The decorations on the Hyundai parked outside Bnei Akiva’s headquarters in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood tell you quite a lot about where Israel’s second largest youth movement came from, where it is now and where it’s headed. Stuck onto the rear window is a sticker reading: “Follow Me to the Paratroopers” – an iconic Israeli message borne of the famous Paratrooper captains’ battle cry in 1967. On the rear bumper is a more recent catch phrase – “No Soldier is Left Behind in the Field” – tied to kidnapped soldiers Gilad Schalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Hanging from the rearview mirror is an orange ribbon – the symbol of the campaign against the evacuation of Jewish settlements in Gaza and northern Samaria that constituted the 2005 disengagement.

The car belongs to Neriya Meir, Bnei Akiva’s Jerusalem District coordinator. Meir is a resident of Eli, a settlement north of Ramallah – an area Bnei Akiva teaches its kids is the Jewish heartland. The 26-year-old father-of-two (“They keep me up at night”), whose wife’s photo is his cell phone’s screensaver, is a combat soldier in the reserves. Even in civilian life, he carries a handgun with him at all times, however, because he and his family live deep in the West Bank. Continue reading →