When Ann (not her real name) was 13, her father took her on a two-week trip to Israel. It was the summer of 1973 and those few days in the Jewish state changed Ann’s life forever.
“A young Israeli soldier boarded our bus at a security checkpoint with her matter-of-fact professionalism and beautiful blond hair pinned up under her army cap. I was smitten: I would be her!,” Ann recalls in a personal essay written for the American Friends of LIBI (LIBI USA).
American Friends of LIBI (LIBI USA) is a volunteer organization providing Israeli soldiers with Jewish and cultural awareness, welfare support, education, social and financial assistance, recreational activities and lone and needy soldiers’ care. The group was created in 2004 in Boston, some 24 years after the original LIBI (“my heart” in Hebrew), which was established in 1980 by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin and IDF Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan to provide for the educational, religious, and recreational needs of Israeli soldiers.
For Ann, LIBI’s help was crucial to support her throughout her IDF service in 1984.
Her childhood dream of making Aliyah had become true a few years after that first trip. However, it would take some time for her to get drafted.
“I’d been working and waiting for several years, since making Aliyah on my 20th birthday in 1979,” “Ann writes. “Now almost 25, I was afraid that the IDF wouldn’t want me in my ‘old age.’ I had dreamed of being an IDF soldier since I was eight, a dream I refused to let go of, especially after making Aliyah.”
While she was waiting, the young olah (new immigrant) studied Hebrew at a Kibbutz Ulpan and then landed a dream job as a graphic designer for a Tel Aviv tourism magazine.
“The years flew by, and suddenly I was (gasp!) 25…with no call-up notice. So I sent my resume to three IDF generals… and I got drafted!”
Ann shares her memory about basic training.
“There I was at 25, on the bus to Machaneh Shmonim (Base 80) for basic training, with a bunch of 18-year-old recruits seen off by their parents. I was the only Lone Soldier,” she says.
“The only thing I did right during basic training was shoot,” she adds. “My Hebrew was awful, and I seemed to fail at almost everything I attempted. I remember being sick as a dog for much of basic training, and that I felt so sick during a march that a fellow soldier literally had to push me forward so I could get to the end.”
No one from Ann’s family was able to fly to Israel to attend her swearing-in ceremony.
“I remember it like yesterday: I placed my gun by the Bible and took the oath to serve my country, with tears streaming down my face,” she writes. “Alone, but dedicated to serving my people and my homeland.”
The gifts from LIBI helped Ann to support herself financially.
“As a Lone Soldier, my army salary was triple the amount of a regular soldier, but it was still only $150 a month- and the mortgage on my apartment was $150 a month,” she writes. “Fortunately, LIBI sent me gifts on the holidays, which made a huge difference. I even kept the LIBI sleeping bag that I was given that year! Thanks to LIBI, the two years of my service were, in many ways, the best years of my life. Although I have accomplished many things throughout my life, my IDF service is one of the only things I am truly proud of.”
Later in life, Ann moved back to the United States and she currently lives in South West Virginia.
“To the best of my knowledge, I am the only Jew in McDowell County, not to mention an Israeli and IDF Veteran,” she points out. “Despite the difficulties, that didn’t stop me from continuing to practice Jewish customs and even grow etrogs in our garden!”
“This year, like all years, I want to thank LIBI from the bottom of my heart for being there for me way back in ‘84!,” she concludes. “The LIBI family supported me through my service and gave me the resources I needed to serve and protect the People and the Land of Israel.”
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