Ilan Lopez, a former Israel Defense Forces soldier and director of StandWithUs Latin America, recently visited South Florida where he spoke with Hispanic groups and at schools. The aim of this new Latin America initiative of SWU, an Israel education organization, is to provide support, material and guidance to Latin students on United States campuses, high schools and the community. Lopez was in town as part of an Israeli Soldiers Tour.

Israel’s hasbara efforts just received an enormous boost thanks to a new collaborative effort launched jointly by the Prime Minister’s Office and StandWithUs. The initiative, in which StandWithUs will coordinate closely with the PMO’s National Information Directorate, is designed to “educate young people about how to use social media for education and public diplomacy.”