Pastor Tim talks with Saar Ben Menashe, vice president of Heroes For Life, an Israeli organization working to leverage the vast infrastructure of 400,000 Israeli released soldiers traveling to developing countries every decade in order to create opportunities for humanitarian volunteer work in these countries as part of the Israeli veterans “post army trip.” The organization hopes to show the real face of Israel and its spirit around the globe.
The organization was established in 2013 by three discharged officers that served together in “Duvdevan,” an elite Israeli anti-terror unit. After his military service, Gili, one of the three officers went on his “post-army trip” to Thailand and was amazed by the vast number of Israeli travelers to one of the poorest countries in the world. The idea was born during a Shabbat dinner in a Chabad house in Ko-Samui, an island in southern Thailand where he was present with over 1,200 Israeli backpackers. Gili thought that if many of those Israeli backpackers dedicated two weeks of their “big post-army trip” to humanitarian volunteering, this could be utilized to show the beautiful face of Israel to the world and make the world a better place. Heroes for Life believes that there is no justification for the fact that Israel, along with Pakistan and Iran, was ranked among the countries with the most negative impact on the world (BBC, 2012). Furthermore, they believe that this action of “Tikkun Olam” is part of who Jews are as a people and thus constitutes a central element in the Jewish DNA.

Learn more at https://hfl.org.il

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