This evening, at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles, hosted in partnership with Thank Israeli Soldiers, I attended the gala and premiere of the new docufilm, Beneath the Helmet, produced by Jerusalem U.
Beneath the Helmet traces the story of young Israeli men newly enlisted into the paratroopers’ corps. The docufilm takes the audience through 205 days of grueling training, incorporating the personal stories of five of these coming of age soldiers against the backdrop of mandatory military service in Israel. It is clear that the film team got exclusive access to follow the recruits during their eight months of basic training in the Paratroopers Brigade, offering an unusual insider’s look at the young men and women beneath the military beret and helmet.
So far, Beneath the Helmet has been featured on CBN News as part of their “Jerusalem Dateline” program, and has been accepted to major Jewish film festivals, including the Miami Jewish Film Festival and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
Israel is a small country, surrounded by vicious enemies from all sides and their life’s goal is to destroy the Jewish State. It is becoming more and more difficult to defend the country, not only because the enemy wants to destroy it, but because the world does not want to recognize Israel’s predicament and thus goes as far as demanding of her not to defend and protect herself as any other nation will do, as well as constantly dehumanizing its defense forces.
Jews have only one homeland to claim as their own and that is the State of Israel.
Under these unique and demanding circumstance all of Israel becomes an army and the army is Israel. Every citizen serves, every citizen’s duty is to protect his or her home, his or her homeland. Two or three years in military service brings every Israeli to the realization that to have a homeland they need to protect it and fight for it, when necessary.
The movie is outstanding, mesmerizing and deserves accolades.
Join me in getting the word out about Beneath the Helmet and help show the world the human face of Israel’s young men and women in uniform and on the frontline.
Thank you the Israel Defense Forces (IDF); thank you Israel for defending the Jewish nation, the world over, and helping to protect the world.
The paratroopers are not afraid of a long excursion; the eternal nation, Israel, is not afraid of a long excursion either.
We are together, no one is alone, because this is the Nation of Israel.
