Author: Sophie Jacobs
-
Keep your signs and your symbolism out of my country, Donald
DISCLAIMER: From my limited understanding of my limited rights, I am fairly sure that my only limitation to expressing my political views is that I cannot discuss Israeli politics. I’m in an army that serves under the Ministry of Defense, under the Israeli government at large, so it makes sense. What I learned recently, however,…
-
I got the job
I crossed my T’s, dotted my I’s. I sat up as straight as I could, never nodding off. I was quiet, but I asked insightful questions (and only a few kitbag ones). I was polite and formal and acknowledged that I knew I was in a military framework when I couldn’t help but tiptoe onto…
-
Learning to speak army
Today I asked a girl which אוגדה* she was in because I recognized her tag as a northern command. *division
-
Lost but found
I think I figured it out: to be Israeli is to go out of your way to help strangers. It’s other things too, like yelling and saying nuuuuuuuu when someone in front of you doesn’t move up a millimeter in line at the grocery store. It’s using capitalism as a vehicle to live life, rather…
-
Fool me twice…
A few summers ago I drank grapefruit juice, convinced it was lemonade because of the picture on the bottle. Had I read the label, I would have known that eshkoliot is in no way lemonada. Similarly, on my last day of basic training I realized that I had been eating PLUM jam for the past…
-
Hebrew I’ve learned
I’ve learned all the parts of an M-16 (M-shesh-esrei) in Hebrew. But I don’t think knowing the very specific pin name (pin petzil) that you need to extract in order to further deconstruct the weapon is going to help me after my army career. What will serve useful is the new tones I’ve been cultivating,…
-
5:50 AM
Dog tag* – on. Shirt – tucked. Pants – buttoned. Pant legs – rubber banded. Socks – hidden. Boots – laced. Choger** – pocketed. Phone – charged. Jacket – zipped. Bucket hat*** – folded. Gun – slung. Neck warmer – warmed. Pills – taken. Chet**** – formed. Commander – answered. Breakfast – eaten. Day –…
-
soldier girl tell ’em (basic #1)
There was a girl at the bakum, before we even put away our bags, who began arguing with a man who had a falafel on his shoulder. They were arguing about her job, because she was upset she hadn’t gotten magav. The falafel man was telling her that jobs were decided way before the bakum…
-
Birthright & Basketball
I was just asked if I want to speak English for possibly the first time in months. While perhaps it’s an achievement that I have gone this long without hearing the dreaded question, it also felt like an insult. I’m in Sderot. Who speaks English in Sderot? I continued my exchange in Hebrew after telling the man at…
-
More nice things
א. My necklace broke. My necklace has broken before, and each time I have fixed it. This time, I didn’t fix it. In a battle with a mosquito, it tore off my neck and into a silver heap on the table. I’ve been wearing (and breaking and fixing) this necklace since I was sixteen, right…
Sophie jacobs 