News from FIDF - San Francisco Bay Area

Friend,

Make a direct IMPACT! on the life of a former Israeli combat soldier.
Summer is nearing the end, and with the change of the seasons, the start of a new year. High school graduates will be going away from home, many for the first time, to attend college. They worked hard to be able to reach the next level of education in the hopes for a bright professional future.

But this is unfortunately not the case for many combat Israeli soldiers. They served their country, but cannot afford to go to college. To respond to that critical need, the FIDF initiated the Impact Program. This program provides scholarships to former combat soldiers who have great potential, but who are financially disadvantaged. Through the generosity of FIDF supporters the Impact program has granted over 2000 scholarships. This life changing program is more than affecting the individuals; the Impact program is transforming Israel, by providing a higher number of people with professional degrees.
The Impact students are already making a significant mark in their communities during their studies. With over a million hours of community service performed, more than any other program in Israel, the Impact students contribute back into society from the very beginning of the program.

$4000 a year for four years will change a soldier's life, his family, and Israel. 100% of the contribution goes to the student. If you happen to support an Israeli university, you can request that the scholarship is granted to a student who will attend the university you support. In this way, the contribution benefits the soldier, and the school. We try our best to fulfill all requests. The donor has the opportunity to communicate with the student they adopt, and many donors have met and spent time with their students in Israel. You can experience firsthand how you positively affected someone's life.

So here we are, close to the start of the new school year, and we have not yet reached our goal of 3000 new studentswhoanxiously wait to hear whether they will be able to attend college this fall or not.

I say we show them that the Bay Area cares, let's reduce the number of soldiers who cannot attend college, better yet, let's provide scholarship for all of them.
Let's give them a real sweet year!

Sarita Bronstein

Executive Director

As we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it is a time again for all of us to think and ponder where we have been and where we intend to go. We have had a busy few months since May getting the FIDF YL group up and running. Thanks to you and your support, the FIDF YL will continue to plan events to help the soldiers--and by extension, each of us--in Israel.

When the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces enlist, they are not simply protecting a small country in the Middle East: they fight for the Jewish cause everywhere. As Jewish citizens of the world we sleep each and every night under the blanket of protection that is provided to us by the state of Israel, the IDF, and its brave young men and women in uniform. We are more connected to them than we often realize, and more in their debt than we often acknowledge.

The question many of you may be asking yourselves is....what now? More than ever, it is up to all of us, living here in what is so often our safe haven, to give the soldiers the support and the strength that they need to continue fighting on our behalf. We encourage all of you to remind your friends and family exactly why we must support Israel and why we support the IDF.

All of us should now simply take a moment out of our hectic lives to stop and ask ourselves how we are each standing up for the Jewish people and how we are each helping the brave young men and women who protect our homeland. Now is the time for us to make a difference for the soldiers, to stand up and be counted.