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2010 West Wendover High School valedictorian Arieh Copelan was inducted Sunday into the Israel Defense Force.
Son of High Desert Advocate publishers Howard and Corinne Copelan, the former four year varsity football player has been studying Hebrew and Judaism in Israel since his graduation last June. In addition to football Copelan was the president of WWHS Honor Society, editor of the school newspaper, captain of the Science Bowl and Academic Olympic teams and an officer in FBLA and Skills USA.
Copelan was offered an ROTC scholarship but turned it down because for political reasons the opportunities for Orthodox Jews to serve in combat units of the American military are few especially in Muslim countries.
Partly because of that reason the Israeli Army is the only foreign military where Americans can serve without risk of losing their American citizenship and each year hundreds of Americans join the ranks of the IDF.
Two of those Americans were Arieh’s sister Anna WWHS 2002 and brother Chalom WWHS 2005. Like their younger brother both also graduated at the top of their respective classes and like his older brother Arieh plans to be in the combat infantry.
