Going to Israel to Enlist
Daniel Taylor, a local teenager, has worked in our office over the past year — he graduated at 17. He’s one of these extremely bright, very tech-savvy teens; while here he learned PHP, CSS, and some JavaScript (ok, enough techno-babble for the non-tech readership), and thus helped with implementation of sites like JewishAnswers.org and our Project Genesis site, as well as JAAM of Connecticut, the Jewish Spirituality Network, and most recently, Lamed (of San Francisco), a program for Russian Jews.
Now he’s going to Israel — his whole family will be making Aliya later this year. But he’s going early in order to enlist in the IDF, with the help of Mahal 2000:
Daniel Taylor already was planning to join the Israeli army. Rocket attacks by Hezbollah over the past month, the Baltimore teenager says, have only confirmed his decision. “The timing worked out perfectly,” the 18-year-old Taylor said yesterday. “They need all the help they can get right now, and what better way to help a country that I love?”
Besides the Baltimore Sun, he was on Channel 45 in Baltimore and Channel 9 in DC — you can see the video here.
I’ve known Daniel’s family for years, though we’ve fallen out of regular touch. He’s always been a brave boy (I think of him as a boy, but he’s not anymore, I suppose!) and I’m not at all surprised at this decision. I’ve seen a lot of blogosphere commentary that’s condemning his decision and making light of his (I’m guessing out of context) comment equating real-life warfare with his hobby of video game playing, but I don’t think for one moment that he takes what he is about to undertake lightly at all. May HaShem provide him and all of Eretz Yisrael with safety and protection.