After joining the Israeli military, Stan Hoffman understood that he had volunteered to serve the Jewish homeland-yet the 19-year-old native St. Louisan had never felt farther from home.

“The families would come and visit their kids,” recalled the Ladue Horton Watkins High graduate who had moved to Israel in 1979. “They’d bring the girlfriend. They’d bring grandma. They’d bring baskets and we’d be sitting in our tent watching all these parents at the base and wondering why we came here. Nobody is coming to visit us.”

In his loneliness, Hoffman was hardly alone. Thousands of Israeli military men and women from overseas find themselves without family nearby, often leaving them short of both emotional and financial support. Known as “lone soldiers,” such recruits are precisely those Tzvika Levy aims to help.

“I put it in one focus what I am doing,” Levy said. “These kids are in the Israeli army with parents overseas. Sometimes they have almost nothing.”

The Israeli lieutenant colonel was in St. Louis last Wednesday for a luncheon designed to raise awareness and funds for lone soldiers. A veteran who has served since 1966, Levy now works for the Israeli Ministry of Defense running the Lone Soldier Program, which provides everything from heaters and toaster ovens to televisions and microwaves for those defending Israel while far from their place of birth. It also supplies soldiers with periodic trips to a country club for a special meal and packages that include gloves, underwear, sweets and shaving items.

“The soldier works on a patrol eight hours. Then, he goes to rest for four to six hours,” Levy said. “Then he goes on another patrol for eight hours. In between he is eating and wants to see television.”

The assistance doesn’t stop with appliances and toiletries however. Israeli soldiers are often granted leave on weekends so they can see their families, a respite to many but a time of sadness for those whose loved ones are thousands of miles away.

“They look left. They look right. They look up,” Levy said. “Where am I staying for Shabbat?”

To that end, Levy links soldiers with host families at kibbutzim so they can have a warm meal and friendly faces while off-duty. He even works to give them access to their biological families. The program buys plane tickets home for many to visit those they’ve left behind.

Levy said the Israeli Defense Forces do the best they can to help lone soldiers but often more is needed. Though Levy works for the government, funding for the program comes entirely from what he can raise from donors.

“That’s why I’ve come here, to raise money but not just to raise money but to meet parents with children in the army,” he said. “I say ‘I will take care of your son. I have a cell phone. You can call me anytime, any hour, 24 hours a day. I will open my eyes, my mind and my heart.'”

The Lone Soldier initiative currently helps more than 5,500 soldiers. Nearly a quarter of the Israeli armed forces is thought to be made up of lone soldiers.

Hoffman heads the program’s fundraising efforts locally. He said he met Levy three decades ago at an Israeli kibbutz and they quickly found common cause in his efforts.

“There wasn’t any organization to assist lone soldiers so when I heard what he’d been doing I told him this was something I wanted to get involved in,” he said.

He said some of the stories of those Levy has helped are impressive and touching. While some soldiers come from stable families who are merely too distant to help, others come from backgrounds of poverty or have had little real family life. One woman found herself sleeping at an orphanage on a couch when she wasn’t at the base.

“He found her an apartment at a kibbutz, a refrigerator, washing machine, and an adopted family,” said Hoffman. “Not only did she not have that in the army, she never had that her whole life.”

St. Louisan Terri Grossman, director of Camp Sabra, said she was eager to donate to the program.

“I’ve been friends with Stan since he was a lone soldier in Israel and it can be very lonely,” she said. “They are giving themselves to a cause and we should support that cause.”

Rabbi Brad Horwitz, director of the Helene Mirowitz Center for Jewish Community Life, said he was impressed by Levy’s talk.

“It’s very rare that you run into individuals like Tzvika who dedicate their lives to helping others in that way,” he said.

Donations to the Lone Soldier Program can be made through the Good People Fund at www.goodpeoplefund.org or call 973-763-9396.