Tiny inner sparks of possibility

Twenty five years ago ... I was a lone soldier in the Israeli Air Force. I had left my family behind and moved to Israel. I loved the army, I loved service. But it was tough, and the support I received from programs that are supported by our Federation were critical.

These programs for lone soldiers are still there, and in many ways much stronger. Through partners like the Jewish Agency for Israel, we help with mentoring, counseling, preparing for civilian life, and much more. It makes me particularly proud because of who I was. But it makes me even prouder because of the statement it makes. That we care about Israel. That we care about its soldiers. And ... that we love and care for the soldiers who leave their families and move to Israel to support its defense. Especially those from GMW. 

Recently I had the privilege to sit with parents of lone soldiers from our community. There are over twenty lone soldiers from GMW serving in the IDF. Our Jewish Family Services has set up a free support group for parents of lone soldiers in the IDF - if you're a parent of a lone soldier in the IDF you can get more information from their group liaison Lee Dagger or by phone at 973-765-9050. If you need a safe space to share experiences, get ideas and find support, this would be a great place to start.

Sitting with the group, I heard from many of the parents the pride they felt, their challenges and their hopes. 

But I also saw the strength and values of our community. Our federation is rooted in Israel through our partnerships, our peoplehood programs, missions and more. 

I don't know what the parents will decide to do as a group. But I hope we can find ways to help them and their sons and daughters. I hope we can help them fan the tiny inner sparks of possibility.

Golda Meir once said, "Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life.  Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist

Many many years ago, when I was in the (Israeli) army, a friend of mine was a combat instructor for new immigrants. At the time, early '90s, many of the Russian-speaking olim (new immigrants) were starting to enlist in the army. This changed the nature of how the army saw itself. The army became more tolerant of lone soldiers, more understanding of cultural differences.

Meital, the combat instructor, told me once that she was taking a group of Russian-speaking immigrants in a 'shlav bet' basic training weapons course. These guys are the older recruits, who serve for maybe three months and then just do reserve duty. Often they're academics and professionals. Exasperated one night as she was trying to explain how to take apart and reassemble an M-16 rifle, she exclaimed, "nu, really, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand how to take apart an M-16."

"But we are rocket scientists," said one of the new recruits. "All of us."

Which (loosely) connected me to an inspiring visit I had recently at one of our flagship partners - the JCC of MetroWest, NJ. I went there to learn about our programs and the partnership we have. About high-quality professionals and thousands of participants. About ageing-in-place programs and special-needs day programs. It's a vibrant, Jewish home and center. And for its CEO Alan Feldman, the list of achievements and 'puff-points' (where you puff up your chest in pride) is long.

"We are the response to the Pew Report," he said. Connection, community, involvement, participation. It's all the stuff we know. But you have to do it. You have to be committed to it. And you have to inspire those who come in to explore their identity and feel comfortable doing so.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. 

The souvenir

I didn't keep all that many souvenirs from my army service. A lot of it went very fast - tours in various places in the Gaza Strip, South Lebanon, lots of quick movements from one site to the next. But with Independence Day coming up, I found myself looking through the box of insignia, medals, combat badges and other memorabilia that someday my kids can divide up.

And I found my souvenir.

I got it just after I was promoted to Staff-Sergeant in an Air Force unit. We'd had a thick and heavy winter, full of heavy snow and torrential rains. It was spring, and I was responsible for running the Battalion Field Hospital. We were stationed alongside the Lebanon border and one day we - the combat medics - were assigned to a Combat Engineers' platoon. We watched as they peeled back a small section of the border fence between Israel and Lebanon and, wearing pillowpad shoes and using detectors and probes, they cleared a large minefield area near the road.

"Why are we doing this?" I asked.

"Because," said the 2nd Lieutenant from the Platoon, "the rains shifted the landmines here. And there are schoolkids from the Lebanese villages who pass by these areas. So - better to clear the area than, God forbid, having a kid blown up. Better to be good neighbors."

At the end of the operation, we watched as they closed up the fence. There was a small part left of the barbed wire left over. I clipped a piece of it to remind me of that day. And of what good borders should represent.

Here it is.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.*

Springboard is an amazing program, one of my favorites in Israel. The idea is to take a seven-year investment in soldiers from at-risk families. Two years before the army, the three years of military service, and two years after. It’s geared towards Ethiopian-Israelis … but not just them.

We’re investing in these soldiers because we want them to arrive prepared and ready for army service. We want them to have a meaningful service in the army itself, serving in good positions that reflect their potential. And we want them to re-enter civilian life successfully.

The problem is often that army service is going to be the first time that they leave their “bubble” and their comfort zone. For many of the at-risk kids, their parents don’t have experience with army service so they can’t provide any support.

I sat with Eliora & Li, two soldiers who work with Springboard as part of their army service on a recent visit. And we discussed three fascinating things:

 (1) The importance of the family in Ethiopian-Israeli society. Often the child becomes the dominant personality in the family. If you're needed at home, you're likely to go, even if you're a soldier and should remain at your post. So we need to sensitize the army to what’s happening in a soldier’s home. Sometimes a commanding officer may not have figured this out.

(2) Your parents didn’t serve in the army. So they can't help you and they don’t understand what you're going through. There's a lot of fear, misunderstanding, lack of clarity. Ethiopian-Israeli kids lack the networks which can help their peers solve problems.

(3) The standardized tests discriminate against Ethiopian Israelis, as do the interviews. Israeli society needs to change ... and Ethiopian-Israeli society needs a stronger sense of cultural pride and identity.

                       

It’s going to take a lot of mentoring, guidance and support. But this is worth doing.

*Andy Warhol

Jail

We know that there are really high draft rates of Ethiopian-Israelis to enlist for Army service. It’s actually even higher than among the general population (about 86% to 75% for men). But there aren’t enough role models for Ethiopian-Israelis, there are lots of cultural and structural obstacles to success and some major challenges:

  

Some of it starts during the draft and induction process -  there’s still some clearly culturally biased testing and low quality classification ratings. Many of the new recruits have low rates of high school matriculation (35-40%) compared to the general population, they may have more complex family and socioeconomic backgrounds too. Usually they’re not as prepared for army service.

About 53% of Ethiopian-Israelis end up at some point incarcerated in army jails. Just think about that statistic for a moment. That’s ten times higher than their actual proportion in the population. For women, 10% of Ethiopian-Israeli female soldiers are incarcerated in army jails – that’s actually a decrease over the past few years. But it’s still three times higher than that of the general female population incarcerated in army jails (3.3%).

Why do they get sent to jail? Three main reasons:

Desertion (עריקות)

Absenteeism (נפקדות)

Lack of Discipline (אי-משמעת)

And all of these are preventable. Frequently they come from miscommunication, misunderstandings, and cultural gaps. We have to work to overcome them. And we have a plan to do it. More on this shortly.

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If you can't prepare your troops for battle, you're not fit to lead them into one*

I wrote the other day about the challenges of Ethiopian-Israeli integration and absorption. There's also a fascinating article in the Forward about this the other week, too, which you can read here.

On a recent visit back in Jerusalem I went to a “Preparation Center” (מרכז הכנה) that we run in cooperation with the local municipality and NGOs. Here’s the issue: there are something like 116,100 Ethiopian immigrants living in Israel today. This is now thirty years after major waves of immigration, from Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991). Of these, about a third (38,700) was born in Israel. 

But still … for both Israeli-born and new immigrants of Ethiopian origin, the process of integrating into Israeli society is really challenging. Ethiopian immigrants are still considered to be one of the most vulnerable sectors of Israeli society. Their education rates and employment opportunities are still much, much lower than the national average. 

The key stage in integration, really the most important tests of successfully integrating into Israeli society and culture is serving in the Israeli army. Army service is an ‘indicator’ – it signals to everyone a sense of belonging to, and integrating in, Israeli society.

We have an incredible program, called Springboard, which focuses on preparing Ethiopian-Israeli youth for Army service. I’ll write on this at some point in the near future. But in the interim, think about this: 

"Even though Ethiopians are motivated and conscripted at the highest levels — fully 90% of men go, compared with 75% of Israeli men overall — almost half of them are spending part of their service in prison. Many are incarcerated more than once."

*Lt Col Gabi Ashkenazi, IDF Chief of Staff 2007-2011

Look into my eyes

When Ethiopian-Israeli kids, who have been brought up in a traditional environment, get to the Army Induction Center (“Bakum”) as they prepare to be drafted …. something really interesting happens.

Ethiopians generally won’t look authority-figures in the eyes, out of respect. 

But if that happens to you when you’re facing an Inductions Officer (קצין מיון) then you’re in big trouble … because the first thing the officer will think is, 'this recruit has no self-confidence.'
Suddenly, in an instant, your hopes of going to officer course, of being an instructor … of getting any decent military profession are gone. 
And if that chance is gone, you stand much less of a chance of getting ahead in civilian life too.

So one of the cultural challenges we deal with in programs like Springboard – an amazing program I saw recently in Israel, which prepares young Ethiopian-Israelis for army service and successful integration into post-army civilian life – is the soft skills, the cultural skills. 
It’s not just about battling inequality and lack of education (even though these are critical). 

It’s also about changing hearts and minds. 

And not just the hearts and minds of the new recruits and their parents. It’s also about changing the attitudes and perspectives of veteran Israelis: to understand the cultural norms and expectations of everyone they speak with. 

To be respectful. 

To be kind.

My colleagues at our micro-economic research institute, Myers-JDC-Brookdale, have done some terrific work examining these kinds of issues. They've just put out a fascinating research paper on culturally-fair employment screening methods and their implications. You can read the summary here, and the executive summary here. And if your Hebrew is really good, you can read the whole thing here. 

Blue Dawn – Haredi training in the Israeli Air Force

A stunning and memorable visit during our Farash Foundation / JDC Strategic Partnership Mission was a site visit to an Israel Air Force Base to see the Blue Dawn program.

Blue Dawn integrates Ultra-Orthodox (“Haredi”) men into the army, respectfully, and mindful of both their needs and the army’s needs. It prepares these young men for military service, and equips them with a useful profession for civilian life afterwards. By doing this, Blue Dawn lifts entire sectors out of poverty, and turns them from welfare recipients to taxpayers.

It’s a growing issue in Israeli society. 

In 1948 Prime Minister Ben-Gurion gave “Torah study” exemptions to a few hundred scholars, since Torah study had been decimated after the Shoah (Holocaust). But by 1992, some 5% of Jewish men claimed an exemption. By 2012 it was 12.4% The concept of "equalizing the burden" was one of the key issues in the elections this January.

Captain Liran, the head of the program, explained that most of the Haredi enlisted soldiers are married (65%) with children (50%).  That actually makes them a good investment from the army’s perspective, since they tend to be more mature than your average 18-year old recruit. The average age of a Blue Dawn Haredi soldier is 24.

45% have no previous technological background. But we teach them to be technicians, electricians, mechanics. Important military roles that are directly transferable to the civilian sector and are in great demand.

Here’s what’s amazing, The Government aims for 63% employment placement in general for the Haredi men  … after graduating Blue Dawn, 92% of the released Haredi soldiers find good civilian jobs!

Blue Dawn is paving the way for Haredi integration into the army and Israeli society. And it will change Israel, the army, and Haredi society all for the better.