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Shear Grit

Former Detroiter chooses IDF combat service despite religious exemption.

Noah Arbit | Special to the Jewish News

C

hana Shear’s path from American
immigrant to sole recipient of
the Outstanding Soldier Award
in the Israel Defense Forces Homefront
Command is one no one would have pre-
dicted.
She received her commendation from
the head of the Homefront Command at
a ceremony at a military base in Ramle in
central Israel on May 24, just days before
she turned 21.
Her path is unusual because Chana
comes from a religious family and, at the
time her family made Aliyah in 2008,
religious Jews of eligible age were exempt
from military service.
Born in Detroit to a Canadian father and
American mother, Chana grew up in West
Bloomfield, attending Bais Yaakov school
in Oak Park. Just age 13 at the time her
family made aliyah, Chana found it chal-
lenging adjusting to her new life in Ma’ale
Adumim (a major Jewish settlement in the
Israeli-administered West Bank just out-
side of Jerusalem).
“It was really hard; I was depressed for
about six months,” she recalls. “Then I
started going out, and I joined Bnei Akiva
[a historic religious Zionist youth group].
That really helped.”
Though Israeli policy at the time of the
Shears’ immigration stipulated that eli-
gible, of age olim (immigrants) complete
some form of military service, as religious
Jews, Chana and her siblings, Hadassah
and Moshe, were exempt from such ser-
vice. So when Chana turned 16 and many
of her peers began the process of military
placement, she began researching cam-
puses and enrolled in Tel Aviv’s Bar-Ilan
University.
After just one year, she decided to cancel
her religious exemption and enlisted in
the IDF.
“I wanted to work in intelligence and
cryptography; I had no intention of doing
combat,” she recalls. She cites an unlikely
source for her sudden shift in direction.
“My family had recently gotten me into
NCIS.”
Say no more. Agent Ziva David, a
beloved character in the popular TV
series, is a former Mossad officer whose
thick Sabra accent, proclivity for botch-
ing American idioms and ninja-like Krav
Maga skills paint the picture of an exceed-
ingly formidable woman. Like Ziva, Chana

16 July 7 • 2016

At the IDF ceremony in Ramle, Chana Shear, center, was named Outstanding Soldier for
the Homefront Command. She is with a fellow soldier and her mother, Miriam.

search-and-rescue tactics, such as how
to recover people stuck under collapsed
buildings. In addition, she
was prepared for the contin-
gencies of chemical warfare
and became a certified
grenade launcher. Following
the completion of basic
training, Chana and her
SEARCH AND RESCUE
unit were assigned to guard
After completing the
the famous Allenby Bridge
requisite month of basic
border crossing between the
IDF training, Chana was
West Bank and Jordan.
assigned to one of the IDF
Her unit was responsible
Homefront Command’s
for the day-to-day security
search-and-rescue teams,
of areas and buildings in
one of the most elite, non-
the nearby Jordan Valley, a
special forces units in the
region marked by elevated
army. Israel’s search-and-
topography of great strate-
rescue teams are dispatched
gic significance to Israel’s
in the event that civilians
administration of the West
or military personnel are
Bank.
taken captive, and its vet-
Describing her experi-
eran officers are often sent Chana Shear on guard at
ence, Chana says, “It was
abroad to provide humani- the Allenby Bridge border
awesome and crazy. I had
tarian assistance after disas- crossing between the West really awesome experiences
ters, as occurred during last Bank and Jordan
that I would never have had
April’s deadly earthquake in
if I hadn’t joined the army. It
Kathmandu, Nepal.
definitely matured me and
Chana was trained in the nuances of
also informed my politics.”

sought to work in Israeli intelligence.
Unfortunately, her triple citizenship
(American, Canadian and
Israeli) disqualified her
from serving in the cryp-
tography unit to which she
had been assigned. She
chose combat instead.

After her placement at the Jordanian
border, Chana was promoted as an assis-
tant in her company and sent to Gush
Etzion, one of the most popular Jewish
settlement blocs in the West Bank.
Situated immediately north of
Jerusalem, Gush Etzion is notable as a
hotbed of Jewish-Arab tensions and,
recently, for a spate of terrorist attacks. It
was the epicenter of last year’s so-called
“Wave of Terror,” sometimes referred to
as the “Third Intifada,” where numerous
lonewolf Palestinian citizens took to stab-
bing Israeli civilians and soldiers. In the
battle against terrorists, Chana and her
unit were on the front lines, sometimes in
“life-or-death situations.”
Chana recalls when one of the soldiers
in her unit was stabbed, and she was sent
to guard the terrorist, who had been shot
and taken to the hospital.
In other instances, she and her unit
would go into Arab villages to apprehend
terrorists. Such perilous situations only
strengthened the Zionist convictions
planted early on by her mother.
“You know, you actually have kids
throwing rocks at you … You’re in the
middle of Shabbat dinner at base, and
you have to get in your car and drive out
because 17-year-old kids are bored and
start throwing firebombs at cars.
“When you see that stuff,” she says, “you
kind of realize it’s not exactly what the
world sees or what the news reports.”
With her army service completed,
Chana, who earned the rank of first ser-
geant, is focused on her job search, mostly
in the financial sector, and intends to save
money to travel extensively. Eventually,
she’d like to continue working for Israel’s
security, preferably in the Mossad (Israel’s
intelligence agency) or the Shin Bet
(Israel’s internal security service).
She has this advice for young Americans
considering serving in the IDF: “I think
the army is a really good experience that
everyone should have … It really builds
you as a person, but you have to come
prepared. A lot of Lone Soldiers from
America come and think it’s badass, but
this is the army, not a day camp.”
Hard though it was, it seems Chana’s
own journey to earning an Outstanding
Soldier Award was never truly that
unlikely.
“I just love adventures,” she says.

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