For a lone soldier, the to-do list follows from base to base. A foreign driver's license waiting to be converted, a passport about to expire, a National Insurance letter written in dense bureaucratic Hebrew. Each item requires an office that is open on weekdays, a free day that rarely comes, and the kind of help most soldiers get from a parent without thinking twice. For lone soldiers, that parent is either thousands of kilometers away or not in the picture at all.
Everyday challenges of serving alone
That list is familiar to thousands. Each year, more than 7,000 lone soldiers serve in the IDF. More than 3,700 of them are new immigrants who made Aliyah from countries around the world and are required to serve as part of Israel's mandatory military service.
The term covers more than Olim, however. More than 4,000 lone soldiers are native-born Israelis who serve without the support of immediate family. Many of them speak the language and know the system. What they lack is a home to return to on weekends and someone to call when a form needs a signature or an appointment needs a parent.
For most young soldiers, that support is invisible because it is taken for granted. A parent waits in line at the ministry, sorts out the bank, makes the phone call. Lone soldiers handle all of it themselves, on limited leave, alongside the demands of military service.
A burden the system recognizes
The IDF and its partners acknowledge that this burden is real. Each year, the army marks Lone Soldier Appreciation Week, and much of the practical support behind it comes from a partnership between the military and civil society: the FIDF-Nefesh B'Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program, the Mofet Unit of the IDF Manpower Directorate, and the Association for Israel's Soldiers.
"Errands Day is another example of our ongoing commitment to supporting IDF soldiers, particularly lone soldiers, who face unique challenges alongside their military service," said Brig. Gen. (Res.) Liron Donel, CEO of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) in Israel. He credited the connection between FIDF donors in the United States and the State of Israel with making year-round support possible, for active-duty soldiers and reservists as well as wounded veterans, bereaved families and lone soldiers.
A day to put life in order
In IDF terms, a yom siddurim is a day off granted for errands: the bank visits, government offices and paperwork that accumulate when most of the week is spent on base. The word siddurim shares its Hebrew root with seder, meaning order, and that is essentially the point. It is a day to put your life in order. For lone soldiers, who have no parents nearby to wait in line or sign a form on their behalf, those days carry extra weight. [VERIFY: current lone soldier entitlement to errand days.]
Once a year, the annual Yom Siddurim event flips the equation. Instead of soldiers chasing services across the country, the services come to them. Last week, 9,200 lone soldiers arrived at EXPO Tel Aviv, where more than 70 government ministries, public agencies, organizations and service providers gathered under one roof as part of Lone Soldier Appreciation Week.
The Ministry of Transportation ran one of the busiest areas of the day, dedicated entirely to foreign driver's license conversions. Vision exams, driving tests and photo stations operated side by side, while dozens of volunteer driving instructors and certified examiners administered hundreds of exams. Many soldiers left with an Israeli license in hand. Nearby, the Population and Immigration Authority operated 20 service stations, issuing biometric ID cards and passports on-site.
The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the National Insurance Institute, foreign embassies and dozens of organizations offered help with housing, employment, banking, legal questions, academic degree recognition and military benefits. Other stations handled needs that rarely make headlines. Volunteer seamstresses repaired and tailored uniforms, the Technology and Logistics Corps distributed replacements, and representatives of the IDF Lone Soldier Center answered questions about salaries, military housing and rights.
"Errands Day allows us to bring together, in one place, a meaningful range of services, rights and resources that help ease the challenges of daily life alongside their military service," said Lt. Col. (Res.) Merav Ben-David, Vice President of the Fund of the Association for Israel's Soldiers.
Beyond the paperwork
Errands can be completed in a day. Isolation cannot. Alongside the service stations, the FIDF-Nefesh B'Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program introduced soldiers to its resilience programming and emotional support resources, which offer mental health care to lone soldiers, reservists and soldiers returning to civilian life.
Much of that work takes place at the FIDF-Nefesh B’Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program Resilience Center in Tel Aviv, operated together with Sheba Medical Center, which provides dedicated mental health and therapeutic care.
The need does not end at discharge. For a soldier with family nearby, finishing service usually means moving back home while figuring out what comes next. For a lone soldier, it can mean returning the uniform and walking into an empty apartment, with housing, work and studies to arrange alone. Recently discharged soldiers at the event received guidance on exactly that transition.
Before, during and after
Yom Siddurim is one day, but it reflects a year-round mission. The FIDF-Nefesh B'Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program, run in full cooperation with the IDF, supports approximately 3,500 lone soldiers each year from more than 70 countries, guiding them before, during and after their mandatory service. Its work includes a 24/7 hotline, help navigating government agencies, social and cultural programming, and the therapeutic care offered through the Resilience Center.
"The young men and women who make Aliyah and are required to serve in the IDF demonstrate a remarkable commitment to the State of Israel and to the future of the Jewish people," said Shraga Weissmann, director of the program. "Yom Siddurim is an incredibly meaningful way we can help Lone Soldiers manage their day-to-day needs and remind them that they are supported every step of the way."
For the thousands who came to EXPO Tel Aviv, the day meant a new license, a passport or a question finally answered. It also meant something harder to put on a form: for one day, someone else was standing in line with them.
Written in collaboration with Nefesh B'Nefesh