A Passion for Israel: Adventures of A Sar-El Volunteer

by Mark Werner

Overview

What would motivate a successful corporate lawyer to trade in his comfortable life in America for three weeks every year to volunteer for manual labor on Israeli military bases? Mark Werner, son of a Holocaust survivor, is an ardent Zionist seeking a personal way to show support for Israel. This book is based on journals he kept during 14 volunteer Sar-el stints on Israeli military bases from 2006 to 2019.

Sar-el is an Israeli organization that enables thousands of volunteers from all over the world to work in a civilian capacity on Israeli military bases. The volunteers' presence benefits Israel in two ways: first, it helps the IDF get routine but essential work done, thus releasing soldiers for more serious duties; and second, it raises the soldiers' morale by showing them that there are others outside Israel who support her.

Werner describes what life is like on Israeli army bases for volunteers, starting with his own experiences–from working through a desert sandstorm, to dealing with a scorpion in his bunk, to taking refuge in a bomb shelter during a Palestinian missile attack. Through simple activities—from packing kitbags and medical supplies for the soldiers to filling sandbags and assembling tank antennas—the volunteers work hard to make their contributions to the defense of Israel. While working side-by-side with Israeli soldiers, a camaraderie develops between the volunteers and soldiers and that camaraderie is the reward for their service.

This book tells the story of a volunteer experience that has enriched the author’s life and provides a roadmap for others to show their support for Israel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789657023242
Publisher:	Gefen Publishing House
Publication date:	06/01/2020
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Mark Werner is a retired attorney in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife Arlene. A graduate of Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he served as Chief Legal Officer of GlaxoSmithKline (North America) prior to his retirement. Mark has volunteered on Israeli military bases for each of the past 18 years with no plans to stop. He is the author of a previous book describing his first four volunteer experiences, Army Fatigues: Joining Israel's Army of International Volunteers (Devora Publishing). He also edited his father's wartime memoir, Fighting Back: A Memoir of Jewish Resistance in World War II by Harold Werner (Columbia University Press). Mark is currently the President of Volunteers for Israel, the organization that enables him and other Americans to serve as civilian volunteers on Israeli military bases.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Bilu Base: Aftermath of the Second Lebanese War (2006) 15

2 Baha 27 Base: My Introduction to the Israeli Air Force (2007) 54

3 Selim Base: Living Along the Green Line (2008) 78

4 Shomera Base: On the Lebanese Border (2009) 112

5 Ishai Base: A Hell Hole in the Judean Desert (2010) 157

6 Batzap Base: The Antenna Warehouse (2011) 187

7 Amos Base: Becoming Experts in Armored Personnel Carriers (2012) 213

8 Katzbiah Base in the Golan: Maps Crisis (2013) 246

9 Matzrap Base: Packing Medical Supplies (2014) 272

10 Michve Alon Base: Boot Camp (2015) 312

11 Matzrap Base: Conflicts with the French (2016) 342

12 Lahav Base: "Angels from God" (2017) 379

13 Tze'elim Base: Code Red Alerts (2018) 408

14 Bach Tzanchanim: Paratrooper Training Base (2019) 441

Postscript 461

About the Author 467

Photographs follow page 150

Editorial Reviews

05/04/2020

Werner’s second memoir of his experiences volunteering as logistical backup for soldiers on Israeli military bases (after Army Fatigues) will have limited appeal even for fervent supporters of the Jewish state. Werner is repetitive and treats political and diplomatic events simply, relaying his experience in the form of lightly edited diary entries covering 2006 through 2019. Growing up in New Jersey, he was raised as a Zionist and joined the Volunteer for Israel organization in 2002 as part of a program to “perform routine logistical and maintenance work” on military bases. Traveling to Israel just after the Second Lebanon War, Werner and his colleagues worked to make sure military-issued bags for combat reserve units were properly supplied. Time and again, Werner notes that the volunteers were able to get their tasks done much more quickly than their supervisors expected, leaving them with plenty of downtime, a regular feature of the program that rapidly becomes dull. His superficial treatment of issues challenging Israel, such as his touting of Israeli Arabs’ democratic freedoms while ignoring voter suppression and the debate surrounding integration of Arab Knesset members into government, make it unlikely that this will serve his intended goal of rebutting the BDS movement. Readers hoping for a nuanced first-person account of Israel’s strengths and weaknesses will be disappointed. (June)

Publishers Weekly