Ellie's Favorite Article of the 2023-24 School Year

 by Ellie Strachan, SSLI '25 

Editor's Note: PPN continues a tradition of winding down our year of reporting by celebrating each editor's favorite post.

My favorite article from the year is "A Student's Reflection on the Current War in Israel" written by one of our very own staff writers, Talia Herbst.

Congrats on a great year of writing! (E. Strachan)

This article is a bit different from some of our others as it is on a more serious topic: the war in Israel. We typically stick to solely news-based pieces, but we wanted to give a writer a chance to reflect on their emotions during such a difficult time. This was the first article back after the war had broken out, and it felt necessary to have a piece that was a bit more serious to address the topic.

Talia did an amazing job encompassing what everyone was feeling those first few days. The fear, the shock, but also the hope for better days. She showed just how resilient the Jewish people are and how much we love our country. I really loved the way she told the story of the day, showing her reaction to the events of October 7 as they unfolded. It was a difficult day for us all, and Talia spoke so well about her feelings at the moment.

Talia took time to reflect on what Israel means to her and how important being Jewish is to her. She wrote beautifully about the importance of us all sticking together in hard times and the importance of our community. We are proud to call Talia one of our staff writers and can't wait to see her continue with her goal of writing one hundred articles by the end of high school!

Ellie Strachan is an editor for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since November 2021. Ellie is currently a junior at the Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: estrachan25@schechterli.org.