 JANUARY 7 • 2021 | 27

A

fter the Friends of the 
Israel Defense Forces 
organization (FIDF) 
appointed Rabbi Steven Weil 
as its new national director and 
CEO in September, Weil has 
stated that after spending the 
last 30 years of his life trying 
to help build American Jewry, 
his new role is an opportunity 
to build Israeli Jewry, which he 
believes is “the ultimate future 
of the Jewish world.
”
Weil began his new role on 
Sept. 16, succeeding Maj. Gen. 
(Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir, who led 
FIDF for the previous six years. 
FIDF was established in 1981 by 
a group of Holocaust survivors 
as a not-for-profit humanitarian 
organization with the mission 
of offering educational, cultural, 
recreational and social pro-
grams and facilities that provide 
support for Israel’s soldiers. 
Weil is the former rabbi of 
Young Israel of Oak Park and 
was heavily involved in the 
Jewish Federation of Metro 
Detroit and the greater Detroit 
Jewish community in his time 
here from 1994-2000. Weil also 
had an 11-year tenure as the 
senior managing director of the 
Orthodox Union. 
Weil believes people assume 
the FIDF is about “buying bul-
lets and machine guns for the 
soldiers” and says that is not at 
all the case.
Under Weil’s leadership, he 
says FIDF will continue to run 
scholarship programs and social 

justice projects to aid cur-
rent and former IDF soldiers.
One program, the IMPACT! 
Scholarship Program, helps 
combat veterans who cannot 
afford the cost of higher edu-
cation, sponsoring students 
at more than 80 institutions 
throughout Israel. Since 2002, 
over 16,000 students and alum-
ni have been sponsored.
“It’s the first time in the 
history of these families that 
anyone’s gone to university,
” 
Weil said. “We’re giving them 
the opportunity, not just the 
three years that they gave to the 
Jewish people in the army, but 
an opportunity to give 60, 70 
years of their life to building the 
future of the Jewish people.
”
Each IMPACT! student vol-
unteers in the community for 
a total of 130 hours every year, 
paying it forward by helping 26 
different organizations. 
Other programs include 
Horizon, where FIDF pays 
two-thirds of the university 
scholarships for soldiers who 
are financially challenged, and 
Project Overcome, which helps 
at-risk youth with mentorship 
and funding of high school and 
college education. 
“What we’re doing is building 
the future of the Jewish people 
by creating strategic and trans-
formational solutions that enable 
the soldiers to become contrib-
uting members of society for the 
rest of their lives,
” Weil said. 
The FIDF directly supports 

about 118,000 soldiers every 
year, according to Weil.
“Our goal in Israel is that 
no Jew is left behind, and no 
Jew isn’t provided a chance to 
succeed and thrive,
” Weil said. 
“That’s our goal, to fund those 
opportunities.
”

ABRAHAM ACCORDS
The Abraham Accords, which 
were signed the day before Weil 
began his new role, are ground-
breaking to FIDF’s mission and 
the soldiers they help on several 
levels, according to Weil.
“Whether it’s the banking 
industry in Bahrain or the tech-
nology and international trade 
industry in the UAE, it provides 
an incredible job opportunity 
and job market for the gradu-
ates of the IDF,
” Weil said.
Weil also says, “a lie that’s 
been perpetrated for the last 30 
years” that “until the ‘Palestinian 
issue’ is settled there can be no 
peace in the Middle East” has 
been ripped apart because of 
the Accords. 
“In the minds of Israeli Arabs, 
in the minds of Palestinians, 
there’s now a future,
” Weil said. 
“There’s now hope and the 
opportunity of all of Abraham’s 
descendants being able to func-
tion the way they should have 
for the last 70 years.
”
Weil says the FIDF hopes the 
Abraham Accords expand to 
more countries. 
“What’s extremely important 

is that tens of millions of Arabs 
will now be raised in a world 
where they’re not taught Jews 
are apes and pigs, and Israel 
is the devil, but that Jews are 
human beings who they can 
have real relationships with and 
can contribute to the benefit of 
the Muslim world,
” Weil said. 
Weil doesn’t believe the FIDF 
will be affected by the change 
in U.S. presidential administra-
tions as the organization is apo-
litical, but believes the majority 
of both parties understand and 
internalize the value of Israel to 
America, the world and to sta-
bility in the Middle East.
No matter what, Weil said 
he hopes IDF soldiers feel the 
support from American Jews, 
donors or not.
“I hope that every young man 
and woman who gives between 
two and 10 years of their life 
to the Jewish people knows 
that all segments of American 
Jewry appreciate their sacrifice, 
commitment and loyalty, and 
that all segments of American 
Jewry are invested in their 
growth, future and their ability 
to continue to give to the Jewish 
world,
” Weil said.
For Weil, the memories of his 
time in the Metro Detroit area 
are reflective of how he wants to 
lead the FIDF and give back to 
the soldiers. 
“The six years our family 
lived in Southeast Michigan and 
were able to participate with the 
Detroit Jewish community are 
six of the most incredible years 
of our life,
” Weil said. 
“The kind of warmth and 
love that existed in the Detroit 
Jewish community is the kind 
of warmth and love we want 
to bring to the soldiers, these 
young men and women who 
are the future of the Jewish 
people.” 

Ex-Detroit rabbi has big plans for 
Friends of the IDF.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

‘No Jew Is 
Left Behind’

ERETZ

COURTESY OF THE FIDF

Rabbi 
Steven Weil

