Wounded soldiers finding solace in SA warmth

After enduring this treacherous journey, his family made it to Israel and lived there ever since. This remarkable man was recently in South Africa as part of a delegation of wounded Israeli soldiers, sponsored by Brothers for Life (BFL) in Israel.

The purpose of their trip was to find a healing, loving and nurturing space together with fellow soldiers and their host families in Johannesburg. Many of the soldiers had never met and for Amnon, it was his first time on a plane.

Amnon’s story just one of the many heart-wrenching experiences of these young soldiers. His started at birth in Sudan when his family was arrested when his father tried to secure transport for them to get medical care for his mother in Egypt. So, he spent his first four months in a Sudanese jail.

Starving and weary, the family was dramatically rescued by a Mossad agent, who organised their escape through a Sudanese refugee camp to Egypt. They were given fake French passports, flew to France, and were eventually welcomed in Israel. Amnon’s father tells him of being robbed, climbing mountains and suffering from illness. The Workos were one of the lucky ones. Many didn’t survive the treacherous journey.

Amnon’s story suggests a calling from a young age to a heroic pursuit. He had survived, as a helpless infant, the unimaginable. As a 19-year old, he knew his fate rested in serving in the Israeli Defence Forces. Young and eager, his unit was tasked with destroying a terrorist weapons laboratory in the Gaza Strip.

The vehicle in front of Amnon’s was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and most of his friends, as he knew them, were killed. It was up to Amnon to rescue their belongings and all he remembers is an inordinate amount of blood. He notes he was “injured forever on the inside” after witnessing this.

For Amnon (and indeed for the others), BFL was a lifeline.

Mark Gordon, BFL’s South African chairman, said that by the time the group left after their week of rest and recuperation here, they “felt like rock stars”. Gordon recalled many of the soldiers arriving sad and withdrawn, but left being able to meaningfully connect and laugh with others. In addition to a trip to the Kruger National Park, the delegation met with Holocaust survivors at a moving event held in Athol, Johannesburg on April 27.

BFL’s purpose it is to restore meaning and connectedness to injured Israeli soldiers through physical and communal acts. BFL was started by Yaniv Leidner and Gil Ganonyan – both injured soldiers who saw the dire need to create a haven for the many wounded men who had become lost souls after suffering emotional and physical injuries in various military operations. They hoped, that through BFL’s programmes, these men would return as productive and happier members of society.

The organissation’s seed was planted in Rambam Hospital in Haifa in 2006, but its first meeting was held in Seattle, US. Ten injured men, who had been soldiers in the Second Lebanon War, were welcomed by the Seattle community.

“It was there, in the homes of the Jewish families who opened their hearts and adopted the soldiers as their own sons, that the soldiers began to heal. In a matter of days they went from isolation in their lives of rehab to feeling like they would never be alone again as long as they had each other”, according to BFL.

Amnon and his injured soldier companions came to South Africa, in the tradition of the first Seattle trip.

Often, as in the case of Amnon, wounded soldiers (whether physically, emotionally, or both) spend years in abject internal terror and at a loss as to what to do with their lives, post their time in the army.

Says Rabbi Chaim Levine, president of Brothers for Life: “Each of our soldier initiative projects is remarkable, but they act simply as a vehicle for our injured soldiers to heal each other.

“A way for them to share an understanding with their eyes that no words can possibly come close to communicating. This miraculous, magical understanding occurs in BFL on a daily basis.”