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February 19, 2009 / 25 Shevat 5769

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Israel! soldiers received letters of support In English and Hebrew from students at local Jewish schools. Yeshivat Akiva senior Sarah Spitzer wrote this one.

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Israel

War in Gaza prompts teens to take action.

Elizabeth Kirshner

Teen2Teen Staff Writer

srael may be across the world, but it is near and
dear to the hearts of Jews everywhere. Lately,
with the fighting in Gaza, Jewish teens seem to
be feeling a connection to Israel more than ever.
For Americans — especially teens — apathy is a
danger we can fall into way too easily. On a daily ba-
sis, we have a million things on our minds, from the
latest episode of Gossip Girl to the next huge English
test we have coming up. Still, despite our distrac-
tions, young people have been keeping their ties to
Israel in focus.
At Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield, a chapter of
Tehillim (psalms) is recited as a congregation each

morning at the end of efilah (prayer), during which
names of the sick in the Jewish community are add-
ed. For quite a while, the captured Israeli soldiers
were mentioned, too. Since the start of the recent
situation in Gaza, specific names of soldiers also
were included. Then, each upper school student was
given an index card with the name of a soldier. By
seeing an actual name to keep in mind, these young
men and women who are fighting for Jewish survival
every day seemed less distant and more real.
As I held my 4- by 6-inch paper card and placed it
inside my siddur, I tried to picture these young peo-
ple. It's nearly impossible to imagine a graduating

class headed not to college, yeshivot or seminaries,
but to the military, where days are about survival.
Fortunately, Akiva students have the chance to
be around Israelis on a daily basis and are exposed
to the issues from an Israeli perspective. Maayan
Stanhill and Adi Perets are Akiva's shlichim (Israeli
emissaries) and work to teach students about Israel
through recreation, socializing and formal activities.
Through our shlichim, we learn from a point of view
not otherwise available.
Maayan said, "Israeli shlichim work to make the

continued on B2

teen2teen February • 2009

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