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