A unique club at the Jewish Agency’s Kfar Saba Absorption Center, known for its many young olim, offers chayalim bodedim, a taste of home. The club, which recently marked its first year, operates on Thursday and Saturday nights. Providing hot meals, social activities and trips, the club also helps soldiers cope with the inevitable stress of combat service.

“People who come to Israel without family in order to serve the country encounter the difficulties of all soldiers, but even more so. They need help,” says Daniel Aharon, who has come full circle as volunteer coordinator of the club. In 1989 at the age of 6, Daniel came to Israel from Lithuania with his mother and uncle and lived in the Kfar Saba Absorption center. Daniel was fortunate to have family in Israel during his service in the Israeli Navy. Today, he studies accounting and economics.

The goal of this support is for them to become part of the system.

Together with Arik Bernstein, the social director of the Kfar Saba Absorption Center and other staff, Daniel participated in steering committees to prepare lists of soldiers from the area around Kfar Saba (north of Tel Aviv). Most of the 150 members of the club are combat soldiers. On a typical evening about 30 soldiers are enjoying the club, including its internet access and laundry service.

“During pressured times soldiers need to feel the warmth of home,” notes Arik. “We help them with problems that come up during service. The club gives them a supportive hug while at the same time urges them to integrate into Israeli society. The goal of this support is for them to become part of the system.”

 A lot of thought goes into developing the content of the club’s activities, which range from learning to live on a budget and making decisions to providing a psychological outlet for the stress of combat service. The purpose of the leadership workshops is to reinforce the soldiers’ Jewish-Israeli identity, by internalizing the importance of being an Israeli citizen and belonging to the Israeli people. Workshops also deal with adjustment to life after the army.

Serge Gornyy, 23, is serving in the unit of Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories as the unit’s webmaster. In the Ukraine, he majored in English and is certified to teach English as a Foreign Language. He made Aliyah on the Jewish Agency’s program for academics and lived at the Kfar Saba Absorption Center before enlisting in the IDF. Serge received from the club furniture and appliances for his apartment. He looks forward most to the social aspect of meeting his friends. “We all look forward to Thursday evenings. We come for each other.”

The idea for the club evolved when absorption center staff saw former residents who were IDF soldiers hanging around on weekends and vacations. “We spoke to them and realized their need for a place for them to meet and share their experiences about army life,” says director David Musafir. “The staff upgraded an existing club.” With a donation from David Ma’araj of Denver, via the Queen Esther Foundation of Persian Jews, and the assistance of the Jewish Agency’s Immigration and Absorption Department, the club was founded in December 2004. When possible, David Musafir tries to include IDF soldiers in activities and lectures of other olim.

The club serves as a hub of communal volunteer activity, including local women who bake cakes, businesses like wedding halls which provide hot meals, American Otzma volunteers, and high school students. “We even had a cinema chain donate tickets for movies,” recalls Arik.

Among the volunteers are Jewish Agency Selah olim, students who come to Israel before their parents. They stay in touch with the soldiers when they return to the base. “The interaction between Selah olim and the soldiers is interesting. They learn about volunteering and also about the army,” says Daniel.

The Kfar Saba club for chayalim bodedim is a model club to be emulated by the many others waiting to be founded throughout Israel for the dedicated soldiers who need a place to feel at home.