A Firsthand Look at Friends of the Israel Defense Forces

FIDF Young Leadership Baltimore Board Member Jaime Neaman handed out ice cream to IDF paratroopers at a base near Israel’s border with Gaza on July 3. (Scally Photography)

By Jaime Neaman

Last month, I had the honor of representing Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF)’s mid-Atlantic region on FIDF’s National Young Leadership Mission to Israel. FIDF has a clear mission – to offer educational, cultural, recreational and social programs and facilities that provide hope, purpose and life-changing support for the soldiers who protect Israel and Jews worldwide. Simply, their job is to look after Israel – and ours is to look after them.

As an active young leadership board member of the Baltimore chapter, this was the perfect opportunity to take my passion for our mission and see our impact firsthand. Seven of us from the mid-Atlantic region joined 60 young professionals from around the United States for a week of intense travel across the State of Israel. It did not disappoint.

What makes this trip different from all other trips? Our trip provided many unique and rare experiences to learn about Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including visits to both the Gaza and Syrian borders, the opportunity to meet wounded soldiers, and a special lecture about military morals and legal ethics.

We had the privilege of visiting multiple military bases, and two in particular stick out in my memory. Many chapters of FIDF adopt different IDF brigades and battalions, and the Washington, D.C., chapter supports Shayetet 3, the Israeli Navy’s third flotilla based at the Haifa naval base. How lucky it was that that base was chosen for us to visit! We toured one of their ships and got to meet with navy servicemen and women. I was surprised to learn the entire Israeli Navy could fit on one U.S. Navy ship – but it’s still the most powerful in the region!

Hands down, my favorite part of the trip was visiting the Tel Nof Israeli Air Force base. There are no words to describe what it feels like to stand on the runway as F-15 fighter jets roll by. Meeting the special airborne combat search and rescue Unit 669 was an experience unlike any other. We even had the chance to observe a training exercise. I asked our guide how often civilians were able to do this, and his response was: “literally, never.”

One of FIDF’s signature initiatives is the IMPACT! Scholarship Program. Generous donors sponsor a combat veteran for the full duration of his or her pursuit of a college degree. As part of the program, each scholarship recipient is required to complete 130 hours of community service every year. Our group split up and visited four different sites to meet with IMPACT! students and their volunteer organizations – I visited the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims, which supports Holocaust survivors through health and social services, including by pairing them with IMPACT! students for companionship since loneliness is a big issue for them. I met Tali, who told me she enjoys speaking with the survivor every day. Tali even taught her how to use Snapchat to keep in touch!

Not only did we meet with the students, but we also had the honor of hearing a survivor tell her story, ending it by saying, “I have a beautiful family. My family is my greatest revenge.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

I’ve always felt connected to our Jewish homeland and gratitude toward those who protect it – it’s one of the reasons I got involved with FIDF. There is no amount you can read, pictures you can see, or videos you can watch that can compare to actually spending time interacting with soldiers on their own turf to truly see the impact of our philanthropy.

If you’d like to learn more about the FIDF mission or hear more about this amazing trip, I welcome anyone to connect with us at www.facebook.com/fidfyl and join us at one of our future programs.

To get involved with FIDF Young Leadership in the Baltimore area, please email rona.rubin@fidf.org.

Top photo: FIDF Young Leadership Baltimore Board Member Jaime Neaman handed out ice cream to IDF paratroopers at a base near Israel’s border with Gaza on July 3. (Scally Photography)

Jaime Neaman is an FIDF Young Leadership Board Member. Originally from Rockville, she now resides in Canton. A graduate of University of Maryland and Vanderbilt University, she works as an associate director of development at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

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