BBQS for Soldiers

You’ve been 21 days away from your family, sleeping on your army base after a long day of patrolling the border with Gaza, Lebanon, or Syria. For yet one more night, you’re awaiting an army meal that only reminds you of how challenging your life is at this moment, and will be for your three years of service in the IDF, in defense of the people of Israel.

But then you hear a truck pull up, and excited Or LaChayal volunteers exit, boxes in hands and full of smiles. “We’ve brought you a BBQ”, they say. “For you, and 2,000 of your friends!”

Or LaChayal’s flagship projects is one of the IDF’s most popular volunteering programs. And also one of its most simplest. Every week, Or LaChayal’s volunteers arrive at a different IDF army base (or will visit soldiers ‘out in the field’) and, equipment in hand, will host a full-scale barbeque for hundreds or even thousands of soldiers. It’s a simple thing, a BBQ, but does amazing things for soldiers’ morale.

Over the course of the BBQ, which is also accompanied by a live band, singing and dancing, Or LaChayal volunteers also give exciting and animated presentations about the role of food in Jewish life, and in the history of the Jewish army. Soldiers then get the opportunity to perform mitzvot, such as donning tefillin.

The project is also based on the understanding that, by fulfilling a person’s materialistic needs, through giving and happiness, we can open their hearts to fulfill their spiritual needs. BBQ for the Soul is unique in its success in reaching a wide range of soldiers, many of whom are not regularly exposed to Jewish values and ideas.

A donation of $18 will allow us to invite one more soldier to a BBQ. Click here to donate now!