Today we all went to Camp 80 basic training army base. This was a really
cool experience for many reasons. The first thing that surprised us was that the commanders treated all of us like soldiers. They taught us how to talk, stand, and act like soldiers saying “Yes,Sir!” when answering a commander. Although most of us are high-maintenance and diva-like, the commanders quickly whipped us into shape. This experience helped us understand the army a little better.
Camp 80 Army Base is known for its Magal program. Located on five bases throughout Israel, the Magal program trains not the combat soldiers but the support system that is extremely necessary for the
operation of the army. It is said that for every combat soldier there are at
least three or four support soldiers. It was very interesting to see that not everything is focused on the combat soldier, but on all of the people who help that combat soldier.
We talked to three commanders at this base. The first was Emma who moved to Israel from South Africa when she was very
young. We talked with Avi who has lived in Israel his whole life and is now a commander. Finally, the person whose story we thought
the most interesting was Miriam’s.
Miriam lived in New York her whole life and visited Israel a few times. When she was 18, she decided that instead of going to
college, and against her mother’s will, she would go to the Israeli army.
She felt that she wanted a better connection to Judaism and to Israel.
Her story related the most to all of us.
She said that many people can join the army and fight for Israel while in Israel, but
there is equal importance in people like our group who advocate for Israel
outside of Israel. This was extremely relevant to us because that is
exactly what our program is. All of us in AFUWOFI advocate forIsrael and support Israel in that respect.
It was interesting to see an army base in general but to see a unique one like Camp 80 was even better. All of us enjoyed
this experience very much and learned a lot from it.