The IDF's school of hard knocks

Soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces Dror company, who were conscripted just a month and a half ago, sit in a small classroom on a base in the North. Music by the Dag Nahash hip-hop group plays in the background. Maya, the non-commissioned officer, explains the origin of the "Sticker Song," which was written by David Grossman. All the soldiers are new immigrants and hail mostly from the former Soviet Union - the famous author's name doesn't ring a bell. They also don't know who the Dag Nahash is. In Hebrew peppered with slang, Maya commands her soldiers to prepare stickers for her. One soldier doesn't understand, so she explains: "You know who [prime minister Yitzhak] Rabin was, right? After Rabin was assassinated, there were many stickers with 'Shalom, haver' ('Good-bye, friend') and 'Haver, atta hasser' ('Friend, we miss you'). There are other stickers, like 'We have no one to trust except our father in the reserves.'"

The soldiers, who have a shaky grasp of Hebrew, turn their attention to the Dag Nahash song and the sticker task. When the time is up, each of them is asked to present the sticker he wrote to the class. One of the soldiers wrote: "Danger, women driving."

The Dror Company soldiers at the Education Corps' Alon training base near the village of Maghar in the Galilee immigrated to Israel in the last two years. Their Hebrew is broken or nonexistent and the program they are participating in is aimed at endowing them with a reasonable vocabulary so they will be able to conduct a basic conversation.

The learning track lasts for three months: In the first month, they go through IDF basic training at the base; the course teaches them to stick to a timetable and to use weapons and communications equipment. After that, they participate in intensive Hebrew and Zionism workshops.

First Lieutenant Hadas Ben-Gigi, one of the commanders of the course, is convinced that this course is no less than a school for Israeliness. "I happened to see one of my soldiers, who finished the course not long before, talking with a friend at a hitch-hikers' stop. The whole conversation was in Israeli slang and military slang," she said.

The wrong salute

The findings of an internal IDF investigation are posted on the bulletin board next to the base's staff offices. The probe dealt with a deviant incident, in which two soldiers left the base at night and drank alcohol. One of the soldiers had already been in trouble before because of what the IDF called "an anti-Semitic gesture"; he gave a straight-armed salute. In another case, graffiti of a similar nature was spray-painted on a wall at the base. The IDF says the two soldiers received "an educational punishment."

"One of the soldiers is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. This very much muddied the atmosphere. It isn't easy to deal with such cases, particularly in a place like this, where we are trying to instill values of Zionism in the soldiers," says one of the staff members at the base, who hastens to clarify that this is a matter of "a few isolated cases and is not indicative of a phenomenon."

Base commander Lieutenant Colonel Itai Karin served in the past as a fighter pilot. Some six months ago, he was appointed commander of the Alon base and is proud of what the place has produced: "Every year we provide the IDF with a great many soldiers who previously did not speak Hebrew or spoke poor Hebrew. Now they speak Hebrew. When they come here, I hold an opening conversation with all the soldiers and many don't understand me," he says, adding that "in the final conversation, they understand almost every word."

The command staff at the base is especially proud of three soldiers, who took their first steps in the IDF in the Hebrew course. Today the three number among the soldiers who fought in the Second Lebanon War and even received citations or medals of honor.

"It isn't easy," says Karin. "In addition to the soldiers' language difficulties, there are other difficulties, like absorption difficulties. Sometimes there are gaps in discipline, like difficulty accepting the authority of a female commander, difficulties at home and the sensitivity of Russian soldiers, for example, to their mothers' birthdays.

"There is a great deal of sensitivity to a date like that and a staff member who doesn't understand this could make mistakes that are liable to put an end to the soldier's military service."

Privates Dennis Kim from Bat Yam and Igor Rachelis from Hod Hasharon came to this country about a year and a half ago, and they are full of motivation to learn Hebrew and Zionism. Rachelis relates that in his parents' home, they don't speak Hebrew: "My father doesn't know anything in Hebrew except 'hello,' 'goodbye' and 'what do you want from me?' At first I couldn't get Hebrew because it looked to me like an annoying language ... and it was hard for me to remember. Now I understand more," he says.

Lost in translation

Kim wants to complete the course and follow his brother's example in enlisting in Paratroops Company 101. In the meantime, he is tightening his grasp on the new language

"It's hard for me with this but there's no way around it - it's necessary to learn Hebrew," he says.

"Now we have completed a task in the class - to translate a poem from Russian to Hebrew. That was interesting. Hebrew is not such a difficult language. Russian is more complicated because there are more options, but in Hebrew the verbs are difficult."