The past two weeks have been amazing; a true whirlwind of feelings of friendship, family, community, and a connection to G-d.

Hey blog gang, its great to be back with you! The past two weeks have been amazing; a true whirlwind of feelings of friendship, family, community, and a connection to G-d. Over the past two weeks, the entire AMHSI student body has been, and is still being, bounded to the campus as there is currently a lockdown in Israel. During this period the holidays, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, have come and gone while we have all been on campus, and it has been an experience I have never gone through in my life.

On Rosh Hashana, we did group activities learning about Rosh Hashana, Israeli culture and how Rosh Hashana is accustomed in Israel, and we all were together just like a family. It was my first time being without my family on Rosh Hashana, yet I still felt very warm and at home with all my great friends I’ve made on this program. The next holiday, everyone’s favorite, was Yom Kippur. On this day, I usually go to shul in the morning, watch movies for 8 hours straight, then go back to shul and break the fast; there isn’t much meaning in it. But, with HSI, my experience of Yom Kippur was like no other I have had in the past. This time we started off by going into the streets on the first night, it was crazy! There were no cars, and so many people were biking. We sat down as a group in a circle in the middle of the intersection and observed what was going on around us. It was truly incredible, and an experience I will never forget.

The rest of the day we had time to relax and a few activities learning about self reflectance and Yom Kippur as a whole, along with shul. Overall, the experience was amazing, and spending these holidays on campus with everyone is something I wouldn’t trade in for a million bucks. I’m having a really great time, this program rocks, goodnight from Hod Hasharon, cheers.