feature
A lone soldier from the IDF I By Raphael Poch
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have
called you by name, you are Mine. When you
pass through the waters, I will be with you; and
through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm
you; when you walk through fire you shall not
be burned, and the flame shall not consume
you. For I am the Lord your G-d, the Holy One
of Israel, your Saviour.” (Isaiah 43:2-3)
Emily Young, originally from Scarsdale, New
York, is one of many lone soldiers who
served in the IDF. She was recently released
from the IDF Foreign Affairs Unit, and her
story starts with the enlistment process.
Enlisting in the IDF as a lone soldier is
not all that different from that of other
soldiers. However, while many soldiers enlist in groups such as Garin Tzabar or
Machal, which are units that group lone
soldiers together and send them to a varie-
20 JEWISH LIFE n ISSUE 83
ty of units in smaller groups, Emily chose
to enlist on her own, without being part of
a larger group, on 19 December 2013.
“A lone soldier has much the same experience as a regular soldier in terms of
responsibilities while in the army,” Emily
said. However, outside the army, the story is completely different.
Emily talked about the different attitudes and struggles that a lone soldier experiences during service in the army.
What makes a lone soldier ‘lone’ is that
they have no family in Israel on which to
rely. These soldiers brave coming to a new
country, a very different country, and
dedicate several years of their lives serving in the army.
“Lone soldiers need to run all their own
errands and take care of whatever else is
going on in their lives during their vaca-
tion or breaks from the military. Banking,
laundry, paying rent – all of that becomes
an issue when you only have one or two
days off per month,” Emily explained.
“We don’t have a family to come home
to, who can take care of us. We have
roommates, and that is a very different
situation. Lone soldiers don’t have a parent who can guide them, who has been
through the army, who can teach them
how to optimise their experience. Learning from friends is great, but it is still
more lonely and challenging, and often,
decisions need to be made on a trial-anderror basis,” she said.
The major challenge facing a lone soldier is the language barrier, she noted.
“Learning Hebrew is definitely the biggest
challenge. I am the only one in my squad
who speaks English. I’m 24 years old and
because of the