Two reserve soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces traveling the Midwest on a speaking tour will end their trip with a special stop at Hillsdale College.
The soldiers will discuss life in the IDF and Israeli culture Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in Phillips Auditorium. Hillsdale’s Students for Middle Eastern Discourse and StandWithUs — the international, pro-Israel nonprofit that organized the soldiers’ tour — are sponsoring the event. A StandWithUs representative said it extended their tour to Hillsdale, because it saw potential for meaningful impact on students, many of whom have already been to Israel.
“The purpose of this event is to humanize the situation in Israel, to put a face to all the stories we hear in the news,” said junior Hannah Brewer, president of Students for Middle Eastern Discourse and a fellow with Passages Israel, an organization that has led Hillsdale students on 10-day trips to Israel.
Mohammad and Ashager, the IDF soldiers who excluding their last names for security reasons, are enrolled at Israeli universities: Haifa University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
“This is a special privilege,” Brewer said. “Since this is their last stop, we’ll get to hang out with them for longer.”
The event will also provide Hillsdale students the opportunity to learn more about the IDF and its daily life. Brewer said the discussion should interest students both who plan on applying to future Passages trips and those who have already gone.
Passages participant sophomore Joshua Bailey said he plans to attend the event after listening to a panel of IDF soldiers during his Israel trip in January.
“To see people our own age who have been serving and think it’s normal to serve in these high-capacity fields with so much responsibility on their shoulders is important for young Americans,” Bailey said. “That awareness is very important in how we view our time and opportunities here.”
