Since the war on multiple fronts began in October, American volunteers of all ages have traveled to Israel to offer a little elbow grease while soldiers and reservists are at the front.
When it comes to worrying, hand-wringing doesn’t do much good, and it’s hard on the knuckles. Sometimes, you just have to take action.
Enter the “Sword of Iron” Facebook page, which works to facilitate volunteer opportunities in Israel at a time when the beleaguered country needs all the help it can get. As both a full year of fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon approaches, the High Holidays present an opportunity for resolutions of a different kind.
For Yocheved Ruttenberg, lending a hand was “the easiest hard decision” she’s made in her 23 years. Waking up on Oct. 7 in her bed in Dallas, she recounted that “as soon as I heard the news, I thought of my brother, the lone soldier, over there and knew I had to be in Israel, that I had to do something to help. And when my boss said, ‘You can’t go,’ I told him, ‘You don’t understand— my people need me.’ ”
Ruttenberg went all-in, joining others who had reached the same conclusion. Quickly raising $17,000 for basic equipment such as T-shirts, socks, underwear, watches and water bottles—much of it from folks in her hometown of Baltimore—within days she was on a plane with no other thought than finding a way to help.
But looking for a focus for her energies, she found no central resource for volunteer opportunities. “I knew there was an incredible need,” she said. “But no place to find out how to help.”
It took only a few weeks for her to team up with Tel Aviv area activist Hagit Greenberg-Amar. On Nov. 12, the Sword of Iron Facebook page made its debut.
Eleven months later, the page has more than 36,000 members who turn to it as a clearinghouse for volunteer opportunities in Israel. Of the roughly 80,000 visitors to Israel this summer, thousands came through Sword of Iron, she says.
Among other accomplishments, volunteers are responsible for rescuing much of the $50 million of produce from Israeli fields since the war began, a figure reported by Leket Israel: The National Foodbank, which would otherwise have gone bad due to the loss of foreign workers.
“Sword of Iron has inspired thousands of people to take action, leave their comfort zone, step up, and do good for the sake of Israel and Jews around the world,” says Ruttenberg. “We also reach out to those who can’t leave home now but want to connect in whatever way they can.”
Though donating to the cause is life-saving, “there comes a time when you just have to be here,” insists Ruttenberg, who says that she was initially planning to go to Israel for two weeks, “but now I can’t leave.”
‘You’re a hero’
Mark Schnurman, a 56-year-old business consultant, recently arrived for his third volunteer trip in nine months. “Sword of Iron is more than a Facebook page; it’s a community,” he says. “You’re in it with people who understand your love of Israel and also want to put it into action. Within five minutes of landing at Ben-Gurion [International Airport], I had 450 ‘Likes’—that’s an incredible affirmation and support.”
During his visits, Schnurman, who lives near Scranton, Pa., has harvested produce, prepared and packed food for soldiers and displaced families, and repaired injured homes.
One powerful moment he shared with other volunteers: Taking a shortcut from the Western Wall in Jerusalem via Ben-Yehuda Street last December, “we came upon a quiet, makeshift vigil for the hostages. When it hit us that the young people lighting yahrzeit candles and singing ‘Am Yisroel Chai’ were the same age as those killed just two months earlier at the Nova music festival, we all started to cry.”
The yearning to help also tends to be contagious.
For Sharon Benmaman, a program and project manager in St. Paul, it came in the form of a chance meeting last January with an acquaintance who had just come back from Israel. “He told me it was life-changing, that Israelis need to see that we care. And he said, ‘If you can go, go.’”
A week later, Benmaman—just three months after donating a kidney—was scanning Sword of Iron for needs she could meet in Israel. “I said to myself, ‘How can I not go?’” The next month found her on a three-week volunteer trip preparing food and tzitzit for soldiers, picking clementines and avocados, and bringing five duffel bags of knitting yarn and needles to help occupy evacuees living in hotels far from home.
But the 59-year-old Benmaman’s “most rewarding” experience, she said, was visiting with injured soldiers and survivors of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
Stuart Lewis also has a friend to thank for the inspiration. “His experience lit a spark in me, and within the week, I’d booked a flight to Israel and scoured Sword of Iron looking for volunteer opportunities,” he said. “Which gave me the confidence I needed.”
By March, the 65-year-old Toronto businessman was in Israel, where a Tel Aviv vegan restaurant at which soldiers eat for free became his home base. “Flipping vegan burgers didn’t seem like much, but one soldier said, ‘You’re a hero, that you came to a war zone to help.’ In fact, everywhere we went, we got so many thanks,” he recounted, including from a survivor of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities on Oct. 7, and a hostage’s relatives.
“I had no idea what kind of community Sword of Iron has become,” said Lewis, extending to administrators inviting volunteers over for Shabbat dinners. “They’re strengthening the love between Israel and the rest of the Jewish people.”
‘It’s a small thing we can do’
By day, Lisa Akrish is a fourth-grade teacher in New York City. But most evenings, she donates her time to updating the Sword of Iron spreadsheet to make volunteer gig-searching easier. “It’s a way I can put my tech-savvy skills and my teaching experience to work for Israel,” said the 33-year-old. All of which followed on the heels of her own volunteer stint this summer, including farm work, providing support to soldiers coming out of Gaza and barbecues on military bases.
Co-founder Greenberg-Amar was already active in raising money to import defensive and medical equipment for the soldiers before meeting Ruttenberg. Sword of Iron, “inviting people to tailor a volunteer trip to their own needs and interests,” was a natural next step for the mother of three, whose Ramat Gan home has become an equipment warehouse and distribution center. The page is kept fresh by the two founders and what they call their “heavy-lifting” team: Yael Yomtov-Emmanuel, Sarah Emerson Helfand and Ariel Boverman.
An extra effort is being made to bring young Jews to Israel to volunteer, many of them fresh from college campuses where they’ve been pummeled by anti-Isreal propaganda from friends and professors alike.
“They often arrive in Israel feeling lost in their own country, not accepted at their schools if they dare to stand up as a proud Jew,” said Alon Bar David, program director for Destination Israel, which facilitates trips to Israel for young Jewish adults. “They tell us most of their friends have no idea how they feel. As one girl said, ‘As a Jew, I needed to come to Israel where I can breathe and where I can do something to help my family.’”
“Being in Israel and helping out there takes the fear away that is instilled in you by watching the news at home,” said Schnurman.
“It’s a small thing we can do to help make a difference, and there’s also the instant special bond with other volunteers,” said Benmaman. “You know you’re all mishpacha,” family.
Lewis adds that “the comfort of being among my people, and doing new kinds of work and meeting others, has strengthened my bond with Israel and the Jewish people. I have a greater sense now that this is who I am.”
RESOURCES:
Chabad’s Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) Annual Israel Solidarity Trip, March 17-24, will focus on volunteering including helping displaced families and supplying soldiers with essential gear, preparing tzitzit, helping repair homes and harvest crops, supporting lone soldiers, comforting bereaved families, and offering briefings by leaders and activists. For information, email: info@landandspirit.org.
Destination Israel, which facilitates volunteer trips for MASA and Onward, has brought more than 6,000 young adults to Israel to volunteer. The two- or four-week trips are heavily underwritten with some discounts on EL Al. For information and applications, email: advisor@destinationisrael.com.
Jewish Federations of North America’s “Serve Israel” program is designed to enable 1,000 people to come to Israel on volunteer trips of seven to 10 days or four weeks, with underwriting for Jewish federations and organizations. JFNA’s partners include the Israel Educational Travel Alliance with help from Mosaic United; the Jewish Agency for Israel; the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs; and Combating Antisemitism. The initiative also partners with Birthright Israel, Masa Israel Journey and others. A tip from organizers: The sooner the application arrives, the better chance of getting support before the funds are exhausted. For more information, visit: serveisraelgrants.org.
Jewish National Fund-USA has brought nearly 4,000 people, ages 16 to 93, to Israel on volunteer trips since the war began. The four-day program features agricultural assistance, supporting soldiers’ needs and repairing destroyed communities in the south. For more information, visit: www.jnf.org/volunteeril.
Livnot U’Lehibanot’s “Help Rebuild the South” program has 160 projects on the ground repairing and rebuilding destroyed nursery schools, senior and community centers, and private homes. The five-day program features projects to restore these devastated communities, in addition to events with soldiers and inspirational speakers. It’s open to people 21 to 120 with those 21 to 40 receiving an extra subsidy. For more information, visit: livnot.org/israel-programs/volunteer-in-israel.
Sar-El is the granddaddy of Israel volunteer programs. For 42 years, Sar-El has been placing volunteers on army bases to assist in such logistical supportive roles as packing medical supplies, helping with food service and maintaining the bases. Sar-El programs typically run for one to three weeks. For more information, email: info@sar-el.org.
Taglit-Birthright Israel’s Onward 14-day or 18-day volunteer program is geared for those ages 18-40. It includes helping to gather and redirect food and other necessities to communities in need, soldiers and displaced civilians in the north and south. For more information, see: www.birthrightisrael.com/volunteer-in-israel.
