Last week my mom had her second hip replacement surgery, so I spent a couple of nights at the hospital with her. It’s a difficult surgery with a long recuperation period, and when you don’t speak Hebrew and the nurses ignore you when you ask for assistance, it’s very, very difficult. Horrible, really.
I was so happy I could be with her and wish I could have stayed with her more since I saw it made a huge difference to her. My mother asks for very little and didn’t even ask me to be at the hospital because she knows I have so much on my plate with dh away. If you’re wondering who took care of bedtime and getting everyone out in the morning when I was gone, it was dd16. She’e extremely busy with studying for her Israeli matriculation exams and so it was especially generous of her to encourage me to sleep overnight at the hospital, particularly since Yirmiyahu wakes up in the middle of the night and needs a bottle then.
This week we added another bit of busyness to dd16’s already overflowing schedule. A couple of months ago, dd16 got her first notice from the army. It seems they send it before the 17th birthday, and it was very interesting to read the material enclosed. As someone who didn’t grow up here, I don’t know much about different army programs and so I learned something! However, none of it is relevant for her as she won’t be going to the army. Religious girls have an automatic exemption upon providing proof that they’re religious.
So dd and I went to the rabbinical court in Haifa to get this authorization. She had a day off early in the week and wanted to go then, but despite repeatedly calling to check their hours, no one answered the phone. We decided to take a chance and go to Haifa with the hopes it would be open when we got there. It wasn’t – they closed half an hour before we arrived. The good part was that we found out how to get there, so when she went the next day on her own, she knew where to go. And the other good part is that since my mother is hospitalized in Haifa we were able to visit her afterward so it wasn’t as if the trip there was wasted.
Now we have to find out where to send this authorization and send it in, after which she’s receive her exemption from army service. It’s nice when something is straightforward and relatively simple to take care of!
Avivah
You need to send it (by registered mail) (keep a copy) to the lishkat gius your area belongs to (it should have the address on the info you were sent). They often seem to take ages processing it – I am not the only one to have received an angry call as to why my dd hadn’t yet come to the lishka when we’d sent it weeks before.
Thank you, Miriam! We took care of this last year for dd18, but dh was helping with it so I wasn’t actively involved. I also got an annoyed call from the army about why she didn’t come in after we had sent it a long time before!
There are programs for religious girls to serve their country. We made Aliyah years ago and our daughters all served, one in Sherut Leumi and three in Nachal Dati. They are all still religious bringing up religious families and are proud to say they did so for their country. So once you have your deferment for your daughter maybe she should look into ways to serve her new homeland.
I echo Susan’s comments. I know several religious girls who served in the army and stayed religious. People forget that “serving in the army” does not always mean serving in fighting units. THere’s a plethora of other jobs out there. You should look out for an organisation called “Aluma” : http://aluma.org.il/ – who run seminars and also hold events where religious girls can find out what suits them. Let dd16 check out all her options. Their English link is http://aluma.org.il/?CategoryID=274.
If she decides to do Sherut Leumi instead of the army, there are also very good branches of service.
Whichever way she chooses to serve – good luck!!
I was under the impression that it’s mostly Modern Orthodox/Dati Leumi girls who do Sherut Leumi. I don’t think this family falls into that category.
I believe it’s not an exemption, but a deferment. This happens even if one is outside the country, they have to report to the consulate to apply for a deferment especially if they are still in school at 16.5 years old, which is usually the case. Otherwise they will be AWOL.
For girls it’s an exemption.