A Seder for 600

April 18, 2011 - 11:28 AM by David

Front row, left to right, Israeli soldiers Roxanne Fogelman, Michael Eliav (in shorts), Ruth Stukalov, and Jonny Handler gather at the the Lone Soldier Center in Jerusalem, which provides a home away from home for ex-pats serving in the Israeli Defense Forces.

As Israelis sit down to their Seders tonight (and polls and statistics have shown that of all the rituals connected Judaism, the Seder is the most widely observed across the religious-secular spectrum), there’s an interesting sub-culture who will be experiencing Seder night.

Israel is home to an estimated 5,000 lone soldiers — either young men and women who come to serve from other countries, or who are newly-arrived immigrants to Israel, or whose families live elsewhere, or those with no family at all.

Many end up having the Seder with ‘adopted’ families around the country, but 600 of them will be experiencing a communal meal courtesy of the Lone Soldier Center.

In an article on the USA Today website, Michele Chabin explains that the center was formed in 2006 after Philadelphia native Michael Levin was killed in action at age 21 in a battle with Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border.

The center helps the lone soldiers procure everything from washing machines to apartments, and arranges weekly Shabbat dinners with local families and, during Passover, seders that offer a home away from home.

“We have more families to host on Pesach than applicants,” said Tzvi “Tziki” Aud, the center’s director. “Holidays, which are traditionally family times, bring up feelings of loneliness for lone soldiers.”

So, if you see a soldier at a bus stop or on the side of the road, make sure to stop and ask him if he has a place to go for Seder. He or she could turn out to be the guest you were waiting for.

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