Today we had one of our craziest adventures yet. We went to visit an IDF base called Mechva Alon. I was fascinated by what I learned at this base. Let me tell you what I was expecting. I honestly didn’t have many expectations because this is my first time in Israel, let alone at any sort of base. I knew what the uniforms looked like and I knew the soldiers had to do a lot of training but I didn’t know much else. This base was very different from the normal Israeli bases. Mechva Alon is a special base for special groups of the Israeli society that are ‘abnormal’ – they don’t speak Hebrew, are converting to Judaism, have not graduated from high school, or several other reasons.
The first building we went into looked somewhat like a school. We entered a classroom full of soldiers and I was actually very surprised by how similar the classroom looked compared to classrooms that I have had in years past. The soldiers we met there were very friendly. The group spoke over 29 different languages and were all learning Hebrew. It was very interesting that all these young men were there learning Hebrew. Most people in this base make aliyah to Israel and go to the army to either stay in Israel or to get financial help and then return home.
We had a very interesting presentation given to us that summed up what they do there and for whom this base is specially for. We then took a tour that showed us around the base. We learned about how every morning there is morning assembly and flag raising which is similar to my time at summer camp.
Another part of this unit that I love is that it gives people a second chance. For people that were not able to finish high school for many different reasons, Mechva Alon allows them to do that. All they need is to have already had nine years of school and behave well at the base. It is an alternative to finishing school so that afterwards they can get a job and still have a chance at doing what they want to do.
One of the units that this program offers is called the Nativ. This is the unit for people who want to convert to Judaism. It gives people that are converting to Judaism a sense of belonging to the state of Israel. They usually have around 1800 soldiers in the program, but after the basic stage of converting, only around 1047 continue on with the program.
One of the most fascinating parts of our time there for me was when we were able to talk in smaller groups with a commander. I was so blown away by how different a 20-year-olds’ life is in Israel versus in the US. The young lady in my group was born in 1999, which makes her only 4 years older than me. She also spoke nearly perfect English as both of her parents are from the US. Her job was being a Government and English teacher to those who did not finish high school. A 20-year old, who in the US would be a sophomore in college, was teaching people older than her. That is very different from the norm of our society in the US but I think this is very cool that women are able to hold such power here in the army. 84% of the staff at this unit are women which is outstanding.
Even though many of us were very tired and we might have had a few people napping, our soldier Ammon made sure that we paid attention to what was going on. We enjoyed watching him feel right at home, and maybe this encouraged some of us to consider a future home there.