Gedaliah is quick with numbers. If I had to guess, I’d have pegged him for an accountant (though it turns out he’s a lawyer).  

• 20,000 coffee pods 

• 1,733 shekels spent just this past Friday at one bakery; more than 1,500 at another; over 1,300 on nuts and sweets; and more than 500 for ice cream.

Those are just a few of the stats that Gedaliah rattles off when he talks about his volunteer work bringing food and friendship to an IDF base in the Beit Shemesh area. 

My son Avi completed his regular service in the Israel Air Force. While that may sound glamorous, only about one in 60 Air Force personnel ever fly a plane. His service was decidedly more mundane than a scene from Top Gun: he taught English to promising high school cadets whose aptitude marked them as having such bright military futures that they were already enlisted and in uniform by their mid-teens.

Every branch of the military relies on people in many different roles—mechanics and electricians, secretaries and physicians among them. These support staff are the backbone of military operations, silent partners in the success of our efforts on the ground, in the air, or at sea, in both war and peace. 

Every weekday morning, Gedaliah Krainess and his volunteers take on the role of unofficial IDF support staff, hopping into their cars for a quick drive to help make a morning minyan on a nearby army base. He began this routine once the war broke out, with the conviction that if the soldiers are out there for him, he needs to be there for them. 

Almost three years later, the fire in his belly has only grown. 

Like the support staff of my son’s unit, the volunteers far outnumber the soldiers. The first........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)