Disillusionment, danger and inspiration in Joel Chasnoff’s “The 188th Crybaby Brigade”
“The problem with serving in an army run by twenty-year olds is that I sometimes feel like I’m serving in an army run by twenty-year olds,” writes Joel Chasnoff about his experience as a tank gunner in the Israeli Defense Forces.
Chasnoff, a self-described “peace-loving, left-leaning, lactose-intolerant Jew from the suburbs” of Chicago, fell in love with Israel on a visit during high school. Feeling guilty that he had never fought to defend the Jewish homeland, Chasnoff abandoned his unsuccessful post-college career as a stand-up comedian and joined the Israeli Army.
What follows in “The 188th Crybaby Brigade,” Chasnoff’s memoir of his Israeli Army service, is a year full of sexual jokes, fuckim (army slang for “mistakes”) and Israeli chutzpah. Chasnoff details the ups and downs of his experience, amazed that an army so prone to error and inefficiency has managed to keep Israel on the map. As he marches through the desert, nearly fails to assemble a tent and almost dies several times
, Chasnoff portrays the IDF as a slightly dysfunctional institution.
What Chasnoff gains from this experience, however, is unclear. He opposes his mission in Lebanon on principle and suggests that Hezbollah is attacking Israel because there are Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, not because of Israel’s civilian population. If Israeli soldiers are the problem, why become an Israeli soldier?
Although Chasnoff writes that he enlisted out of guilt, his frequent mentions of the powerful, muscular, sexy Israeli–soldier stereotype tell a different story. He comes across as insecure about his peaceful American upbringing and scrawny physique, which sends the message that Chasnoff joined the Israeli Army for less-than-noble reasons.
None of this keeps the book from being both hilarious and educational. Chasnoff translates his skill as a standup comedian into writing and manages to illustrate some important issues facing the IDF, such as racism and lack of concern for soldiers’ wellbeing.Chasnoff, for instance, describes the religious men in his platoon, who do not get time to pray in the mornings and must do so during breakfast. Chasnoff and the other soldiers must make sandwiches for the dutiful daveners but often forget to do so.
Chasnoff also notes that Israelis with darker skin–Sephardic Jews, for instance–rarely rise to positions of leadership within the army because of prejudicial attitudes. This honest portrayal of an issue facing the still-young Jewish state makes the book even more insightful.
“The 188th Crybaby Brigade” is more than just a portrait of a fledgling nation and its military. It also follows Chasnoff’s developing relationship with Dorit, his beautiful Israeli girlfriend. As the two fight and make up—and Dorit’s mother pressures the couple to marry—Chasnoff describes the difficulties of staying together while he is in the army. Chasnoff’s confusion over his own Jewish identity complicates the relationship and illuminates the difficulties that individuals such as he, whose mother converted to Judaism, face in Israel.
The memoir becomes somber as Chasnoff prepares for his deployment to Lebanon. Terrified that he isnot being taught everything he needs to know in order to fight Hezbollah, Chasnoff becomes disillusioned with the army. Rather than learning survival tactics, Chasnoff and his fellow trainees spend most of their time cleaning equipment and straightening flagpoles. His terror becomes palpable. “You’ll learn more in your first twenty-four hours in Lebanon than I could teach you in a year,” his sergeants reassure him.
This book is an eye-opening tour of the Israeli Army that Americans will not get from conventional histories of the IDF. Army officials will not tell you about the one time a sergeant forgot to tell a soldier that when throwing a grenade, he should keep his thumb on the safety button so that it would not explode in his hand.
But the key question—what this hysterical, terrifying and poignant adventure meant for Chasnoff—is left unanswered, and this book falls just short of the incredible story it could have been.
The 188th Crybaby Brigade, by Joel Chasnoff – Simon & Schuster (2010) – Hardback – 288 pages. Learn more about Joel and the book here.
