JERUSALEM — Standing Together hands out treats – pizza, popcorn, clothes, toiletries, you name it – to Israeli soldiers on active duty.
Howard Osterer, left, volunteers with Standing Together, which hands out treats to Israeli soldiers. Osterer is with an Israeli soldier who was on patrol near the Gaza border.
Canadian Howard Osterer found out about the organization shortly after immigrating to Israel in December 2008, and despite the busy life of the new immigrant, he decided there was no way he couldn’t volunteer.
“These kids are putting their lives on the line so that we can sleep at night. These kids are my heroes,” says Osterer, originally from Ottawa, where he volunteered and worked for Scouts Canada for 25 years.
“I believe you are here and you have to put something back into the country. To give these kids a smile, to make their lives just a little bit better, this is my way of putting a little bit back.”
Osterer, 55, heard about the organization from fellow Canadian immigrant volunteer Barbara Sternberg, 54, who made aliyah in 1967 and found out about Standing Together last summer. With two of her four children having completed their Israel Defence Forces service, she had a personal reason to get involved.
“When you have kids in the army, you have a sensitive spot for soldiers. These soldiers give their lives for us, and this is one way to do something special for them,” says Sternberg, who is heading a new campaign for Standing Together, recruiting women from Canada, United States and Australia to knit and crochet scarves for soldiers.
“Jews all over the world are so appreciative of the soldiers’ service, and they want to do something to say thanks. It’s a real labour of love to knit or crochet a scarf, and the women feel it’s a real privilege to help out.”
Osterer and Sternberg are among hundreds of Israelis who volunteer for Standing Together. The organization was founded in 2004 by David Landau, an immigrant to Israel from Queens, N.Y., who lives with his wife and eight children in Efrat.
Landau, 60, who owns a chicken, turkey, meat and fish delivery service called Landau’s Super Clean Chickens, was walking around Rachel’s Tomb one day, when he was suddenly experienced an epiphany. “I saw these soldiers in front of Rachel’s Tomb. They were extremely scared, and there like sitting ducks. I thought, here are these kids, putting their lives on the line every single moment.”
He went straight out and bought pizzas and drinks for them. “I told them, ‘I want to thank you for what you are doing.’ They said, ‘What do you mean? We’re just doing our jobs,’ and I told them, ‘No. You are doing much, much more than that,’” recalls Landau.
“Anyone serving anyplace, whether 18 years old or 35, in the regular army or on reserve duty, they deserve to be thanked,” says Landau. “In fact, we have a tremendous obligation to thank them – the mitzvah of korat hatov – and we are there for them.”
The pizza delivery at Rachel’s Tomb was the first of many. Soon after, a pizza bag was donated to keep the pizzas warm, and financial support and volunteers began to roll in. Before long, Landau and his crew were making nearly nightly trips to bases and border crossings across the West Bank, and he was so busy building Standing Together that his son had to take over the chicken business.
In 2006, just before the war with Lebanon, the organization received a large donation and bought a small truck and trailer, to take their show on the road and bring treats to soldiers all over the country. “When the war broke out, we were ready to go down south to the border with Gaza and north to the border with Lebanon,” says Landau.
That is just what they did. Unlike other, more bureaucratic organizations dedicated to supporting IDF soldiers such as Friends of the IDF and A Package from Home, Standing Together’s flexible grassroots nature meant that that they were able to respond immediately to the war’s pressing needs.
“While other organizations were putting together baskets and packages for each individual soldier, many of which didn’t arrive until after the war, I just filled the truck with socks and underwear and toiletries, grabbed some volunteers, and went from stop to stop handing the stuff out,” says Landau. “We gave to everyone – I don’t even know who. But in times of war, you need things immediately. We work on that level, we do things on the spot. We help the soldiers with anything they need right when they need it.”
After the war, Landau filled his truck with microwaves and personalized fridges, and drove from hospital to hospital delivering these items, along with personalized bathrobes, to injured soldiers.
Now, the organization does a mix of spontaneous and organized events, from late-night pizza, coffee, hot soup, ice cream and clothing deliveries to sponsored delivery nights (it costs $650 US to sponsor a night, and the truck can reach up to hundreds of soldiers) and hosting Independence Day barbecue parties at army bases, distributing Rosh Hashanah greeting cards from around the world and handing out challot baked by volunteers in Sderot.
“Whatever we are giving out is a secondary thing,” says Landau. “The main thing is to show them that people care about them. It makes all the difference in the word for them to know that they are not alone and that people care about them.”
His truck is now outfitted with an oven for heating pizza, a kettle popcorn machine, an espresso machine and a freezer with frozen treats, plus a laptop computer with satellite Internet access and an electrical box with 36 outlets, to enable soldiers in remote places to charge their cellphones.
“The soldiers are so taken aback by the outpouring of love from around the world,” he says. “This is an easy way to boost their morale and make their lives a little bit easier.”
This past Chanukah, Standing Together ran its fourth annual doughnut week, for which Landau brought his doughnut machine with him to bases in the Jordan Valley, Shechem, Nebe Musa and Kessufim, and made fresh doughnuts for the soldiers.
Osterer and Sternberg came along to volunteer. “One soldier told me, ‘In the army, we don’t even realize it’s Chanukah. You showed up and made the holiday for us,” Sternberg says. “When you see their smiles, it just warms the heart.”
“Being there and seeing how appreciative our soldiers were was an experience that I will never forget,” adds Osterer, who along with Sternberg intends to start a fundraising chapter for the organization in Canada. “Being there really made me feel the reason why I made aliyah, to really be part of something, part of a society that loves and cares for its soldiers.”
Says Landau: “Standing Together tends to boost the morale not only of our soldiers, but of our volunteers, too.”
