Students Attend FIDF Program

by Penina Charry, SSLI '27

Today during lunch, students assembled in room 206 to hear about how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) help people all over the world. Students were also able to write letters to soldiers currently serving in the IDF. The program was open to the entire high school.

Junior Alina Meir, who is an FIDF Student Ambassador along with senior Jordan Bitton, explained that they chose to bring this program to Schechter "to set the tone for [Captain] Omer Neutra Legacy Day," which is tomorrow. Bitton added that the upcoming weeks are filled with "Israel programming, and we just had the photo exhibit that was from FIDF."

To begin the program, Bitton and Meir introduced the FIDF representative, Orli. Orli showed students a video detailing everything that the FIDF does to help Israeli soldiers. She remarked during the program that FIDF supports soldiers' "well-being needs," such as hygiene kits, medical supplies, therapy, and flights home for lone soldiers who have no family in Israel. 

Next, students played a Kahoot in which they discovered that the IDF and FIDF help many countries other than Israel. Orli emphasized that the IDF and FIDF help save lives even in countries that are not Israeli allies, such as Turkey. This stuck with sophomore Sabrina Monasebian, who attended the program. As Monasebian explained, "FIDF is the reason a lot more people are alive and safe today."

Students enjoyed learning about FIDF. (J. Bitton)

Orli then showed video clips illustrating how the search-and-rescue brigade of the IDF helps locate and extricate people in dangerous situations. She pointed to the disaster in Surfside, Florida as an example: When a man was stuck under rubble for 10 days after the collapse of a condominium building, the IDF found him by using their canine unit, called Oketz, and were able to save him. 

Bitton enjoyed learning about this brigade. He commented, "I've heard a little bit [about] how the IDF sends their resources to other countries to help with disasters, but I didn't know that it was at the scale we were shown today."

The last activity during the program was writing letters to IDF soldiers. Meir noted that this was her favorite part of the program. She reflected, "knowing how much these letters mean [to] the soldiers is really meaningful. Expressing our obvious support for the soldiers might seem ... like something small, but for them to know that there are Jewish kids in New York that support them and care [about] them means so much to a soldier that has not seen their family for extended periods of time."

This program taught students new things and showed them how involved Israel is in helping people across the globe. As Bitton stated, "Israel is connected to the world in more ways than people ... might think."

Penina Charry is an editor for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since October 2023. Penina is currently a junior at the Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: pcharry27@schechterli.org