Paralympics gold medal winner to speak at Congregation Rodef Sholom

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Noam Gershony, a 2012 Paralympics gold-medal winner in wheelchair tennis, will be the featured speaker during Shabbat services at 10 a.m. Feb. 7 at Congregation Rodef Sholom, 1119 Elm St.

A luncheon sponsored by the Rabbi Sidney Berkowitz Lecture Series will follow. The event is free and open to the community. Reservations are required by Feb. 3; call the temple office at 330-744-5001.

Six years before Gershony won the Paralympics gold medal, he was an Israeli Defense Forces Apache helicopter pilot. At the outbreak of the second Lebanon War, he was severely injured in an operation in which two helicopters went down. An IDF search-and-rescue unit found Gershony and transported him to Ramban Hospital, where he was treated.

Gershony is regarded as a symbol of hope, determination and triumph. He now travels the world to share his message of community, commitment and perseverance.

Friends of Israel Defense Forces was founded in 1981 by a group of Holocaust survivors as a nonprofit organization that provides and supports educational, social, cultural and recreational programs and facilities for men and women who serve in the IDF.