Saratoga News

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Photograph by Zach Beecher

Ex-Israeli Defense Forces soldier Jacob Fine looks through the army yearbook that was given to each soldier upon completion of basic training.

Fine Decision

Saratogan returns after a two-year tour of duty with Israeli Defense Forces

By Shannon Burkey

Before Jacob Fine could make the transition from high school to college, he felt he had an obligation to fulfill--one that shocked his friends and caused his mother to cry through the night.

Instead of spending the summer after graduation preparing to head off to college, like most of his friends, the Lynbrook High School graduate brushed up on his Hebrew and prepared to travel to Israel to join the Israeli Defense Forces as an American volunteer.

"I was quite taken aback and quite emotional," Jacob's mother, Renee Fine, said. "I never said no and I just listened, and in all honesty, it is how we raised him."

Jacob's parents took him and his four siblings to visit the country several times when they were young. Although Jacob knew the country pretty well, he said that he never had a strong appreciation for it.

But during a trip he took during his senior year in high school, through a Hebrew High School class offered at Congregation Beth David, he said everything changed.

The two-week trip, taken in April 2004, was called the March of the Living, and Jacob joined nearly 10,000 youths from around the world in Poland to march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built during World War II, on Holocaust Memorial Day.

During the trip, Jacob's group was paired with two Holocaust survivors, one from the Bay Area and one from San Diego, who helped to change his views on Israel.

"One of them said that if we had Israel 60 years ago, nothing like this could have happened," Jacob said. "It really had a huge impact on how I thought about Israel and my life in general. I never realized how much of a miracle it was and how important it is to the Jewish people to have Israel."

All of the emotions the march conjured up got Jacob thinking about his life and his need to do something meaningful with it.

"After going on this very emotional and intense experience, he came back with a passion of what he wanted to do," said Hebrew High principal Lindsey Greensweig, who has known the family for many years.

"I called my parents that night and told them I wanted to join the IDF," Jacob said. "They thought that I had just gone through a very emotional experience and that things would change once I got home."

After hearing the news over the phone, Renee said she handed the phone over to Jacob's father, Howard, and started to cry. She continued to cry throughout the night.

Howard told her not to worry, that "when he comes home he will forget about it, and he will get back into school, and life will move on."

Jacob was a star basketball player on the Lynbrook High School team and was being recruited by several different schools. He had decided to stay close to home and play for West Valley College, then move on to a bigger school.

When he told his basketball coach that he would not be playing in the fall, his family realized he was serious about joining the IDF.

"My friends thought I was crazy. No one really expected this," Jacob said. "They always thought I would go off to college and play basketball. College was always my plan."

But Jacob did not forget about the IDF, and the plans he had for college were put on hold as he decided to pursue a different dream.

"When I knew it was final and that he was really going to get on the plane and go, that's when I had a real breakdown. But I wanted to support him, too," Renee said. "I know it was difficult for him--he did what he needed to do."

Rabbi Daniel Pressman of Congregation Beth David said he was not too surprised with the decision because Jacob and his family have always been deeply involved in the congregation and the Jewish community.

"I am very impressed with what he did," Pressman said. "He had a life-altering experience and took it very seriously. I commend him for that."

For Jacob, there was never any doubt that he was doing the right thing.

"I just felt that it wasn't fair that I could be here in the United States, going to college, just kind of having fun, while these 18- and 19-year-old young men in Israel, who are just like me, have to go and fight for their country," Jacob said. "I felt like it was what I needed to do before I could move on and go to college or do anything else. I needed to fulfill this obligation. Israel is a country that is as much mine as it is any of the people who live in Israel right now."

Jacob spent nearly six months in training, two in an army language program, then four months each in basic and advanced training. During his basic training, the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip took place and his battalion was sent into the middle of the West Bank.

"I was over there for some wild times. They don't normally do that to new recruits," Jacob said. "It was a large scale operation and they needed as many people as they could."

All males in Israel are required to serve for three years in the IDF, but because Jacob was a "lone soldier," meaning that he had no family in the country, his service was a year shorter. On June 14, he returned home to Saratoga, 22 months after he left.

While he is happy to be home, the transition has not been easy.

"It is hard for him to be back right now with everything that is going on," Renee said.

Jacob got word that his battalion is now in Lebanon and that another American IDF volunteer and friend was recently killed in action. Up until a week ago, he said he was able to contact his friends in his battalion, but he is no longer able to get in touch of them.

"A part of me is relieved to be back because I know it would have been hard on my mother, but a part of me feels guilty for being here in Saratoga," Jacob said.

Jacob said it has also been difficult to relate to his friends and the experiences they have had over the last two years.

"We are in a totally different place. My friends are coming back from college, and I am coming back from this totally different experience," Jacob explained. "In the beginning it was a little awkward sharing my experiences with them. Some of the stuff I have seen has been pretty different from what they have been experiencing."

Jacob is preparing to attend West Valley in the fall and would like to attend UCLA after that, then go into politics. While he plans for the future, he is slowly transitioning back into his old routine, even though he is a different person.

"It definitely changed him as a person. He is more mature and he takes life more seriously," explained his mother. "He has a direction that he did not have before."

As he prepares for his future, Renee said she hopes her son can find a sense of peace and adjust to life back in California.

"It is a hard place for him to be where he is right now. It is not something he can talk about to just anyone, nor do I understand it all," Renee said. "I hope that what is happening in Israel now can stop and they can find peace, because I think by them having a sense of peace then he, in turn, will find more peace internally."