26 | JUNE 13 • 2024
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raternal twins Rachel
and Yael Schreiber, 19,
of Petah Tikvah, an
Israeli city east of Tel Aviv,
have spent the last year in
Metro Detroit serving as Bnot
Sherut at Farber Hebrew Day
School and with the Bnei
Akiva Zionist youth group.
As Bnot Sherut, or female
youth in the Israeli service,
the Schreibers have acted
as female emissaries who
volunteer abroad in Jewish
communities. Their past year
in Metro Detroit marked their
second year of service, in
which the Schreibers focused
on creating Israel-centric
programming with the two
Jewish organizations.
“We’re meant to be part
of the community and the
school,” Rachel Schreiber
explains of the Bnot Sherut
concept (male youth in the
service, meanwhile, are called
Bnei Sherut). “Our work at
Farber Hebrew Day School
includes making activities
about Israel, teaching the
students about Israel and
helping in Hebrew class.”
ISRAEL EDUCATION
Season by season, the
Schreibers helped decorate
Farber Hebrew Day School to
correlate with Jewish holidays.
For Bnei Akiva, they also
hosted Shabbat in their home
once a month (Israel provides
a housing stipend for Bnot
and Bnei Sherut).
However, their most
impactful influence on
local Jewish youth was an
unintended one.
As the Israel-Hamas
war broke out in October
2023, the Schreibers found
themselves serving as
middlemen (or women)
between the Metro Detroit
Jewish community and
on-the-ground events in
Israel.
“If something is happening
in Israel, we’re the ones
telling them about it,” Rachel
Schreiber says. “At the
beginning of the war, kids
didn’t know the details, or
they didn’t know how people
in Israel feel about it.”
Schreiber explains that she
and her sister helped teach
Farber Hebrew Day School
students how to deal with
distress surrounding the war,
what it’s like to live in Israel
during such a time and how
to talk about the geopolitical
events with friends and
family.
Being away from their
own friends and family at
the outbreak of the war was
hard, Yael Schreiber says, but
it gave them an opportunity
Twin Bnot Sherut Rachel and Yael
Schreiber spend a year at Farber
Hebrew Day School.
From Israel to
Metro Detroit
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
OUR COMMUNITY
Yael and
Rachel
Schreiber
Painting
tambourines
for Purim