So, it's true...I tweet. I blog. I "do" Facebook. But I recognize that I'm somewhat limited in all the cooler horizons of social media because of my age.*

But I know a good social media deal when I see one. And during Operation Protective Edge, as our Federation rallied, and raised funds, and showed our support...we also sent missions to Israel. One of these missions, staffed by my colleague Stanley Stone, our senior vice president, saw an amazing thing. They went to a social media rapid response center at IDC in Herzilya. Hundreds of volunteers, working 24/7, in 31 languages, put out fast and responsive images, statements and media clips. They had 41 million viewers. You read that right. Viewers, not views. 41 million people saw content from these volunteers.

So it was a terrific opportunity for the Cooperman Family. They are one of our leading and most generous community donors through their Cooperman Fund for a Jewish Future, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Community Foundation of GMW. They stood up and created a new Federation partnership with these volunteers last week.

The Cooperman Family has long been leaders in supporting Federation and Jewish community programs that build Jewish identity and engagement. Through the years they've built our Birthright Israel program into one of the strongest in North America. They helped to create Step Up for Israel. That’s a community-wide Israel advocacy initiative, with leadership opportunities for our high school students through Write on For Israel and college students with the annual Talk Israel retreat. And they've supported our community's programs to encourage young people to do mitzvot and change the world. That's a pretty impressive achievement.

The new "Israel Under Fire" partnership continues that commitment. We're going to create a social media command center with students from our community, alongside a parallel one to work in Boston. It'll allow us to equip our students in the eight GMW colleges to respond, defend, and articulate the case for Israel on all social media platforms. It'll allow us to provide fast and accurate materials that are relevant and meaningful.

And — most importantly — it'll show once again our commitment to Israel and what our values are.

*And frankly, the fact that I just wrote “cooler horizons” is a bit of a giveaway as to how uncool I am on these things.

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