Lone Soldiers, Strong Networks: Inside Tel Aviv’s Errands Day
In his new piece for The Media Line, Gabriel Colodro drops readers into the packed halls of Tel Aviv’s Errands Day, where thousands of “lone soldiers” from 70 countries prove they are anything but alone. These are young immigrants and volunteers serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) without immediate family in Israel, trying to juggle combat service with rent, bank forms, health insurance, and the emotional toll of a long war.
Colodro opens with Soldier A, a 19-year-old from Florida whose mother is “stressed out” but supportive as he trades the safety of the US for a frontline infantry battalion. Around him, the annual Yom Siddurim becomes part clinic, part homefront festival: soldiers racing between ministries, consular desks, and volunteer seamstresses patching uniforms worn thin by months of reserve duty.
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The article then follows Soldier Z from Atlanta, who says he would not have moved to Israel without the war and describes a steady stream of rides, meals, and quiet kindness from strangers. That sense of community collides with a tougher conversation: Deputy ministers and lawmakers warn that once service ends, much of the safety net disappears. Pnina Tameno and Moshe Tur-Paz question who supports lone soldiers when they come home to empty apartments or struggle with trauma in a language that is not their own.
Leaders of Nefesh B’Nefesh describe a program now serving recruits from 72 countries and scrambling to bring in doctors and nurses as well as fighters. By the time the soldiers drift into the Tel Aviv dusk, Colodro’s reporting has sketched a rare mix of warmth, criticism, and urgency. If you want to understand what “lone soldier” really means in today’s Israel, Gabriel Colodro’s full story is worth reading to the last line.
