FIDF Decides to Host Virtual Series for Candle Lighting

In recent news, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) organization made an announcement revealing that they would be hosting a new Hanukkah campaign. This event will include a series of virtual candle lightings to welcome the celebration. Therefore, for every single night of the upcoming Jewish holiday, these candles will be lit up. A couple of well-known Jewish celebrities have been asked to attend the virtual candle lighting event, such as Noa Kirel, the singer, the actor from Fauda, Yaakov Daniel, and Noam Gershony, a Paralympic gold medalist. In addition, various IDF officials have also been invited to attend. 

Along with lighting candles, every night of the celebratory event will include highlighting some life-saving and heroic stories of IDF soldiers. These stories will pertain to the time period when these soldiers were serving their country. The organization, FIDF, was founded in the year 1981 by a couple of Holocaust survivors, who came together to show their gratitude to the Israeli soldiers. Since then, it is known for holding a handful of events every now and then to show its support for the military of the State of Israel. 

Just last September, the organization hosted two distinct events for the soldiers. The first event allowed it to raise no less than $2 million at a fundraising event held to celebrate various members belonging to the Nahal Haredi Battalion. In the second event, FIDF managed to raise a sum of more than $500,000 for the country’s lone soldiers. This event was private and was held at a location in the state of New York. Earlier in the month of November of this year, the non-profit organization had successfully hosted its sixth ever yearly bike ride to showcase support for the soldiers of the country. 

In other news, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) played host to dozens of IDF lone soldiers residing in the US, by inviting them to a Thanksgiving dinner in the city of Jerusalem. According to the director of AJC Jerusalem, Avital Leibovitch, the Thanksgiving dinner is an opportunity for the organization to show its gratitude to the soldiers who have made and continue to make sacrifices in the name of the country. He went on to reference the increase in antisemitism in America in the past couple of years, saying that it is highly important at a time like this to empower the Jewry residing in North America. 

He highlighted that the country needed to connect and bond with these soldiers as much as possible to remind them of their roots. There are numerous lone soldiers in the US and otherwise, who are not granted the luxury of attending holiday dinners with their loved ones. This is one of the things that they have to accept when enlisting in the IDF. Thus, as an NGO, AJC aims to work for the interests of the Jews living across the globe. The organization has been playing host to numerous Thanksgiving dinners, especially for lone soldiers, in the last two decades.