In Kansas City, there’s a young Israeli named Daniel Avrekh who is proof that there are people with a heart of gold who don’t forget soldiers.
And it doesn’t matter whether young men are helicoptered in to Iraq or Afghanistan, or furrow across the sand in Israeli tanks. They do what is asked by their country.
And when they wearily finish, who is there for them, to thank them, and help them?
The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces is there for them. So is FIDF National President Peter Weintraub and his wife Ellen.
Avrekh knows that first hand.
Avrekh, 32, is a software performance engineer here at Amdocs on a major telecommunications account, after serving in the IDF as a combat engineer. On Tuesday, May 1, he will stand alongside the Weintraubs at Kehilath Israel Synagogue at an FIDF event featuring them, Captain Amir Gutman, the Israeli naval attaché to the U.S., and two female Israeli soldiers who will share their stories. The evening is hosted in partnership with Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.
Avrekh was born in Russia and moved to Israel in 1996 when he was 10. He grew up in the town of Netivot, 10 minutes from the Gaza Strip.
Avrekh’s parents weren’t wealthy. “My parents provided me with food and sent me to school,” he said. But anything other than that — clothes, hanging out with friends at the ice cream shop, or movies — he had to pay for. And did. Avrekh was a dishwasher, waiter and gardener from the time he was 14.
And when he was 18, Avrekh joined the army like other young Israelis his age. Avrekh was deployed all over Israel and fought in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. There he lost a good friend.
As the end of his three-year service neared, Avrekh heard a commercial on Israeli radio that spoke about a full college scholarship offered through the FIDF to Israeli vets like him. It was called the Impact! scholarship, and the $16,000 full individual scholarship was paid for by donors around the world like the Weintraubs.
The Weintraubs live in Scarsdale, New York. Besides being the FIDF national president, Peter Weintraub is a Reform rabbi, businessman and philanthropist. He began his rabbinical career at Westchester (New York) Reform Temple, one of the largest congregations in Westchester County. Weintraub also established a factory in Sderot, a semi-war zone in southern Israel, which employs 75 women, primarily single mothers. He also believes in helping needy soldiers go on to college.
Avrekh wanted to study business. He could have saved the money to pay for his education himself. Somehow.
But maybe he could get that scholarship. Avrekh applied, and he was asked what he did in the army, where he wanted to go to school (Sapir College in Sderot), what he wanted to study (business), and what his career aspirations were.
Then Avrekh received a call with some very good news.
The scholarship was his.
Avrekh sent letters and photos to the Weintraubs to thank them as the FIDF required him to do. Then he met the Weintraubs face to face for the very first time in Israel a few years ago. On the FIDF Leadership Mission to Israel, philanthropists like the Weintraubs have a chance to meet the young men and women they sponsored through the FIDF.
Avrekh first met the Weintraubs a few years earlier, shaking hands with the Weintraubs in a Tel Aviv restaurant with about 20 other soldiers who all owed their education to them. “It was quite a lot of people,” Avrekh said.
The Weintraubs have paid for the university education of more than 80 former Israeli soldiers.
The night Avrekh met them, he and the other combat vets told the Weintraubs more about themselves, and they listened. Avrekh recalled that the couple asked many questions. “What is our plan next? What profession do we want to go into? They were very interested about our stories and what we want to do with our life.”
The FIDF mission is to offer educational, cultural, recreational and social services programs and facilities that provide hope, purpose and life-changing support for the soldiers who protect Israel and Jews worldwide.
In 2017, the FIDF sent 4,470 vets to college through Impact! scholarships. “I think that this is the most important program in the FIDF,” Avrekh said. “What it did for me was give me the opportunity to build my life much easier and faster.”
The Weintraubs “gave me an opportunity to take myself forward.”
Avrekh has seen the Weintraubs quite a few times since meeting them in Tel Aviv. There is a special bond between them. “I really couldn’t be where I am now, (having finished) my studies, without all the support I was given.”
The Impact! Scholarship shows soldiers that they are not alone after they finish their service, said Avrekh.
“It shows that we are not forgotten.”
If you would like to attend the next FIDF event at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 1, at KI, call the FIDF at 312-372-8500 or email . Registration is required. Tickets are $18 for an individual or family. Young adults 18-30 are free.