A Day of Volunteering

A friend of ours had invited us to join them in volunteering for a morning to help put together care packages for Israeli combat troops with an organization called A Package From Home. I went into it with a very cynical attitude. “This is not real volunteering. It will be American Jews who give three hours of their time, so that they can go home and say that they volunteered. Etc. Etc.” I must confess that I was pleasantly surprised with the experience. There was definitely some of what Melissa aptly referred to as “Photo-Op Volunteering.” Indeed, a particularly funny moment was when a pushy father was videotaping, for posterity and his home synagogue, his freshly bar mitzvahed son (who, of course, was there for his bar mitzvah tzedakah (charity) project) putting together one of the care packages. At the end of the process, one of the organizers noted that the hapless bar mitzvah boy had put the package together entirely wrong and mildly chastised him for not paying attention. All of this was caught on video—not exactly what the father had in mind to proudly show his synagogue. More like an episode of “Bar Mitzvah Boys Gone Astray.”

Nonetheless, we arrived and we’re immediately put to work organizing the assembly line for the packages. The choice of products was what you would expect: towels, underwear, t-shirts, snacks, candy, toiletries and notes containing good wishes to the soldiers. However, some of the choices were kind of funny. For instance, I loved the image of dirty, hardened combat soldiers opening their care packages and seeing that they had been provided with a magenta towel. Or, imagine their glee at receiving pastel boxer shorts. Or share with them their joy at receiving scented body wash. After the assembly line was completed we went to work assembling the packages. I must admit that there was a degree of esprit de corps that developed as we all moved through the assembly line.

I and another guy (also from the Los Angeles area) were assigned the task of keeping the assembly line well stocked. Odd though it may sound, I found myself competing with him, and aggressively so. I wanted to be the one who first noticed when a particular stock was running down, such as the pastel towels, and be the first to restock. Whenever, he got to an area first, I felt as if I had personally failed. I guess it’s kind of like being in combat in Lebanon.

Midway through the process, the woman who originally organized the drive several years ago spoke to us about the program. She’s a lovely, gray haired elderly woman, originally from Chicago, but made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) 15 years ago. She started the program many years ago in her home. She told us that the program was motivated out of a desire to do something tangible for the soldiers who put their lives at risk for the good of the country and the Jewish people. She was particularly touched by the “lonely soldiers”—non-Israeli Jews who come from all over the world to serve in the Israeli army, not because they have to, but because they feel a responsibility to the state of Israel. After hundreds of checks started rolling in from an email appeal to her friends that had managed to circle the Jewish globe in short order, she began to assemble packages and send them by mail to various units. One day, she was called in by a general who wished to talk to her about these packages and she thought she was in trouble. To the contrary, the general told her how important the packages had become to the soldiers and proposed an arrangement in which her organization would gather the items, assemble the packages, and a pair of soldiers from each unit would come to collect them. She told many moving stories about how the army and individual soldiers has fully embraced it. She was told that the soldiers taped the notes to the walls above their bunks. She also told us that during last summer’s war in Lebanon, that it was actually somewhat perilous for the soldiers to receive the packages. However, the packages were seen as so uplifting to the soldiers that the soldiers themselves felt it was worth the risk.

So while it may be the case that this was “Photo-Op Volunteering” (as evidenced by the attached pictures), it was still worthwhile, fun and even meaningful. If you're interested in learning more about the organization, click here.