July 23 - A Day through the Eyes of a Soldier

Date: July 23rd, 2015

By: Ori Talmor

What a day! From the planning process all the way to our culminating delivery of the fun and insightful day. It was an amazing experience. I was part of the team of 5 whom planned the day, and even though we had our doubts and challenges, the execution went really well. We started the day off at the university of Eilat's rooftop where we had an activity on the iron dome and learned a bit more about how it works, and looked into our relationship with the system. We then went over to the Birdwatching park were we meet an amazing person named Dani. Dani is the parent of a soldier, Idron Amar, who was killed during a special operation in Gaza. We learned about the ”classroom” (monument) that Dani, his family, and his friends built so that people will learn more about Idron, and about the fate of many soldiers in the Israeli army. After spending quite a long time with Dani, we learned a lot about Idron, and about his life, and about the monument. After meeting with Dani, we headed to one of the main high schools in Eilat where we had lead and participated in a few stations that had to do with military training. We had a lot of fun, and had a little taste as to how fit soldiers need to be. Then, we went on to a really cool army base called Lotar, which is a reserve special unit that deals with anti-terror and hostage situation threats. It was really interesting to see the gear that the soldiers there have and to be able to feel and hold the wait that they carry on their shoulders often, both physically and mentally. Lastly, we went to the parent panel, which consisted of parents and family members of the Eilati fellows we were able to tell us a bit about the

ir time in the army, and answer the abundant amount of questions that we had. Overall, today was a really fun day, where we got to experience a small glimpse as to what it is like to be a soldier, as well as the price that people pay in order to protect the Jewish State of Israel. As we learned today, the three core values of the IDF is, Human Dignity, Civilian Defense, and love towards the country and state. With this in mind, we focused today through the lens of empathy for the State of Israel and its people, and all in all, we had a really fun and educational day! Can’t wait for tomorrow!