Student FIDF Ambassadors Bring Art Exhibit to Schechter

by Jordan Bitton, SSLI '26

Editor’s Note: For today’s article, senior Jordan Bitton wrote about his experience as an FIDF ambassador. With the organization, Bitton has worked to bring a traveling art exhibit to the Schechter hallways that has been up over the past week. The exhibit features photos of IDF soldiers and descriptions of how FIDF supports their service.

Last year, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) launched a high school ambassadorship program that connects students across the United States with the IDF. The program helps schools share the mission of the FIDF, while also strengthening the sense of connection among Jewish communities across the country. The FIDF itself is a nonprofit organization that supports the health, well-being, and education of Israel’s soldiers.

Through this program, schools across the country run programs about the IDF, Israel, and Jewish peoplehood. Last year, through the Israel Club at Schechter (SSLI), Corey Flyer (‘26) and I had the opportunity to serve as Schechter’s FIDF ambassadors. Each month, we met with FIDF leadership and hundreds of students from other schools. During those meetings, we heard from a wide range of speakers, including IDF and FIDF leaders, wounded soldiers, and even SSLI alumnus Ira Kohler (‘18), who served in the IDF as a paratrooper before and on October 7, 2023. Hearing these perspectives made the program feel much more real and personal.

One of the first things Corey and I organized was a Hanukkah fundraiser. We sold boxes of candles provided by the FIDF and used the money we raised to send Hanukkiot to the IDF base where Omer Neutra HY”D was stationed. It was a simple project, but we raised hundreds of dollars to provide Hanukkiot to those protecting Israel. It was meaningful to know that something we organized at school could reach soldiers serving far away.

This year, Alina Meir (‘27) joined me as one of Schechter’s ambassadors. Together, we helped bring an FIDF photo exhibit to our school. The exhibit travels between schools, including North Shore Hebrew Academy, the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR), and the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County (HANC) before continuing to other schools in New Jersey and beyond. Schechter was the first school in the area to host this exhibit.

Watching students interact with the exhibit has been the most interesting part. Many students stopped to ask questions about the posters or talk about what they noticed. At one point, Señora Cahn even took her class around the exhibits and had students translate the descriptions and explain what they saw in each image in Spanish. Moments like these made the exhibit feel less like something random in the halls and more like a conversation happening around the school.

The posters themselves show the different ways the FIDF supports IDF soldiers in their daily lives. Some focus on maintaining equipment and vehicles, others show programs that support lone soldiers or injured soldiers, and others highlight supplies used during IDF operations and day-to-day lives. Seeing those behind-the-scenes aspects of military life helped make the work that the FIDF does easier to understand and visualize.

Being part of this nationwide ambassadorship program has given me a way to support the IDF even while living in the United States. More than anything, it has helped bring a connection to Israel into everyday life at Schechter. Over the next few weeks, representatives from the FIDF will also be visiting our school to lead programming about the organization’s work and about how the IDF’s code of ethics can apply to everyday decisions in our own lives.

I am excited to see these programs continue to thrive at Schechter. Thank you to the FIDF for bringing a taste of Israel into our hallways.

Here are some photos of the exhibit in the Schechter hallways:

Jordan and Alina stand with interim Head of School Ofra Hiltzik. (S. Cohen)

The posterboards were placed around the hallways. (J. Bitton)

Señora Cahn and her students look at the posters. (J. Bitton)

Posters show the work that FIDF does to support those serving. (J. Bitton)

Students signed a board leaving messages for IDF soldiers. (J. Bitton)

Jordan Bitton is a writer for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since November 2022. Jordan is currently a senior at Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: Jbitton26@schechterli.org