A new house for female lone soldiers

On February 23, Shlomo Katz will take center stage at Beit Shmuel for a concert benefiting Bayit L’Chayalot (the home for female lone soldiers) in Jerusalem. When the singer/ songwriter scans the crowd with many lone soldiers, his eyes will be searching for one in particular – his father.

In 1962, Avshalom Katz traveled from his childhood home in Buenos Aires to Yemin Orde, a youth village near Haifa.

In a journey that could be portrayed on a Hollywood movie screen, Katz traveled on his own by boat for three weeks at the tender age of 14. After completing high school, the teenager spent a year serving in the Golani Brigade and two years with the Israel Army Rabbinical Choir.

“My father took incredible pride at serving in the army as a lone soldier,” Katz says of his now 68-year-old dad.

“It definitely played a role in my upbringing.”

A standout memory for the musician is his father urging him and his siblings to promise that they would never eat a Shabbat meal alone, no matter where they were.

“It struck a sensitive chord with me,” Katz recalls, “because I assumed he often ate alone. Back then, it was much more difficult for lone soldiers than it is today.”

That’s because today lone soldiers can find a Shabbat meal, a counselor or a washer/dryer at The Lone Soldier Center in Memory of Michael Levin. Founded by a group of former lone soldiers and named after Levin, an American lone soldier killed in Lebanon in 2006, the LSC is dedicated to meeting the physical and social needs of lone soldiers. With branches in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Beersheba, and Kibbutz Gesher, LSC staff and volunteers have helped soldiers resolve more than 24,000 issues since 2009.

The LSC also runs and operates four homes for male combat lone soldiers, two in Jerusalem, one in Beit Shemesh and one in Sha’arei Tikva. These homes provide furnished housing, meals and guidance from a live-in counselor in a warm, welcoming atmosphere. Now it wants to do the same for women.

“The planned Jerusalem housing facility will reflect our commitment to support female soldiers, minimize their hardship and express to these young women the gratitude of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora,” says Richard Corman, vice president of LCS Community Services.

The young women Corman refers to include the 1,500 females of the 6,400 lone soldiers serving in the IDF.

New Jersey native Rachel landed in Israel five days after graduating high school to join Mahal, a program for young Jews from around the world who wish to volunteer in the IDF. The Jewish day school-educated 17-year-old, whose Zionist grandfather was on the first El Al commercial flight in 1950, was drafted in 2014.

“I always knew I would do army service,” the combat solider, now 20, says, remembering with a laugh dressing as an IDF soldier for Purim in fourth grade.

“Whenever something was going on here, I felt that I needed to be here to contribute to the country. It is hard to express in words – it’s a feeling.”

That feeling is shared by other female lone soldiers.

Shira fell in love with Israel on a teen leadership trip and spent a year in the country studying in seminary.

“It’s where I wanted to be,” the 21-yearold former Londoner, who also made aliya in 2014, says. “When I came to Israel, I felt like it was home.”

Serving in the Air Force and living alone on a kibbutz, Shira spends Shabbat with an adopted family but relies on fellow lone soldiers for emotional support.

“Being a lone soldier is a difficult experience and there is nothing else like it,” she says. “The friends you make become your family.”

LSC national director Josh Flaster understands. A former lone soldier himself (as were four of the six Flaster children – male and female), he made aliya from Phoenix in 2006, expecting his experience as a member of the Special Forces Infantry Unit to mirror that of the US military, where friends were serving following 9/11. What he found was a 180º difference in his new home country.

“The Israeli military interacts with and relies on a ‘civil home front,’” Flaster explains. “Because Israel is a tiny country, there is an ironclad – but unwritten – contract between the IDF and Israeli families. The families provide housing, food, laundry and logistical items, as well as emotional and psychological support to their soldiers. Nine out of 10 Israeli soldiers have a parent who served in the army, so they understand. Israelis have a built-in support system called a family. It works incredibly well.”

LSC development director Lizzie Noach adds, “We saw how successful homes were for the male soldiers and also wanted to give females what their own families would give them.”

Orly, 28, a second lieutenant, began her love affair with Israel at age four when she started Israeli dancing at her Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center. Her aunt made aliya when Orly was two; Orly began talking about her own aliya when she finished high school. But in 2006, the Second Lebanon War broke out and her plans changed. She did manage to travel to Israel to continue her dance studies and do some touring.

“We went to Sderot and saw the view into Gaza,” she recollects.

“There was no shelter in the area. I thought, ‘If something happens, we have nowhere to escape.’ I didn’t feel afraid, though. I wanted to be here to help keep my people safe.”

On December 31, 2013, seven years after her original arrival date, Orly received her identity card.

“It was the best way to start the new year,” she says.

Discouraged from serving in the IDF because of her age, Orly remained undeterred and was drafted first into the Air Force before entering the officers’ training course. Like Rachel and Shira, she, too, spent time at the LSC – even taking her parents there when they visited in 2015.

“My adviser was like an older brother to me,” she says. And of the friends she met, “Now I call them my family. That’s what the center is for a lot of people.”

Considering the prospect of a home for female soldiers, Orly adds, “For girls who come at 18 who have no family, there aren’t enough words to say how important that would be.” There was a place available whenever she needed help; the LSC even gave her keys to a car to help her move to Haifa.

This is a long way from the days when Flaster and his lone soldier buddies would wander around the Old City on Shabbat hoping to be invited for a meal – not to mention emotional support.

“When soldiers come home, their parents know when space is needed or when to sit on the porch with a beer to talk about their troubles,” he says. “Lone soldiers don’t have that luxury. In the army I excelled, but when I was on leave I felt alone and sad. I wasn’t a lone soldier on base, but off base is where you have major pain points.”

Several lone soldiers with whom Flaster lived returned to their home countries because, although they wanted to stay, the support they needed off base was missing, which he describes as “a loss for Israel because of the loss of human capital.”

“All soldiers have a connection, but lone soldiers have a deeper connection. They are really there for each other,” Rachel explains. “Houses provide a place to do laundry, a sense of community.”

Shira agrees. “A place like this when I was first drafted would have been really helpful.”

Lending support to the cause is celebrity kosher chef and cookbook author Jamie Geller, whose recent Facebook program featuring a dozen female lone soldiers making halla together was broadcast from the LSC.

“My connection to lone soldiers is tied to my aliya 4½ years ago,” Geller explains. “We were on a charter flight filled with Garin Tzabar [lone soldier program] participants who were chanting and screaming, ‘We are returning home to protect our country!’ It is such a zechut [privilege] to be in the company of these women.”

Among the female soldiers at the event was Aviva Kuran, who became a lone soldier to be part of history.

“We are still pioneering the land. We are mirrors of our forefathers, part of their legacy. Women have always been pillars of culture and community here and also fought in the War of Independence. Female lone soldiers are adding to the history of the mothers who came before us.”

The Lone Soldier Center in Memory of Michael Levin Benefit Concert is February 23 at 8 p.m. at Beit Shmuel, 6 Eliyahu Shama Street, Jerusalem. Info: lonesoldiercenter.com/bayitdonations.