Deepening their connection to the Jewish state

For me it was the moment I stopped being a bystander of Jewish history and became an active part of it.”

Eliezer Waltuch, IDF reservist

Bombarded by TV images and the verbal barbs lobbed at Israel for Operation Pillar of Defense, an eight-day Israel Defense Forces operation that began on Nov. 14, 2012, against the terrorist group Hamas, Baruch Kranz wanted to act rather than complain.

“I vividly remember sitting on the couch at my grandmother’s house in 2012,” said Kranz, 25, who attended Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway and lives in the Queens community. “I was appalled to see all the negative press against Israel on the news surrounding Operation Pillar of Defense. It was at that point that I felt a certain calling. I could not sit there idly while this was going on. So a few days later, I booked a ticket to Israel, and arrived toward the end of December to start my journey.” Kranz served as light machine gunner in the IDF’s Givati Brigade from April 2013 to October 2014.

For many Jewish-Americans, patriotic sentiments extend not only to the United States, but also to Israel — which was established as a modern Jewish state in 1948. Some join the IDF to help defend the country, and some U.S. citizens even choose to live there. There are 6,550 IDF “lone soldiers,” and more than 800 are from the United States. A lone soldier does not have immediate family in Israel. They are typically immigrants, orphans or Israeli-born and estranged from their families.

Aaron Kornbluth, 27, originally from Cedarhurst, and Woodmere native Eliezer Waltuch, 25, both served in the IDF and now live in Israel.

“I went to grad school after getting a bachelor’s degree and knew I wasn’t prepared for the real world,” said Kornbluth, who attended the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway through eighth grade, and then went to Rambam Mesivta Maimonides High School, both in Lawrence. He majored in political science at Queens College, where the Arabic language became his focus. He also studied Arabic as a graduate student at Hebrew University. “I had a good variety of good and negative experiences, and coupled that with what I’m going to do next,” he said. “I decided to make aliyah — immigrate to Israel — and joined the IDF.”

Kornbluth was a paratrooper in the 890th Battalion of the IDF’s Paratroopers Brigade from March 2015 to August of last year. He is now a sergeant in the reserves. “It was a two-day tryout, and in that span you had to run a 2K, do sprints, crawl while holding sandbags and work as a team,” he said, of becoming a paratrooper. “It was all the effort you could muster. There was an interview so they could see the mindset in the volunteer. It’s a highly respected special unit, and intense. People that go into it are looked upon as a higher standard [of soldier].”

Spurred to action

Growing up in Woodmere, Waltuch recalled, he knew as he got older he wanted to go to Israel. At 20, he did. “I personally always felt a little out of place,” he said of his childhood in the Five Towns. “As I got older, that feeling matured into a yearning to return to Israel, the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people.”

He remembers “mostly good things” about Woodmere — “a nice, quiet suburban area with a thriving Jewish community.” He attended both the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (first to fourth grades) and Yeshiva of South Shore (fifth to eighth grades), and Mesivtas Ateres Yaakov for high school (then in Hewlett, now in Cedarhurst). 

Waltuch served from January 2012 to September 2014. The time was split between two unpaid stints in a yeshiva and active duty in the Armored Corps as a tank loader. He now serves in the Galilee Reconnaissance reserve unit.

“As I matured and became more independent, I developed an appreciation for the opportunity to protect the Jewish people as a value in of itself,” he said. “I wouldn’t attribute my inspiration to any particular person or event, but to a slow and steady process that included many. For me it was the moment I stopped being a bystander of Jewish history and became an active part of it.”

Understanding the situation

Lone soldiers receive help from a few groups, including Friends of the IDF, a New York-based organization that offers financial assistance and helps them find places to live, make social connections and locate post-service educational programs. “The FIDF and other organizations helped me with anything that I was missing,” Kranz said.

Liron Kreitman the FIDF’s Long Island director, oversees the fundraising on the South and North shores. The South Shore gala dinner is scheduled for Nov. 8 at the Sephardic Temple in Cedarhurst.

A native Israeli, Kreitman served in the IDF from January 2002 to the end of 2003. Her husband, who is originally from England, was a lone soldier. “He wanted to live in Israel,” she said. Though both served in the IDF, they met in the United States. “He said, ‘If I don’t do this then I’m not a true Israeli.’ There is absolutely a patriotic element. I really thought it was my responsibility to serve.”

More reasons

As a reservist, Kornbluth said he continues to “keep giving back” because it provides a “dose of inspiration.” “Wherever you come from, people have pride in that, and being a Jew coming to Israel is an important part of it. How could it not?” said Kornbluth, who works for Hometalk in Jerusalem, a website for the do-it-yourself community. “As an American, I represent the United States in the IDF and provide a dose of ‘Americanness.’ Israel aligns with my values of liberalism, free speech and an open democratic society.”

Waltuch and his wife, Ayala, have twin sons, Yakir and Elyashiv, born Jan. 5. He said serving is an “unbelievable experience.” “I learned a lot about myself and uncovered abilities I never knew I had,” said Waltuch, who works at Omrix Biopharmaceuticals in Jerusalem and is studying mechanical engineering and mechatronics at Ariel University of Samaria. “I also learned a lot about Israeli culture, and about people who grow up very differently than myself.”

Kranz, who does security work for schools in Far Rockaway, said that he was part of something bigger than himself. “What it means to have served in the IDF,” he said, “is that I have made something more of myself to give back to others.”