army | A Mother in Israel

In Which I Become a Soldier’s Mother

Don’t expect much blogging on the subject, but one of my sons is preparing for his mandatory three-year army service.

A commander from my son’s future division came to the house to answer our questions. The commander wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, as pre-army home visits didn’t exist when he enlisted. The program, about a year old, is intended to increase motivation among combat soldiers. We found out where my son would be training, how often he would come home (two weekends out of three, at first) and the different units within the division. I asked what my son should bring with him and he said, “Clothes.”

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November 11, 2009 · Filed under army

Yom Hazikaron: A Mother Mourns for Her Son

Harriet Levin, next to a picture of her son (Photo: Orly Zeiler)

Today marks the observance of Yom Hazikaron. Sirens went off last night and will sound again this morning, with memorial services taking place around the country.

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April 28, 2009 · Filed under Israeli living, aliyah, army, holidays

Serve in the Army and Avoid Taxes?

Check out my post as a guest blogger at Dov Bear.

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March 6, 2009 · Filed under Israeli living, army

Pictures of Israeli Soldiers Treating Palestinian Weapon Smugglers

I received these pictures today along with the Hebrew text below.
For redistribution to all:
Pictures of Israeli soldiers rescuing Palestinians from a tunnel (used for smuggling weapons) in Gaza.
In the most moral army in the world, instead of blowing up the tunnel, they [the soldiers] rescue the one who is trying to kill you.
After smuggling weapons they [the Palestinians] receive:
Medical care, blankets, a cup of tea.
I remind you what the three reserve soldiers received when they went into Ramallah [in Samaria in the West Bank] . . . by mistake!!
That is the difference between us and the Palestinians.
[MiI: There were two. One of them lived several blocks from my home. When his wife got the news she went to stay with a family member living on our street. Even before the victim's name was announced we watched as the reporters gathered in front of the building. The two soldiers had been brutally tortured and murdered.]

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January 5, 2009 · Filed under Israeli living, army, pictures, war

A High School in Israel

[Haveil Havalim is up at Shiloh Musings.]

My daughter entered ninth grade this year. This year she has “the best teacher and the best class.” She was able to request a number of friends, and they’ll be together for the next four years.

Her school has six grades, each with about eight classes of thirty girls. The six grades are divided into three batim (lit. houses), each with its own building, vice-principal, secretary, advisor, and two teachers who serve as grade-level coordinators.

The school operates several large volunteer projects:

Friday links on women in Orthodoxy

First we have Josh Waxman of Parshablog with My Thoughts on Megirot I and II.

Then there’s the story of dancers forced to cover up for the Jerusalem bridge dedication ceremony. The girls, aged 6 to 13, were told to wear hats and long skirts; see this report for before and after pictures . Some parents respond here. According to this update in the JP, the organizers chose the black ski caps to make a point.

Finally, the army has been giving some teenage girls trouble about an automatic religious exemption. I wonder if any haredi girls have been hassled.

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June 27, 2008 · Filed under army, feminism, megeirot, tzniut

School supply survival guide

How can six-year-olds can keep track of all this stuff? (Of course I know the answer.) For first-grade in Israel you need the discipline of a first-year recruit.

School supply list:

Ten 40-page notebooks “esser shurot” (10 lines), a math notebook, and ten plastic covers (not eleven?) If you can find the cheap ones with the brown covers, buy them. The plastic “atifot” help them last longer and the teachers provide decorative pages to slip under the transparent covers, making them easy to identify. Of course they don’t need 40 pages. There are at least six different kinds of notebook paper, and I often come home with the wrong kind.

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August 28, 2007 · Filed under Israeli living, army, economics, schools

My son gets a better offer from the army

Or so it seems.

After returning alone from NY, shlepping books and a plane ticket with a date different from the one on his itinerary (they managed to get him on the flight anyway), he found a message from modiin (the army intelligence division). We had been told that the most interesting and intellectually stimulating job in the army is mechkar modiin or intelligence research, but he hadn’t heard from them and we had just about given up. The message said he needed to answer a few questions by a certain date, after which they will presumably invite him for tests.

He took tests at the army’ computer division headquarters recently. If he did well (and they said that most of the recruits who get to that stage pass) he may be eligible for a pre-army six-month programming course lasting 15 hours a day (7am-10pm). They claimed that the course would cost NIS 90,000 were it offered in Israel, which it isn’t. After that, he would serve three full years in whatever division they sent him to, and commit himself to an additional 2.5 years of “keva,” (a translation escapes me at the moment, but it means that he would work more reasonable hours and draw a regular salary).

He would need to undergo security clearance. (“Does your mother have a blog?”)

All of the division headquarters are in the Tel Aviv area so he could live at home (“until I get married”). At the end of all this, graduates, hand-picked by the army for their skills with five years programming experience under their belt, are snapped up by employers. He likes that idea.

Our friend, who served in “keva,” told him that the most frustrating part of being in keva as opposed to civilian life is that you must do things according to army regulations, no matter how ridiculous.

According to my son, they will hold his place in the course even if he wants to stay in yeshiva for twenty years. I reminded him that he had previously mentioned ten years. He replied: Maalin bakodesh ve-lo moridin.*

*Rationale used by the sage Hillel for increasing the number of Chanukah candles each night instead of the reverse.

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July 31, 2007 · Filed under Israeli living, army, teenagers

The army tells my son how it really is. . .

My son got an “invitation” to apply for a position in the army’s computer division. The letter contained statements including: “This is your last opportunity to influence your position in the army” and “Renunciation of this course/position may occur only on the day of the selection, and not afterward. Failure to appear for the selection will be considered renunciation.” The army called today to make sure he got the invitation. They sent an email too. My son asked the soldier about the warnings, and she said not to worry about them. They were just there to “scare” people who are not really interested in the position but want to go through the selection anyway. If he gets a better offer later on, he can take it. She also said that if he’s accepted for the course, he can postpone it and stay in yeshiva as long as he wants. I think my son may be planning to stay in yeshiva for a while if a good army job is waiting for him afterward (I have no idea what they might offer him).

At any rate, he is not eligible for combat despite his good health. The army said he doesn’t weigh enough.

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July 11, 2007 · Filed under Israeli living, army, my children

Haredim and Army Exemptions

Here’s what Jill from Writes Like She Talks said about me:

If you want to get an excellent idea of how this issue applies practically, A Mo the r in Isr ael is a fantastic blog – well-written, by a mom of five (is it five?! yes, not four, but not six I think) who made aliyah many years ago but actually grew up part of her life in the Midwest. I’ve exchanged numerous emails with her and other personal information and assure you that if you want a real flavor of life after moving permanently to Israel, as a modern Orthodox Jew (though I don’t know if she actually would refer to herself that way but I think that’s pretty much how we’d classify her here – feel free to comment on that Mother in Israel), hers is a good one to read.

Actually, six is right. Thank you Jill–this just about makes up for not having a family life category in the Jewish-Israel Blog Awards.