1 November 2023, 25 days since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
My name is Tamar Shoshan. I am 18 years old, Korean-American, and last year I was a Merakezet Tzeira at Shevet Tapuach in New York City. This September, I moved from Manhattan to Kibbutz Mizra’s branch of Mechinat Rabin in Northern Israel.
Until now, our schedule at mechina has consisted of daily classes or seminars on topics such as Halutzim, the Israeli population, and the meaning of Shabbat. Our core value, like the settlers of the Yishuv, is group living. We regularly hold group conversations, cook our own meals, exercise, work, and volunteer together.
At our mechina, we are 85 participants including 10 ‘chulnikim’ (participants from outside of Israel). Since the beginning of the program in September, I have frequently experienced ‘culture shock’. Coming from a non-Israeli household and having grown up in New York City, many aspects of daily life are foreign to me: Israeli reference points, army talk, and the almost counterintuitive assertive, yet genial, Israeli nature.
After the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, I decided that there is a difference between ‘culture shock’ – disorientation caused by the unfamiliar – and what I will call ‘cultural incomprehension’, the inability to grasp emotional responses due to cultural differences. Unlike my friends at mechina, I will likely never have to experience worry for every person in my life: family members, friends, teachers, and co-workers. I will never need to feel the relief from knowing that my kidnapped cousin is alive, thanks to the release of a Hamas captive video. Both parents of my Rosh Shlucha (head of my branch) are captives in Gaza from Kfar Aza. My Rosh Mechina (head of the Mechina) was in a mamad (bomb shelter) for 20 hours with his wife and infant children at Kibbutz Be’eri. On October 7th, 87 people in Kibbutz Be’eri were massacred.
On October 7th, I was at Kibbutz Yahel working with the Mechina at a date farm. We had committed to work for three more days; we were in a so-called “safe zone”, so we continued our jobs. Each of us was in a depression, as we spent 6:00 AM to 4:00 PM manually removing pits from frozen dates. My friends and I would work while crying and every so often one of us would leave in hysterics having received a distressing text or phone call.
In these early days, the chulnikim at Mechinot were faced with the decision of either staying in Israel at this time of fear and uncertainty or returning home. In having to make this decision, I came to understand just how important it was to me to stay in the country at this time and do my part in supporting Israel. I am encouraged by my family in both America and Korea, and constantly checked in on by Israeli friends from Tzofim and non-Israeli friends as well. My choosing to stay in Israel even brought me closer to my family: I keep up to date with my extended family in Israel. I am in daily contact with both my parents, and have received contact from my sister, with whom I rarely spoke when we were in the same city.
We now spend our days volunteering at Kibbutz Mizra, in Tel Adashim or in the nearby cities Haifa and Afula. In the past weeks I have picked olives at an orchard, worked alongside special-needs staff at a soup kitchen, brought inventory from storage to shelves at Shufersal, an Israeli supermarket chain, organized clothing at WIZO, the Women’s International Zionist Organization second hand store, and played with
children whose parents are staff at the Carmel Medical Centre or returned to military service at a keitana (day-care) in Haifa.
Our kibbutz is currently hosting families from Kibbutz Gevim – a kibbutz located 2 miles from the Gaza strip border. Every day mechinaim (members of our mechina) volunteer to help take care of the children from our kibbutz and Gevim. As schools were shut down and parents had to go to work or were even absent due to miluim, the establishment of this program on our Kibbutz has been essential in helping families. We volunteer to support families and take jobs occupied by immigrants who have returned home and those who live beyond Israel’s borders.
Despite my not having Israeli heritage, I choose to be Israeli. I know that no matter the circumstances, I want to spend this year in Israel at Mechinat Rabin and live alongside my Israeli friends. My participation in Tzofim sparked my desire to learn to speak Hebrew. Living in Israel during this war, I am motivated to be a part of the Israeli Community. I am enthusiastic to continue gaining Hebrew fluency and enlist in the Israel Defense Force next year!