On Monday, Feb. 2, the Roslyn chapter of CTeen, an international club for Jewish teens, hosted an Israel Awareness Seminar and making care packages at the home of one of the teen leaders, Alexa Mizhiritzky.
The program, whose aim was to provide teens with a crash course on the Middle East Conflict, and giving back to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) by making and sending care packages to Israel, was attended by over 25 teens from the Roslyn, Wheatley and Jericho schools.
“I thought it would be just a regular community service project, with some speeches,” said Josh Yakubovitch, a Wheatley junior, “but it was very hands-on, informative and easy to understand. I learned a lot.”
“A lot of what we read about Israel in the media is a distortion of the reality and very often contains facts that are taken out of context,” added Rabbi Yaakov Wilansky, CTeen director. “By providing our teens with the truth, we are arming them with knowledge that will empower them to stand up for their belief in the right for the existence of the Jewish homeland.”
CTeen member, Naomi Schlesinger said she was grateful to have been in attendance. “I see a lot of hateful comments and posts about Israel on my Facebook feed, and I feel pretty helpless,” she said. “The seminar really answered a lot of the questions I had and I now feel a lot more confident in my support of Israel.”
Chayal El Chayal is a nonprofit organization that caters to the needs of lone soldiers in the IDF. After their experience, the organization offers IDF soldiers to come out for free to speak of their experience and share inspiration.
