Every Sunday, according to the new rule, IDF soldiers are brought to different sites around Israel to learn about the nation's history and culture from up close.
Col. David decided there was a need to revamp the entire IDF educational program after it was revealed that half of the soldiers in the units under his command – many of them new immigrants to Israel – had never visited the Kotel.
From talking to individual soldiers, he said, he learned that many were lacking basic knowledge of Jewish heritage and Israel’s geography and history. “I saw soldiers didn’t know how to draw a map of Israel," he said, "nor did they know how to recite Hatikva [Israel’s national anthem] or the names of Israel’s Prime Ministers. A soldier must know about all of Israel’s wars and recognize the country’s borders. There are soldiers that don’t have any idea what our struggle with the Arabs is about. and things like the 'Peel Commission' [a British team that originally proposed partition of Palestine in 1937] mean nothing to them.”
As a result, the army's educational department prepared an educational program teaching heritage, history and geography. It will be taught to the soldiers in all the various companies under Col. David’s command.
As a result, in recent months, soldiers from the unit have taken part in one-day trips to the Western Wall and the Kotel Tunnels, which run along the length of the Temple Mount's western wall.
In addition to the Kotel visits, company commanders also take their soldiers to specific historic sites in the regions under their jurisdiction, such as Latrun and Ammunition Hill. These trips, too, have become a weekly occurrence.
“If soldiers come over to me after a tour and say ‘Thank you very much,’ I feel I have earned my bread,” said David. “This is the mission, in my view – to strengthen the Zionism of IDF soldiers and to train them to be even better citizens.”
Col. David decided there was a need to revamp the entire IDF educational program after it was revealed that half of the soldiers in the units under his command – many of them new immigrants to Israel – had never visited the Kotel.
From talking to individual soldiers, he said, he learned that many were lacking basic knowledge of Jewish heritage and Israel’s geography and history. “I saw soldiers didn’t know how to draw a map of Israel," he said, "nor did they know how to recite Hatikva [Israel’s national anthem] or the names of Israel’s Prime Ministers. A soldier must know about all of Israel’s wars and recognize the country’s borders. There are soldiers that don’t have any idea what our struggle with the Arabs is about. and things like the 'Peel Commission' [a British team that originally proposed partition of Palestine in 1937] mean nothing to them.”
As a result, the army's educational department prepared an educational program teaching heritage, history and geography. It will be taught to the soldiers in all the various companies under Col. David’s command.
As a result, in recent months, soldiers from the unit have taken part in one-day trips to the Western Wall and the Kotel Tunnels, which run along the length of the Temple Mount's western wall.
In addition to the Kotel visits, company commanders also take their soldiers to specific historic sites in the regions under their jurisdiction, such as Latrun and Ammunition Hill. These trips, too, have become a weekly occurrence.
“If soldiers come over to me after a tour and say ‘Thank you very much,’ I feel I have earned my bread,” said David. “This is the mission, in my view – to strengthen the Zionism of IDF soldiers and to train them to be even better citizens.”