It’s Time For A Change: Service Year In Merhavim

Returning to Merhavim on Sunday after the Shavuot holiday, we all felt that the year was drawing to a close. For me, it will end a month earlier, since the school year finishes at the end of June, while the rest of the group will remain in the south for another month.

Shavuot has always been a holiday associated with change for me. It was on the eve of Shavuot in 1994 that my husband, Tzvi, came home early from work. At the time, we lived in Grapevine, Texas, and he worked for IBM. He looked pale and somewhat shocked and told me that the IBM lab in Southlake was closing and that we would need to look for another job. That was it.

I remember waking up the following morning and telling myself that the world as we knew it had come to an end, and that we would be okay. We were scheduled to go on vacation in Israel, but the vacation turned into a job-hunting trip. We had the option of moving to another IBM lab in California, but we decided that this was the perfect opportunity to return to Israel. Within two and a half months, we landed in Tel Aviv.

Every year on Shavuot, I think about the day when Tzvi came home early with that news. I have never regretted our decision to return to Israel instead of moving with IBM to California.

Indeed, we were fortunate. 1994 was a good year for Israel, with Prime Minister Rabin in office and the peace agreement with Jordan in October 1994. I am not sure we would have returned had it happened after Rabin’s assassination and the election of Netanyahu. On a personal level, Tzvi found an excellent position at Tel Aviv University, and I began teaching at the College of Management. The girls loved the independence that came with living in Israel. Texas was definitely not a long-term solution for an Israeli family.

We were in Texas for exactly four years. Our group will stay in Merhavim for ten months. Many of us are not ready to part with the Service Year and would like to stay for at least another six months. We feel that it took us some time to settle in and find our place in our various assignments, and that our work is not yet finished.

Unfortunately, that is not possible. The next group is already preparing to begin its Service Year, and they will move into “our” houses on September 1st.

So this Shavuot was an opportunity for me to think about my next mission. Our group leaders have already started preparing us for the time when we will say goodbye to one another and to Merhavim.