By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
Dr. Bob Fineman has been to Israel six times. In 1999, he slept in a military barracks and cleaned army vehicles, from jeeps and trucks, all the way up to tanks, and weapons ranging from M-16s to mortars. This spring he went back for another three-week stint as a volunteer, this time folding parachutes for the Israeli troops.
“I’m doing it because I have a great love for the state of Israel and its people,” Fineman said. “I want to make sure that I do my share to help the Jewish people through really tough times,” he said.
Bob Fineman did not just set off on this mission alone. His trip and the placement at the Israeli Defense Forces’ facility were arranged through Volunteers For Israel, the United States branch of Sar El, an international organization that has facilitated trips for more than 85,000 volunteers — Jews and non-Jews alike — since 1983. These people have given their time and energy to help ensure that Israel survives and thrives.
“I don’t want to be a ‘summer soldier,’ so to speak,” Fineman said in a recent interview. “I go there when things are good and I want to go there when things aren’t so good, and I want other people to do exactly the same thing.”
Sar El — a Hebrew acronym standing for “Service to Israel” — was founded by Aharon Davidi, a former head of the IDF Paratroopers and Infantry Corps. During the 1982 war, he recruited more than 600 American volunteers to help harvest the crops in settlements in the Golan Heights that were undermanned due to the call up of reservists. The following year, Gen. Davidi established the group as a non-profit, non-political organization.
Harvey Grad, a local attorney who accompanied Fineman on his recent trip, had been to Israel twice before but this was his first volunteer experience.
“We actually had a hoot, working on a paratrooper base for two weeks,” Grad said. “I’m loaded with pictures of people jumping out of planes.” Among the 17 people assigned to the Mara base, Grad said there were seven French nationals, four South Africans and six from the United States. Their second posting was at Matzlach Tzarfin, where there was a large group, which Grad estimated at about 50 individuals. In the first group, he said, everyone was Jewish, while the people they worked with for the third week was made up of both Jews and gentiles.
“It wasn’t just some macho thing,” said Grad. “It was a very poignant three weeks. You found yourself getting into discussions with people all the time and sitting down and hearing about the way things really were.”
He said that after meeting and talking with soldiers and reservists, who had been on the recent deployments in the West Bank, he understood that they had tried to deal with the situation in a sensitive way. Some of the soldiers, he said, had left notes expressing their hope that they could meet the Palestinians in the territories under better circumstances at some point in the future.
Volunteers usually spend three weeks working five 8-hour days, Sunday through Thursday (the Israeli work week). Most work is on army bases, although some are assigned to hospitals, geriatric facilities, botanical gardens or archeological digs. Activities range from kitchen duties to simple mechanical repairs, packing food rations or medical kits, changing spare parts, gardening, painting and cleaning. Although their work may sometimes seem menial, volunteers allow soldiers and other professionals to focus their skills where they are needed most.
In the evenings, they learn Hebrew, study Israel’s history, Jewish holidays and traditions, and discuss social and political issues in Israel. In addition, two trips within Israel are arranged, usually including one to Jerusalem. On weekends, the volunteers are encouraged to visit with friends or family or stay in a soldiers’ hostel (space permitting.) A madricha (liaison or guide fluent in the volunteer group’s language) lives with the volunteers and always accompanies them on their trips.
Sar El is represented in some 30 countries worldwide. The greatest number of volunteers have come from the United States, France and Canada. Participation from states that made up the former Soviet Union and other European countries exceeded 25 percent of all volunteers in October 2001.
Since returning to Seattle, Fineman and some of the other volunteers from this area have been working to get more people from the Pacific Northwest to try the program.
“We’re trying to build the capacity and infrastructure here to be able to send 100 people a year to Israel as volunteers. Our target audience is the Pacific Northwest — Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Alaska,” he said. “This is the first time there will be a major effort in the Pacific Northwest.”
In addition to Fineman, Harvey Grad, Josef Herz (who was also on the May trip), Eric Liebman, and Debbie Cole (a member of the national board of Volunteers for Israel working at Children’s Hospital), are actively involved in building a local arm. The organizers have been in touch with the national office in New York and with local chapters to learn from their experiences in how to set up the local operation.
“What we’re doing is setting up Web sites, computerizing data forms, interviewing people, making kits for returning volunteers to go out and do talking, making up lists of various organizations,” said Fineman.
They are planning a party for returning volunteers, possibly in September. At a celebratory picnic, they hope to share ideas and experiences and to help in the effort to establish a permanent VFI presence in this region.
“Many of my friends and relatives, including my mother, questioned my sanity. ‘Why do you want to go to a war zone?’ they asked. These are bad times and Israel needs all the help it can get —
the people of Israel need our moral support, they need our verbal support and they need our financial support. So that’s why I do what I’m doing.”
Information on VFI and Sar El is available on the World Wide Web (www.vfi-usa.org or www.sar-el.org). For more information on the local project, contact Bob Fineman at 206-723-6440 or by e-mail at [email protected].