The Friends of Israel Committee and the Men’s Club of Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation and the East Valley Jewish Community Center will present “The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF): Personal Experiences” on November 2 at 3:00 p.m. at The Chapel Center, 9240 N. Sun Lakes Boulevard, Sun Lakes Arizona 85248. Light refreshments will be served. The entire community is invited.

Mrs. Liora Hamu will speak about her daughter Hadar’s experience for the last year, as a Lone Soldier in the IDF. Hadar graduated from Hamilton High School in Chandler in May 2013. Because of her heritage and love for Israel she decided to go back to Israel, where she was born and lived for the first 10 years of her life, and serve in the military. Lone Soldiers, or members of the IDF whose family don’t reside in Israel, enter a special program, called Tzabar, before their service .There are currently about 6000 Lone Soldiers in the IDF, with about one-third coming from the United States. Hadar is stationed in “Ugdate Gaza” which is 6 km from the Gaza Strip where she serves as a combat medic. Liora will describe Hadar’s initial training experience through Operation Protective Edge.

Liora was born in Beersheva Israel and moved with her family to Brooklyn as a young child until age 10 when they returned to Israel. She served in the military from 1986 to 1988 based near the Jordanian border. In 2005 she and her husband Nissim, an Intel employee, moved to Chandler with their family. She is a Jewish educator and has taught in various programs in the Phoenix Valley.

Videos will be shown about the Lone Soldier program, women in the IDF, and non-Jewish Israelis serving in the IDF. To conclude the program a member of Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation who served in the IDF from 1956 to 1958 will share her experiences preparing educational materials at an IDF Training Center. She will also comment on differences between the IDF then and now.