NOVEMBER 23 • 2023 | 23
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RIGHT, CLOCKWISE: Dr. Josh Levisohn with 
his dog tag. Lailie Greenbaum with her dog 
tag. Eitan Schon with his dog tag.

other side of the dog tag is the Israeli flag 
and the words “Am Yisrael Chai.”
Smith gave his first batch of dog tags to 
Farber Hebrew Day School, where his two 
sons graduated. The dog tags were gifted 
to students in grades 6-12 at an inspiring 
in-school program.
“The idea is that each kid wearing a 
dog tag has just one person to pray for,” 
Smith explained. “They can take on a 
new mitzvah in ‘their’ hostage’s honor 
because right now the hostages can’t do 
very much … It’s a zechus (merit) for 
both the hostage and the kid wearing the 
dog tag.”
Farber Head of School Dr. Josh 
Levisohn wears his dog tag every day. “I 
never wear anything around my neck,” 
he said, “so putting it on in the morning, 
taking it off at night, and seeing it in my 
peripheral vision all day long makes me 
think of ‘my’ particular hostage and all 
of the hostages in a way that I wouldn’t 
otherwise. It brings home the anguish the 
families must be feeling and the urgency 
in getting them home. 
“These are real people who are living 
under tremendous pressure every hour 
of every day and they do not know their 
fates,” he added. 
“The least we can do is to remember 
them always and do our part to help them 
get released. The extra prayers I say every 
morning are part of my commitment to 
these hostages.”
Of her dog tag, ninth-grade Farber 
student Lailie Greenbaum said, “I 
wear it every single day … I feel like 
I’m helping them get through this by 
wearing it. I’m keeping them in the front 
of my mind. When I’m davening, I’m 
keeping my hostage in mind. His name 
is Elroey Ben Iris.”
Eitan Schon, a Farber sixth-grader, 
shared his reflections, too. “I have been 
wearing my necklace since I got it. I 
feel like I am helping keep their story 
relevant, and I hope to wear mine until 
my hostage comes home safely. I am 
trying to be more considerate and loving 
to those around me in honor of my 

hostage who is being kept from his family 
and friends.”
Naturally, the dog tags have a special 
meaning for those who know a hostage 
personally. Rachel and Yael Schreiber, 
twin sisters from Petach Tikvah who 
are currently in Detroit as part of their 
Sheirut Leumi service, are wearing 
identical dog tags with a specific hostage’s 
name. 
“We know Oren,” Rachel and Yael 
shared. “He has plans for his life; he wants 
to study, to get married. We spoke to his 
mother; she knows in her heart that he 
will come home … Wearing our dog tags 
with Oren’s name keeps him close to our 
hearts. We’re always thinking about him, 
wondering when was the last time he ate 
well, how he’s sleeping, when did he last 
see someone he loves. We are not the 
same people since this happened.”
The dog tags have been able to make 
the enormous magnitude of the tragedy 

more comprehensible, and they’ve helped 
to give people, especially young students, 
a sense of purpose. 
The Farber shluchot were so enamored 
with the dog tags, they told their friends, 
shluchot in other schools. Smith soon 
received requests for dog tags from Hillel 
Torah in Chicago, as well as schools in 
Toronto, Baltimore and even as far as Rio 
de Janeiro, Brazil. 
So far, Smith has been sponsoring the 
dog tags single-handedly and only asked 
for donations to shieldtheidf.com, which 
organizes gear for the soldiers. 

For further information, email avi@avismith.com.

