3 minute read
IMPACT
YOU Made an Impact through the Jewish Federation of Ocean County
JFOC has been supporting the Lone Soldier Center in Memory of Michael Levin and Dror Israel since the beginning of the war. These are just two of the many programs you help support. Their efforts make a difference, and you help us make an impact.
The Lone Soldier Center operates seven Lone Soldier Residences located in Jerusalem, Herzliya and Petach Tikvah. Altogether the LSC houses more than 160 Lone Soldiers in men only, women only or co-ed facilities. The LSC takes care of paying the rent, furnishing the rooms, making the repairs, paying utilities, internet, television and regular cleaning of its residences. They are so popular that there are waiting lists for all the facilities. And through its network of amazing and committed volunteers, it provides warm, home-cooked Shabbat meals delivered right to the residences.
These residences are very popular amongst the Lone Soldier Community. They can relax, speak in their native tongue (English, French, Russian, Hebrew, etc.), be amongst others going through a similar experience, have time to meet up with friends at a cafe, not worry about
dealing with messy bureaucracies, not have to repair a leaky sink and enjoy home cooked Shabbat meals – evening and afternoon.
As Menachem Mizrahi, 20 years old, from Mexico City, relates:
"I remember the day I arrived for the first time at Michael Levin's Center. I was alone in a foreign country, with a great desire to enlist. My family is supportive, but far away, and in practice I knew nothing about the IDF. I simply arrived there and asked to enlist. From that moment everything changed.
“It was difficult and complicated, but I finally felt that I had someone with me, a family far from home – amazing people who pay attention to every detail, make sure I'm not alone and always have something to eat on Shabbat evening, take care of everything I need, take care of me. I don't know if I would have really succeeded in enlisting without the support of the association. You have to understand, it seems obvious to you, every boy or girl who grows up in Israel knows what this means from a very young age. I felt different, a stranger and there is no
one who really explains and guides me on the way to recruitment, only after the recruitment.
“The guys at Michael Levin accompanied me through a recruitment process that lasted much longer than expected, three times my recruitment was postponed (over a year!) and all the while they didn't give up on me. I would come almost every day to the association and meet the soldiers coordinator. Without them I would not have been able to enlist. Even during the period of the war, which is very confusing, I feel that I am lucky. I find myself talking again with the staff of the association, receiving support, the-
re are people there who understand me and what I am going through, and they are always available to me, at any hour by text messages, by phone. It's not easy, but with the support I'm getting I know I'll get through this period. The association is a part of me, a central part of my life story, the good part. Now I have a family abroad waiting for me and also a family here in Israel.”
Like Menachem, there are thousands of other young men and women who immigrated just to enlist and left a family and a whole life behind.
