City native proud of Israeli army deployment
STAMFORD — Ella Feuerstein wears trendy blue nail polish and loves to sing and spend time with an assortment of animals — chickens, ducks and dogs — at her southern Connecticut home.
She can also field strip an M-16 assault rifle in minutes and wears sergeant’s stripes on her olive-green Israeli army uniform.
Feuerstein, 20, is one of 11 soldiers currently serving in the Israeli military from Connecticut, and one of roughly 1,000 U.S. sol
overall in total who serve under the Israeli flag, defending Israel — and expanding public perceptions of the conflict with Palestine and Israel’s Arab neighbors for a domestic audience in the U.S.
Her service in the Israeli army, along with the dozens of pro-Palestinian activists from Connecticut and elsewhere who journey to the Middle East regularly, demonstrate how global the conflict has become in recent years.
For Feuerstein, joining the Israeli army for a twoyear enlistment was part of a family tradition. Her father, Joseph, a native of Great Britain, served in the Israeli special forces and aboard an Israeli submarine as a younger man. Ella Feuerstein, who was raised in Stamford, was born in Israel and has been a frequent visitor there.
She returned to southern Connecticut for three weeks this summer to visit with family.
“I grew up with his stories, his pride and passion for Israel. That was definitely something very present in my development,” she said.
She set her sights on a combat unit in the Israeli army, a branch of the Israeli Defense Forces: “My heart was always set on the I.D.F. I feel like I have a lot of connection and passion for that.”
Feuerstein decided to live in Israel after graduating from the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut in Stamford — “making aliyah,” as the tradition is called in Hebrew — and embarked on military preparation. Her understanding of Hebrew was virtually non-existent, so she threw herself into language studies and military training at the same time, a daunting task, she recalled. While soldiers who lack proficiency in Hebrew can serve in support and logistics units, proficiency in the language is required for combat units, which is what Feuerstein sought. The language component, she said, “was really, really hard — it drained you mentally.”
Through perseverance, she passed the language test and was assigned a post in the military police, working at checkpoints in East Jerusalem. The training involved a combination of skills, she recalled.
“We’re learning how to tell if IDs are fake, how to defend ourselves, lots of krav maga (Israeli martial arts), we’re learning a lot about our guns, we can take our guns apart, put them back together, clean, we know every single part. We also learned a lot about human behavior — what’s suspicious or not. Learning about different cultures,” the Stamford native said. “Lots and lots of shooting practice, simulations, learning to be always on your feet. And morals and ethics.”
She later earned a promotion to squad leader in her unit.
A typical day for Feuerstein, who often works the morning shift, begins at 3 a.m. and involves interactions with motorists and Palestinian civilians heading into Jerusalem who need clearances from military authorities to travel. The issue of checkpoints are a source of great controversy and hostility for Palestinians, while Israeli authorities insist they are a necessary measure to ensure security for Israeli civilians.
“It’s important,” she said. “I see the difference I make, which most people can’t. There’s ‘catches’ every single day. We’re stopping guns, we’re stopping drugs, we’re stopping (unauthorized) people, contraband, and it happens every single day. I always feel I can literally see the difference I make, which makes me feel like it’s an accomplishment.”
The shift is eight hours, but can run to 12 hours on occasion, and, she notes, is “dreadfully hot.”
It took mental adjustment to make it work, she said: “Very stressful, highly intense, you need the right mindset. I’ve really proved to myself I could do this job. Every soldier has to be mentally strong,” she said.
In Israel, the volunteers from abroad are known as “lone soldiers,” as they have no immediate family or support within the country. A non-profit, Friends of the I.D.F., asdiers sists with supporting the lone soldiers from lower Connecticut and Westchester County, N.Y., serving in the Israeli military with travel services, communications, gift packages and social events.
According to information provided by the I.D.F., there are currently xx volunteers from Connecticut: five from Stamford, three from New Haven, one from Farmington, one from Westport and one from Woodbridge.
In many ways, Americans serving in foreign militaries is a very old story, along with the support network that assists them in foreign conflicts. Feuerstein is among the latest of a long line of soldiers wearing the uniform of another nation.
The first American killed in World War I, Edward Mandel Stone, a Harvard-trained lawyer, was a volunteer in service with the French Foreign Legion fighting the Germans in northern France. During the Spanish Civil War, hundreds of Americans joined the Loyalist forces in that conflict in the late 1930s forming the Lincoln Brigade and spurring American support for the anti-fascist cause in appearances and lectures around the U.S. In World War II, dozens of American aviators served with the British Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain before the U.S. entered the war in late 1941, also giving the British a public-relations opportunity to enlist support from the U.S. against the Nazi regime.
In recent years, a number of prominent policymakers and opinion leaders have served in the Israeli military, as well. Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist specializing in foreign affairs who is now editorin-chief of the Atlantic magazine, was an Israeli soldier and prison guard who wrote about his experiences in the I.D.F. guarding detainees at the largest prison camp in Israel. Rahm Emmanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, served as a civilian volunteer for the Israeli army in 1991, carrying out maintenance chores on military vehicles.
I.D.F. soldiers from the U.S. frequently give talks to college and high school students around the U.S., as well as presentations at synagogues in Connecticut and elsewhere to promote strong ties with Israel. Four I.D.F. soldiers did a meet-and-greet at a Greenwich synagogue in 2017.
While some Americans have served in foreign armies, they have also taken part in the cause of activism overseas.
Americans have been very active in opposing Israel’s military occupation and advocating for the Palestinian cause in demonstrations and clashes in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military and its civilian government has an extensive public-relations operation, notes a pro-Palestine and peace activist from West Hartford, John Fussell. The support for Israel ranges from Congressional lobbying to grassroots campaigning like the supporters of lone soldiers, he says.
“It’s part of the campaign, Hasbara (public relations) campaign as it’s referred to. It’s an attempt to influence policy,” he said.
Fussell, a lawyer from West Hartford, has led group tours to Palestine, aiming to provide perspective to lawmakers and forge ties with Palestinians there in an effort to make peace, he said.
“These are attempts to make Americans aware of Palestinians and the struggle that the Palestinians are engaged in for freedom, justice, equality,” said Fussell, vice president of a social-justice organization Tree of Life, based in Old Lyme. “There’s an ongoing educational effort, but the resources we have compared to the resources the Israeli lobby have are quite different.”
Feuerstein, whose parents are divorced, divides her time between Stamford and Weston, where her parents live.
Her father, Joseph Feuerstein, said he was impressed by her accomplishments — “She has grown immeasurably.”
“I’m very proud of my daughter being in the I.D.F. She’s having a very meaningful service. She’s trying to keep civilians in Jerusalem safe, trying to stop terrorist attacks. It doesn’t get more serious than that,” he said. “I’m sure it’s a hard job, and she has compassion and understanding. Everyone has the right to be treated fairly and decently. Regardless of whether they’re Jewish or Arab, it’s all got to be done with respect, and I’m pleased she’s doing that too.”
Ella Feuerstein is looking to enroll in college and pursue a career in medicine or life sciences, she said, but believes her experiences in the Israeli army was an education in and of itself.
“I wanted something intense, so I’d come out of this with pride and a story to tell,” she said, “to look back and think: ‘I went through that, and I can do anything.’”