base — much to the
soldiers' perplexity.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER

B

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onney Solomon says if she
had not volunteered for
the Israeli army, her old-
est daughter would not
have made aliyah.
Because of Volunteers for Is-
rael, known in Hebrew as Sar-
El, Mrs. Solomon, who lives in
Hingham, Mass., found a pro-
gram for her daughters to spend
a year of high school in the Jew-
ish state. And because of that,
her eldest is now a sabra.
People who volunteer a few
weeks for the Israeli army come
from many countries, in all sizes
and from various backgrounds.
Most are Jewish, although the

and 4,000 people visit the Jew-
ish state each year as volunteers
for the Israeli army. During the
Persian Gulf War, nearly 6,000
volunteers came to Israel's aid.
But as the number of volunteers
from France and South Africa in-
creases, fewer Americans are of-
fering their help.
"There is a malaise in the
States, the feeling about Israel is
very different than it used to be,"
says Rickey Cherner, the Amer-
ican president of Sar-El. "We
watched the birth of Israel, and
we danced in the streets. For us,
Israel has to be. For our children
and grandchildren, it's not the

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numbers of evangelical Chris- same. They don't know what it's
tians who offer their time are like not to have Israel."
growing.
But the falling number of vol-
But the reasons that
unteers could also be
bring them to the Jewish Matt Arrowood, 19, due to the program be-
state, to spend some- center, volunteered ing little known in the
times all of their allotted for the Israeli army United States. Or per-
vacation time in army as a way to regroup haps due to what some
barracks, vary. Some are
after a tough
volunteers see as Sar-
semester at the
running away from prob-
El's disorganization.
lems back home. Others University of Texas.
Amy Spiegel, a vol-
are looking to be needed.
unteer from Watchung,
And some just want the vicari- N.J., has volunteered for Sar-El
ous thrill of wearing the army twice. She says it's a great idea,
green fatigues of the Israel De- but poorly implemented.
fense Forces.
"I think the process in the
Retired Gen. Aharon Davidi United States, the screening of
remembers living as a "settler" candidates, needs to be more
in the Golan Heights when the thorough," she says. "They need
war in Lebanon broke out in to be more honest about the liv-
1982. A dozen years after he left ing conditions, especially in the
the Israeli army, Gen. Davidi cold months."
watched as young sabras aban-
Ms. Spiegel is talking about
doned the fields of northern Is- the bare-bones army barracks
rael to fight.
where some volunteers stay.
And an idea was born.
Bunk beds with thin mattresses,
That year, 650 Americans re- a trough with three faucets as a
sponded to Gen. Davidi's call, vol- sink, a shower with a curtain
unteering to help tend the hanging literally by a thread. But
forgotten fields on the Golan. To- it's the army, and anyone who
day, even as the Israeli economy signs up should expect just that.
bounds upward, between 3,000
."People need to realize they