The youth completing a short version of basic training. Photo: Itamar Hassan, IDF Spokesperson

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In the past couple of weeks, unfamiliar shouts of “yes commander” in several different accents were noted in the Joara Gadna base, which is an Israeli military program to prepare youth for their mandatory military service in the IDF. The reason for this was the arrival of Jewish youth in Israel in order to compete in the 18th Maccabiah Games. The base gathered people with two common denominators – Judaism and sports.    

The Joara Gadna Base is one of the three Gadna bases that Israeli youth go to before they draft to the IDF. The Jewish youth arrived to the base for an Army Day and there they experienced a short version of basic training in order to expose them to military values and experiences.

“For the arrival of the Jewish youth, we prepared a special program that is a shortened version of a military experience,” explains Deputy Commander of the Joara Base, Captain Salech Halvi. “The young athletes wore uniforms, had weapons,  learned about discipline and the army in general.”

Their acclimation wasn’t fast, however they slowly began to understand military discipline, as they were involved in activities set in front of them by the youth instructors of the base. “This is a necessary taste of the Israeli experience,” explains Yaron Veiner, Deputy Executive of the Maccabiah village in Shefayim, which is accompanying the American youth team in Israel. “The majority of the young athletes that arrived here have never seen an Israeli soldier in real life, and now they got the chance to meet real soldiers and feel like soldiers for a day.”
 

"It feels strange that if I would be living in Israel I would be joining the army at this age"

“The relationship with the Jewish youth population is very important to us,” adds Veiner and elaborates on the excitement of the young athletes that visited Israel over the past couple of weeks.