The process of drafting into the IDF differs for everyone. For some, the process starts when you are 16 years old and in high school, with years to do the testing and interviewing required for different positions. For me, it started just four months before I was on the bus headed to my base. That’s because the program I participated in, Garin Tzabar, works with the IDF to expedite this process.
The process, however, starts the same for everyone. It starts with a letter in the mail called “Tzav Rishon,” or first call up. On this letter, it tells you what date, time, and location your testing begins. The first four tests are also the same for everyone – a personal history, logic, Hebrew, and physical test.
For the personal history test, which I wouldn’t necessarily classify as a test, you sit in a room with a soldier and go over basically your life story – age, level of education, socioeconomic status, relationship with parents, etc. This is used to determine different rights you may be eligible for or different positions for which you can qualify. This is scored out of 90, decreasing by intervals of 10.
The logic test is just as it sounds – you have 25 minutes to answer 61 logic questions in the language of your choice. The highest score you can receive on this test is a 56, decreasing by ones.
The Hebrew test is scored out of 9, and you have reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension assessments. This test is done one on one with a soldier who prompts you to do all the different tasks. If you score below a 6 on this test, you are required to attend an Army Ulpan for the first three months of your service at a base in the north called Michve Alon.
Lastly, is the physical test. This is not a test to see how fast you can run or how many pushups you can do, but more to see what the of state your body is. It is basically like a normal physical that you get every year, adding health history. The scores here are 97, 82, 72, 64, 45, 35, 31 (the lowest profile score that is still fit to serve), 24, and 21 (exempt from mandatory service but able to volunteer). You get the scores back from the Tzav Rishon only a few days later online.
The next step is the Tzav Shini (second call). Here, depending on your first set of scores and what gender you are, you move onto the next set of testing. For women, there is a day called “Yom Ha’meah” in which you are tested on technical skills, instructing skills, human relation skills, team work abilities, data processing, and management capabilities. From there, you are given a “manilla” with all the possible job opportunities available to you. Next, you are invited for interviews based on the jobs your manilla offers, in order to see if you are truly a good fit for a specific role. Then it becomes sort of like a matching process; you tell the army which jobs you want and they try to match you up to the best of their ability. Girls drafting to combat also participate in “Yom HaMeah,” but on their manilla, they are given a list of different combat units they can draft into too. They are able to compete in what’s called a gibbush (more to come) in order to join the more elite units available for women.
Men take a completely different route. Men are given a list of different units they can draft into, and are more or less able to choose which combat unit they prefer. If you are not drafting into a combat unit, the process is similar to that of the women, where you have a multitude of interviews to see what job you would do best in. If you are eligible (aka score high enough on all the tests during Tzav Rishon), you are invited to a day called “Yom Sayerot” (day of elite units). This is the day where you show off your physical abilities, and based on how you do here, you can get invited to further gibbushim.
A gibbush is essentially a very intense physical try out – it can last anywhere from a few hours to several days. Generally, the gibbushim occur after you draft, and if you pass, you would transfer units. Some gibbushim require an invitation (for the top tier elite units), while others anyone in that unit can attend. Each unit has its own selection of elite units, and then there are special units that are separate entities. Gibbushim are complicated though – you can get kicked out or quit at any time throughout the whole try out, or you can finish the entire thing, but still not pass. The criteria they score you on is not well known, but even if you don’t technically pass it, you can still get into an elite unit, you would just not be eligible for super elite units like Sayeret Matkal or Shayetet 13.
Like I said, the process is different for everyone, but one thing remains the same – it’s never easy. The whole process for me was extremely difficult. During my Tzav Rishon, I really wanted to pass out of the Army Ulpan requirement, something you can only do by scoring a 6 or higher on the Hebrew test. I scored exactly a 6, and at first was very excited I didn’t have to do the ulpan, but as it got closer to draft time, I realized my Hebrew level wasn’t good enough to be able to successfully complete my training. This then led to weeks of phone calls with officers and civilians who had pull in the army, talks with staff members of Garin Tzabar, and multiple interviews with high ranking officers to see if I would be able to attend the ulpan, even though my Hebrew score said I didn’t need it. In the end, I was told no, I could not attend the ulpan because they thought my Hebrew would improve more by being surrounded by Israelis than being surrounded by others who also weren’t great at Hebrew.
In addition to that, I was not super thrilled about the first job assigned to me. My manilla offered many good jobs that I was very interested in, roles I would be extremely happy to have throughout my service. However, the matching process did not sway in my favor, and I was told I received a job I really didn’t want. Luckily, the program I was a part of, Garin Tzabar (more info on last week’s blog post), had a lot of pull with them army, and they were able to get me my top choice of jobs!
Next week’s post will be more about the army and what day to day life is like. If you have questions you want answered about what army life is like, or general questions about being a soldier, send me an email at marti.hmdetroit@gmail.com and I’ll be sure to answer them in the next post!
