Now, her great-granddaughter had the honor of protecting what didn’t even exist back then. Those before us, including my great grandmother, grasped on to this “hope” of a homeland while singing almost the exact same anthem in the Holocaust death camps. My heart filled with both sadness and pride as I thought back in time just 70 years. The voices of the crowd joined together with those of the soldiers to sing the national anthem of Israel, HaTikvah (“The Hope”). We repeated: “I swear… to even sacrifice my life, for the protection of the homeland and the liberty of Israel.” With those words, I committed to serving the very apple of G-d’s eye and the living proof of His unconditional faithfulness to the Jewish people. We were all considered “lone soldiers,” or immigrants who had moved to Israel without our families to serve in the Israeli Military. Organizing our battalion - 44 immigrants from 17 different countries - into a symmetrical formation was no simple task, especially when we all spoke the only common language between us, Hebrew, at a very basic level. By the end of the night, our arms were shakier than our breathing. We drop to the rough concrete to do pushups, scramble to reform into two lines, and the cycle repeats. Unsuccessful in obeying her command, we quickly understand that her small stature and young face were no accurate tell of her authority over us. She orders us to arrange into a new formation, declaring “end of time” less than a minute later. It was our third day of basic training in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and we were meeting our disciplinary sergeant. A uniformed figure with her hands tucked behind her back, M-16 strapped tight to her side and eyes glaring in our direction, stood waiting. Positioned in two parallel lines, we descended down a set of uneven cement steps towards a moonlit basketball court. “One, two, one, two” I whispered, unsuccessfully attempting to steady the cadence of the 43 other soldiers marching in front of and behind me. THE RHYTHM OF OUR STOMPING BOOTS WAS OFF BEAT.
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