40 turkeys, 1,000 troops, 2 MKs, lots of beer at lone soldier Thanksgiving meal

Some 1,000 servicewomen and men turned out for a free, ample and beer-filled Thanksgiving dinner in Tel Aviv on Thursday night, hosted annually by the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center.

According to the organization, it was the largest one yet.

Approximately 800 lone soldiers — troops who either do not have family members in Israel or are not supported by them — registered to attend the event, which was held at the Women’s International Zionist Organization headquarters in Tel Aviv, but the organizers had said they expected a few hundred more to stop by over the course of the evening.

According to Jacob Flaster, who works for the Lone Soldier Center, the majority of the attendees were American-born immigrants — English, peppered with Hebrew army-isms, was the language of the evening — but approximately 20 to 30 percent were native-born Israeli lone soldiers.

For the thousands of lone soldiers without immediate family, or any family, in Israel, the Thanksgiving holiday would otherwise likely go uncelebrated. So, in stepped the Lone Soldier Center, named for fallen IDF lone soldier Michael Levin.

“Where else are you going to find something like this?” said Mickey, a paratrooper in the brigade’s 202nd Battalion who is originally from Los Angeles.

The Lone Soldier Center’s wasn’t the only Thanksgiving dinner for immigrants. The Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel held its own event in Jerusalem, though on a much smaller scale.

The center, which gives services and support to lone soldier year-round, provided the 40 turkeys that were served to — and promptly devoured by — the hundreds of hungry soldiers who attended the event.

The trays and trays of string beans, potatoes, salads, cakes, pies, brownies and other holiday-appropriate foodstuffs were cooked and donated by volunteers from across the country, Flaster said.

Each week, the center provides Friday night dinners to lone soldiers, also with the help of donations. So the annual Thanksgiving event, though much bigger, was well within its wheelhouse.

“We’re a well-oiled machine by now,” Flaster said.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Michael Oren, who himself once served as a lone soldier in the IDF, also stopped by the event, taking selfies with troops and delivering speeches.

Flaster noted that the center is not politically affiliated and had invited lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, but only Bennett and Oren, who both hail from right-wing parties, decided to come.

Some online commentators interpreted Bennett’s and Oren’s appearances at the event as a reaction to remarks made on Wednesday by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely that were seen as disparaging to the American Jewish community. However, the senior lawmakers had been planning to attend the event since well before Hotovely made her comments, according to organizers.

Attendees said they appreciated that the politicians attended the event, showing their support for lone soldiers, but the speeches themselves were less well-regarded. The food, beer and dancing that followed the meal seemed to be more of an attraction for soldiers on weekend leave, than Bennett’s words about how to create a successful start-up or Oren’s well-rehearsed spiel about how in Hebrew “Turkey” and “give thanks” are the same word, “Hodu.”

“It’s nice that they came, but I think people were just looking to have fun,” said one soldier.

Indeed, attendees said one major factor attracted them to the Lone Soldier Center’s event over the others: beer.

Beer Bazaar, a website and bar chain specializing in oat sodas, helped sponsor the Thanksgiving event with the Lone Soldier Center, pouring out free suds to the troops, whose main complaint was that the cups were too small.

Somehow, after gorging themselves on turkey and potatoes, the lone soldiers mustered the energy to dance to the latest Israeli and international hits, before heading out to Tel Aviv to paint the town red and other autumnal colors.