I would be lying if I said that my year in Israel was perfect; my year abroad had its ebbing moments of loneliness during Passover away from family as well as the frustrations of self-discovery. Yes- there were regrets and “no regrets” times, but I will never in my life be hiking a waterfall or the world’s largest crater while people my age were in university lecture halls, again. My unique opportunities throughout the year, like attending a Navy school and sailing to Herziliyah while on a boat for 3 days, living in an impoverished area to teach English, celebrating Israel’s 61^st birthday on the streets with the rest of the country, participating in every holiday of the year including one where ½  a million people gathered in northern Israel (religious or irreligious, everyone is aware of all of the holidays), hearing speeches from the Prime Minister and other influential political figures, traveling to Greece for spring break, figuring out the bus schedule to travel from one side of Israel to another for a weekend, praying at the Kotel  (Western Wall) at 5 am with thousands of others before the holidays and going on my own to the Kotel any time I wished or to see my matriarch Rachel- and this could have all been in one week!

Just blue and white- no red - for this country’s 61^st year of Independence. In Israel, Yom Haatzmaot, or The Day of Independence, began Tuesday night and lasted until Wednesday night. Every city in Israel was coated in blue and white flags, streamers, and signs. Tuesday night I spent Yom Haatzmaot in Tel Aviv driving past long streets packed with people wearing lights on their heads and bodies, dressed in blue and white. It was amazing to see people of all ages out on the streets dancing and looking up at fireworks and skyscrapers with lights making the design of the Israeli flag and a big 61. Celebrations continued all through the day on Wednesday with barbeques everywhere to be seen- on the beach, in parks, in front of people’s houses.  I realized that I had never seen such celebrations and festivities for America’s Independence Day. We all know the 4^th of July as “the date” but fortunately we do not have to celebrate the very survival of the country for one more year and, unless we think about it, we don’t even know what number birthday it is. I’ve never seen an entire country cherish every year as if it were the first as Israel celebrating their Independence Day. In many respects Israel and America stand for the same things. I would love to witness the same heartfelt passion with which Israel regards its independence as a free country but in America- not just finding an excuse to wear red, white, and blue and have fireworks but people finding meaning to truly celebrate the existence of our country.

As a Jew living in Israel for the year, I realized how easy it is to remain in a Jewish bubble, never exploring one street beyond my comfort zone, or turning the corner to observe the many other religious activities taking place. After all, in my bubble, all the many Jewish holidays are fully celebrated. Stores begin selling costumes for Purim one month before, non-bread products are sold one month before Passover, and long streets are decorated with lights and every holiday’s special symbols. Even while put on hold when speaking to an operator, no music is played when the country is commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Saturday night, 250,000 people gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv for a huge concert with fireworks, unique dances, and videos of the first pioneers standing on sand dunes, the very land that was soon to become skyscrapers. Many (wisely) stood and watched from their balconies and rooftops at one of Israel’s pivotal moments in history as it celebrated 100 years of Tel-Aviv’s existence and what I hope to be an eternal future for the Jewish people.

Joining the students in the navy school, we hiked across the lush, northern part of Israel in our green army uniforms and spent sleepless freezing nights in tents waking up to encounter cows ready to greet us as we stepped out of the tent flaps. We suffered commanders shouting to close up the gaps in our long line of ‘soldiers’ trickling down the mountains. It was fascinating to come across other groups (as this is a very popular hike in Israel)and watch their reactions as they let us pass them, thinking they were stepping aside for what they thought were enlisted soldiers. I began to realize just how much the army is ingrained in Israeli society. Living in America, I myself never came across a soldier back from fighting in Iraq nor was I, fortunately and unfortunately, affected by the war in any significant way. Yet in Israel, army service begins the year after high school- 3 years for boys and 2 years for girls. In Israel, every teenager’s path to adulthood goes through military service as they guard borders and fight terrorists at the tender age of eighteen! If they choose not to defend their own country, their own lives, their own family, no one else will.

From the Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of Galilee, I walked for three days across the entire State of Israel. One advantage Israel has in being barely larger than the state of New Jersey but having the topography of California, is that in their spare time people can trek across the entire country on the Sea to Sea, or in Hebrew, Yam le Yam, three-day hike.  This year some of my friends have found their connection to Israel through spirituality, others through all-day learning of Jewish texts. I have connected to Israel by exploring and traveling during all of my free time, discovering the gorgeous and diverse parts of this tiny country. In the north there are beautiful green mountains with rivers flowing through them; in the south is the world’s largest crater (Mitzpeh Rimon), deserts, nomadic Bedouins, and the lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea. I try to take advantage of every break I am given and all of my free time is devoted to traveling and seeking new hikes and new places to visit. So much to do and see, yet so little time.

We began our days here kayaking and rowing and have finally advanced to learning the intricacies and theories behind sailing! Our biggest trips will be sailing to Haifa and Herziliyah, two nearby port cities.

This boarding-school teaches high-schoolers not only the courses necessary to graduate high school, but also the art of sailing. After speaking to many of them, I discovered they have mixed plans regarding their future. Students in this naval-academy are not required to join the navy after graduation, when they begin their 2 or 3 years of mandatory army-service, but it definitely helps, they told me. Others have no interest in joining the navy for their army-service and came here as an opportunity to gain a good high-school education while learning about sailing and about the Israeli navy.

I am loving this unique experience and find myself eager to return even before the weekend is over. 

6:30 am: our day begins at the IsraeliNavalAcademy. Woken up by a peer, rotating every week the responsibility of “first cadet of the week.” It is the beginning of an extremely long day. Noise of the excitement of receiving not one, but three army uniforms for different purposes, is heard throughout the school. We were fitted and sized for our green, everyday, army uniform and belt, our khaki formal uniform worn only by those in the Israeli Navy for formal events and day trips, and a third white jumpsuit (which looks more like a painter’s one-zee if you ask me), resembling a big unattractive balloon for when we hop into the water to sail at sea.

Speaking of the sea, have I mentioned that the base is literally on the sea? The ocean waves crash against the platform on which we raise the flag every morning and is situated next to the Old City of Akko where Muslim Prayer can be heard at almost all times of the day.

Eilat: Israel’s vacation center. Beach, boardwalk, hot all-year-round, what could be better? I just returned from Eilat with 30 friends. I leave for the navy at the end of the week – at which time we all begin our respective choices for the third segment of our nine-month “Israeli experience.” We will  be scattered around the country. 

Despite the fact that the beach had neither waves nor sand, it was an amazing vacation and a great time to get away from Jerusalem’s cold spring nights. 

On our last day as we returned to the hotel to get our bags, my friend asked me if I noticed the security detail crowded around a bag that had been left unattended on the boardwalk - a ‘suspicious object’ as they call it in Hebrew. Everyone in Israel knows, and everyone who visits learns quickly, that a #1 rule in Israel is never to leave a bag unattended, not because it will get stolen, but because you truly will never see it again. It took about fifteen seconds for someone to notice the bag, call security, and for a small robot to come and inspect the bag and attempt to implode it if necessary. Israelis have had to become suspicious of every bag and every person – this is sad.  But it is comforting to know that the bag situated on the same boardwalk on which I had been sitting was handled with expertise and without hesitation. And so it goes in Israel. 

We had 3 wonderful days of jet-skiing in the ocean(from where we could see the distant mountains of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan – much closer to home we could see dolphins), bathing in the sun, watching some TV-series that  we had missed all year, sitting by the heated pool, and going out to dinners together. After this I appreciated for the first time what it means to take a gap-year before going to college. We had just finished finals from the Jerusalem section of our course and besides a select few who are re-applying to colleges, we had absolutely no (none, zero!)responsibilities. For the first and probably the last time in my adult life, I don’t have to worry about school work or jobs. Starting next year though, the work will pile in, and after that grad school and then a “real” job, and who knows what! In the meantime  I am free, and loving every second of it in the most spiritual place in the world.

Someone once told me, “Coming to Israel and not seeing Rachel’s grave is like coming home and not seeing your mother.” After visiting my mother, my matriarch, Rachel, I found this statement to ring true. 

Rachel was the wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin  (see Genesis chapters 29-35). She is regarded as a “mother” of Israel – a woman of virtue and valor.

A little while ago, we traveled together on a bullet-proof bus (this is the law when you travel to any of the potentially dangerous areas). As we neared the city of Bethlehem we noticed tall, steel, walls on either side of the bus creating a very narrow street to the grave-site. When I got off of the bus, I noticed a tall guard post filled with Israeli soldiers guarding this small area controlled by Israel to protect  this sacred Jewish site. 

Inside of the gorgeous marble building was a grave fit for a king (or a queen); it was a grave like those of the righteous men buried in Tzfat, Israel’s second holiest city for Jews, which I had seen earlier in the year. Only Rachel’s grave was a bit bigger and the grave has its own enclosing building. Rachel’s grave is partitioned by a wall, separating the men from the women. Many pray and recite special psalms and personal prayers on both sides - some just observe. Tears were streaming down some of the women’s faces; others were concentrating so intently on their prayers that I don’t think they would’ve budged if there had been an earthquake. The feeling I got when I saw her grave, united  with every women there visiting our ancient “mother,” was truly a feeling of returning home.