Lone Soldiers on the Kibbutz
On the way to her military base, I told Maya that we’d make a stop at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu. “Is it on the way?” She asked. I said yes, sure. (It really is on the way, but not the short way…). The pictures of Ein Khonzir convinced her.
At the entrance to the kibbutz we met Benji, a soldier who serves together with Maya. Benji is a lone soldier from South Africa who serves as a medic. After a dip in the Ein Honzir spring and a surprising breakfast at the kibbutz cafe, Benji offered us a tour of the “Habayta” campus, where he lives with 80+ other lone soldiers and “Ulpanists” learning hebrew from abroad – and all of them have adopting families from the kibbutz.
Then, one of the girls approached Maya with shimmering eyes, and a bit apprehensively said that she too hopes one day to enlist and be a soldier like her. She came to Israel alone, wanting to contribute two years of her life to a country that she felt was her home, although she did not grow up in Israel. And Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, like many other kibbutzim, throughout the years, gives her and tens of thousands like her a warm home, a strong back to dream and wings to carry them as far as possible.
It reminded me of the days when I was a lone soldier on a kibbutz.
