My Daughter, the IDF Soldier
Tonight, when the Memorial-Day siren blares in honor Israel’s 23,928 fallen soldiers, and a thick cloud of mourning settles over the people of Israel, I will be experiencing it differently than I ever have before.
That’s because, in a few months, my 3rd daughter Maayan will be becoming the first member of our family to serve in the IDF, in Air-Force Intelligence. When I mention this fact to people who aren’t Israelis, they generally respond something like, “Aren’t you scared?”
I explain to them that since Maayan will be serving in Intelligence, the biggest risks of her job are getting a paper cut or more likely, eye-strain from spending so many hours of her day staring at a computer screen in the Kirya in Tel Aviv.
But having a daughter in the IDF suddenly brings into clear focus the unique individuals as well as the staggering grief behind the number: 23,928. This year more than ever, I am feeling, as Yehuda Amicha put it so eloquently, that there are no unknown soldiers. Even if the soldiers lying in graves in Mt. Herzl were unknown to me, those who knew and loved them, the parents who raised them, the spouses who embraced them, the children who grow up with them, will never ever forget.
גיוס קל! Hope her army service goes well! (for her parents also..)
amen, thank you
Greeting from the Czech republic! Don’t worry, your daughter will be fine, she is clever enough 🙂