Mondays.

Everyone hates them.

But on Monday, November 7th, there was no time to wallow in tiredness from busy weekends. On this particular Monday, there was a lot in store for us.

We had been informed beforehand by Mr. Shpall’s weekly community meetings email that there would be an IDF program instead of bonus.

This was not the only surprise for us.

During second period the PA system sounded the alarm for a drill. This was no fire drill. This drill was to prepare us for the worse case scenario. A situation where a killer would come into our school and threaten our lives.

After snapping into action, students all around the school locked the doors, covered the windows and hid to prepare themselves. LAPD officers systematically came around the school and “freed” the classes.

When classes had been checked, students proceeded to the auditorium for a meeting about the situation.

Following the meeting with LAPD, the IDF soldiers arrived. This was a complete shift of gears.

Around fifteen soldiers travelled all the way from Israel to share their stories with us. They work with an organization called FIDF. This stands for Friends of the Israeli Defense Force. FIDF provides “education and wellbeing of the men and women who serve in the Israel Defense Forces” and support “the families of fallen soldiers”. Two soldiers stood in front of our community and told us about their polar opposite experiences.

The first soldier had been in the Gaza war. He and his team were ambushed, and when a grenade was thrown into the room they were in, he jumped on it in attempt to save his men.

His arms and legs were badly injured, but his men only suffered very minor injuries. He spent the next few months in physical therapy trying to regain movement and function of his limbs.

He risked his life simply to save his men. In that split second, he had two choices. He not only chose his men above him, but jumped onto the grenade believing he would not make it home.

The second soldier told an entirely different story. Elisha told us of a time he was on border patrol duty. He stopped a woman who was attempting to get home to her family. Although she was originally annoyed and frustrated by the situation, the story ended with her returning to the border with gloves for Elisha and food for all the soldiers.

Although these stories show two completely different situations and two completely different types of people, they both show strong morals. In the first story the soldier showed devotion to his men above the value of his own life. In the second story Elisha showed us how Israelis take care of their military.

During questions, several of the soldiers stated that even though service is mandatory for them, they are proud and willing to do it.

Being in the army is difficult. It is dangerous and it is tiring. These soldiers risk their lives frequently for the safety of Israel.

Although the two events seem unconnected, they are. The drill was to prepare us to deal with an extremely terrifying experience that would threaten the lives of everyone in our community. The FIDF presentation taught us about the courageous soldiers that defend our home everyday.  

We owe a great deal to these soldiers and we should never forget to be grateful for their service.