Miss Israel and Miss Iraq Pose On Instagram For World Peace

Image by Instagram

By Jenny Singer November 15, 2017

Contestants at the Miss Universe beauty pageant say they want one thing and one thing only: world peace.

And on Monday, Adar Gandelsman of Israel and Sarah Idan of Iraq took to Instagram to make a surprisingly radical statement about world peace and the power of images. Gandelsman, representing Israel at the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas, and Idan, representing Iraq, posted the picture to their respective Instagram accounts. “Peace and love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel,” Idan captioned her pic. “Get to know, this is Miss Iraq and she’s amazing,” Gandelsman said. In collared blue dresses and sashes, with hair styled in shiny ringlets, the competitors looked like sisters.

Get to know, this is Miss Iraq and she’s amazing❤️

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)
I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Email(Required)

A post shared by Miss Universe Israel?? (@adar_gandelsman) on Nov 13, 2017 at 4:47pm PST

Gandelsman, the 19-year-old runner-up in the Miss Israel competition (first-place winners go on to compete, nonsensically, in the Miss World competition), is representing her country by way of her hometown Ashkelon. Gandelsman is a current Israel Defense Forces soldier in the second year of her service. She volunteers with disabled Israeli children through the Israeli nor-for-profit Varaity. Idan, a 27-year-old musician, lives in America and does volunteer work with refugees and immigrants in U.S.-Arab communities.

The competition will air live from Las Vegas on November 26 on Fox. Unlikely friend to world peace Steve Harvey will host.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO